The 20 questions for applicants 65 and over

The whole of what an applicant aged 65 or over with 20 years as a permanent resident has to study: twenty questions, of which the officer asks ten, and six correct is a pass.

That is worth stating plainly, because most study material for the naturalization test is built for the full bank of 128. If you qualify for this rule you can ignore nine-tenths of it. The twenty are marked with an asterisk in the official USCIS PDF, so you can verify the list yourself rather than trusting anyone's summary of it.

Sixteen of the twenty are here as a quiz, with four options each and an explanation on every question. All twenty are here as flashcards, which is the closer rehearsal of the two: the real test is spoken, and a card asks you to produce the answer rather than recognise it. Read the front, say your answer out loud, then turn it over.

The four that cannot have a fixed answer

Four of the twenty ask who currently holds an office — the president, the vice president, the Speaker of the House, and the governor of your own state. USCIS accepts only the person serving on the day of your interview and will not take an outdated name.

So those four are cards, not quiz questions, and their backs do not invent an answer. They tell you to look it up shortly before your interview at uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates — which is exactly what the official bank itself does in place of an answer. If your state is the District of Columbia, the governor question has its own answer: D.C. does not have one.

Most of these accept several answers

The officer takes any one of the listed answers, and on this short list the lists are generous. George Washington: Father of Our Country, first president, general of the Continental Army, or president of the Constitutional Convention. Abraham Lincoln: freed the slaves, saved the Union, led the country through the Civil War, 16th president, or delivered the Gettysburg Address. One power of Congress out of three. Three national holidays out of eleven. The flashcard backs list them all, because the useful thing to know is not one perfect phrase but how many different answers will pass.

A separate rule you may also qualify for

The 65/20 short list is about which questions. There is a different rule about which language: at 50 or over with 20 years as a permanent resident, or 55 or over with 15 years, you are exempt from the English requirement and may take the civics test in the language of your choice, with an interpreter. The two rules have different thresholds and many people meet both — worth checking before you decide how to prepare.

The questions and accepted answers come from the official USCIS bank, a work of the United States government. The practice format, the wrong options and the explanations are Zestly's own.

• Recognise all twenty questions on the specially designated short list and answer the sixteen with fixed answers
• Know that only ten are asked and six correct is a pass — and prepare to that standard rather than to the full bank's
• Handle the four changing questions correctly: look up the current officeholders before the interview instead of memorising a name
• Give any one of the several answers USCIS accepts for Washington, Lincoln, King, the holidays and the powers of Congress
• Rehearse the answers out loud on the cards, which is closer to the spoken test than choosing from four options
• Tell the 65/20 question rule apart from the separate 50/20 and 55/15 English exemptions

The twenty questions marked with an asterisk in the official USCIS 2025 civics bank, which are the ones asked of applicants 65 or older with 20 years as permanent residents. They include: "What is the supreme law of the land?", "How many amendments does the U.S. Constitution have?", "What is the economic system of the United States?", "Name one power of the U.S. Congress.", "Who vetoes bills?", "What is the highest court in the United States?", "What do we show loyalty to when we say the Pledge of Allegiance?", "Who wrote the Declaration of Independence?", "Why does the flag have 13 stripes?" and "Name three national U.S. holidays." Four of the twenty — the president, the vice president, the Speaker of the House and the applicant's own governor — are printed in the bank not with an answer but with a pointer: "Visit uscis.gov/citizenship/testupdates for the name…", and "Answers will vary" for the governor.