Last week USCIS issued a policy memorandum that expands the criteria that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) officers use to determine whether immigrants meet the “good moral character” requirement for U.S. citizenship. It announces that examiners will put more emphasis on:
"Positive attributes or contributions" in the US, such as:
"Disqualifying behaviors and actions that are contrary to the average behavior of citizens in the jurisdiction where aliens reside. These could be actions that, while technically lawful, may be inconsistent with civic responsibility within the community, such as reckless or habitual traffic infractions, or harassment or aggressive solicitation."
The memo adds: "In assessing acts that are unlawful or contrary to the average behavior of citizens of the community in which the alien resides USCIS will review all available documentation and question aliens seeking naturalization regarding the specific circumstances of their actions to determine if a particular situation or act should bar an alien from naturalization."
One question that comes to mind for me about the sentence above is this: What if an immigrant takes part in a protest or posts something on social media that is critical of the current administration? If that person lives in a "red-leaning" community, would the action be considered "contrary to the average behavior" of citizens in that community? We will need some clarification on this.
You can read the full USCIS memorandum here: https://www.uscis.gov/sites/default/files/document/policy-alerts/08.15.2025-Restoring_a_Good_Moral_Character_Evaluation_Standard_for_Aliens_Applying_for_Naturalization-Policy_Memorandum_FINAL.pdf
Boundless has posted an article about this new policy, and it's worth a read: https://www.boundless.com/blog/naturalization-good-moral-character-policy/ Their take on it is this:
"The memo gives USCIS officers more discretion to deny citizenship based on a wider range of behaviors, even if those behaviors don’t fall into existing statutory bars...This move is part of a broader trend by the Trump administration to tighten access to legal immigration benefits. While high-profile enforcement actions have focused on unauthorized immigrants, USCIS has quietly expanded vetting for green cards, visas, and now, naturalization...Under the new policy, those navigating the final step of the legal immigration process may face a more uncertain and subjective review."
In light of this policy change, I am looking for information on new "moral character" questions that our students face in interviews going forward, and under what circumstances these questions might be asked. Please contact me if your students report that they have been asked questions that are not typical of interviews in the past.
Posted: to Citizenship News on Tue, Aug 19, 2025
Updated: Tue, Aug 19, 2025