Naturalization barriers keep growing. But don’t rule yourself out, local advocates say

Since fall 2025, the Trump administration has moved to make it more challenging for people to become U.S. citizens.

In the past, candidates for naturalization studied the answers to 100 questions issued by the federal government. During their civics test, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers would ask 10 questions from the list; to pass, candidates had to answer six correctly. Now, candidates must be prepared to answer 128 questions, and more correct answers are required to pass.

The Department of Homeland Security has also reintroduced “neighborhood investigations” into aspiring citizens — a discretionary practice that had been shelved since the 1990s.

About a year since those changes were implemented, advocates in Southern California say they are seeing additional barriers, including delays in the scheduling of naturalization interviews and heightened scrutiny of applicants who request waivers for testing requirements due to a physical, developmental, or mental disability.

DHS has also proposed changes that could make it significantly more expensive to apply for naturalization; more expensive for candidates to appeal denials; and eliminate fee waivers and reduced fees for low-income applicants.

The agency has said that these changes are needed to cover the cost of adjudicating naturalization applications.

For Dahni Tsuboi, CEO of the nonprofit Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, this claim rings hollow.

“When you compare the $240 billion that have been invested by Congress in the last 18 months on the enforcement side, and then, for the people who are taking all the steps to become citizens, we're just making that much harder, I think that's very alarming,” she said.

A sharp drop in naturalization interviews

In recent months, local immigrant advocacy groups have seen a drop in the number of people getting scheduled for naturalization interviews.

At the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, “we still have folks who applied before the [changes to the civics tests were implemented last October] that are still awaiting an interview,” said staff attorney Shawntel Williams.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California has been doing naturalization work for 40 years, Tsuboi said. Typically, 5 to 10 of their clients get scheduled for naturalization interviews every month. Since April 2026, that number has dropped to zero.

According to the nonprofit, the total number of naturalization adjudications per month — including approvals and denials — went from 78,379 in September 2025 to 37,832 by January 2026.

Tsuboi fears that naturalization rates could drop even further if DHS’s fee changes are implemented.

The changes, she said, could have an outsized impact on Asian Americans communities, who make up the largest share of naturalized U.S. citizens. At the nonprofit she represents, Tsuboi added, “75% of the individuals who apply for naturalization use the fee waiver or the reduced fees.”

How advocates are responding to changes  

To support immigrants navigating the evolving naturalization landscape, the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles’s Shawntel Williams and her colleague, Eugenia Kim, have been hosting free citizenship education workshops at the nonprofit’s offices in Westlake.

They also offer free pre-screening clinics for people who are interested in determining their eligibility.

For people with a physical, developmental, or mental disability, Kim said “we strongly recommend — more than ever — that if you believe that you qualify to apply for an N-648." The form is a medical certification that's completed by a doctor who has personal knowledge of your disabilities and has actually treated you over the years.

"We also recommend that applicants have that completed N-648 reviewed closely by an attorney,” Kim said.

She and Williams plan to continue hosting their legal clinics for the foreseeable future.

For aspiring U.S. citizens, Williams added, legal advice has become essential, as news of all the changes to the naturalization process could be discouraging.

“We don't want people to count themselves out,” she said.