U.S. Citizenship Test – How the officer tests your ability to write in English

During your U.S. citizenship test interview, the USCIS officer will determine your ability to write in English by asking you to write up to three sentences in English. You must write one sentence in a manner that the officer can understand. If you correctly write the first sentence, you pass the writing test. If not, you have two more chances to pass.

You will not fail because of capitalization, spelling, grammatical or punctuation errors as long as the meaning of the sentence is still clear. You may leave out short words that don’t interfere with meaning. You can spell out numbers or write them as digits (for example: 10 or ten).

You will fail if:

● Your sentence is not clear enough to be read

● You write a different sentence or words

● You write an abbreviation for a dictated word (for example: “AK” for Alaska)

As an example, here is a correctly written sentence: The capital of the United States is Washington, D.C.

The sentence with acceptable spelling errors: The capital of the United States is Wasington, D.C.

The sentence with acceptable capitalization errors: The capital of the united states is washington, D.C.

The sentence with acceptable punctuation errors: The capital of the United States is Washington D.C.

The sentence with acceptable missing short words: The capital of United States is Washington, D.C.

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