New Citizenship Test set for October 1, 2008

USCIS will have a newly redesigned naturalization test on October 1, 2008. If you filed a N-400, Application for Naturalization, before October 1, 2008, and your interview is before October 1, 2008, you will take the current test. However, if you file before October 1, 2008 and your interview is scheduled on or after October 1, 2008, you will have the choice to take either the current test or the newly redesigned test. Finally if you filed a N-400 after October 1, 2008 or your interview is scheduled after October 1, 2009, you will HAVE to take the newly redesigned test.

However, it should be noted that thousands of aliens have been sidelined from the Naturalization process by the Bush Administration. The Daily News reports:

[F]ees have gone up by 610% in the last 10 years while the federal minimum wage has only increased by 27%. In New York State the number of applications fell 40% during the first four months of this year compared with the same period in 2007. Yet this is better than the national average, which is down 50% since the 2007 fee increases.”