Johanan Rivera hesitated for years to become a U.S. citizen, worried it would weaken his ties to Mexico. After 15 years as a permanent resident, he applied in February 2025 and took the oath about a year later. Rivera says the return of the Trump administration and concern for his partner’s stability prompted him to seek the certainty of citizenship.
Newly released USCIS data show 2025 was unusually volatile for naturalization applications and approvals. Early in the year both surged; later, they fell sharply. Immigration experts link those shifts to stricter policies, stepped-up enforcement and added vetting under the new administration, which changed how people near the end of their legal immigration paths behaved.
USCIS approved a record number of naturalizations in the first months of the administration. At one peak in 2025, 88,488 applications were approved in a single month — the highest monthly total tracked since USCIS began reporting month-by-month data in 2022. But by January 2026 approvals had fallen to 32,862, the lowest in that reporting series.
Applications swung dramatically as well. From February through April 2025 roughly 270,290 people filed naturalization forms, driven in part by campaign rhetoric promising mass deportations and by heightened political anxiety. October 2025 saw a four-year record of 169,159 new applicants, followed immediately by a steep drop: November’s new applications fell to 41,478. By December 2025 and January 2026 monthly filings remained near half the prior-year volume.
Experts say the oscillation reflects both fear and reaction to agency announcements. “The fear is pretty pervasive,” said Felicia Escobar Carrillo, a former USCIS chief of staff. Margy O’Herron of the Brennan Center argued the administration appears intent on more tightly defining who qualifies as American, while Nicole Melaku of the National Partnership for New Americans said the data suggest opportunities to naturalize are being slowed or denied.
USCIS said it is pausing decisions for applicants from so-called high-risk countries and adding screening measures. Changes include reintroducing the 2020 civics test for 2025, tougher English requirements, social media checks for what the agency called “anti-American activities,” and neighborhood investigations to confirm good moral character and attachment to the Constitution. USCIS spokesman Matthew Tragesser said the agency “will not take shortcuts in the adjudications process,” and Director Joseph Edlow framed the changes as restoring “order, security, integrity, and accountability.”
Policy shifts in mid-2025 likely heightened both the rush to apply and the later slowdown. In August USCIS announced stricter evaluations of “good moral character,” and in September it unveiled plans for a longer, tougher citizenship test and reinstated neighborhood checks, a practice largely unused since 1991. Officials and former staff note those measures are labor-intensive and can slow processing.
Those announcements may have prompted many eligible immigrants to submit applications in October before new rules took effect; yet approvals declined that month, falling from more than 70,000 to 58,692 and continuing downward into the end of the year. Monthly completions — approvals plus denials — fell from 78,379 in September 2025 to 37,832 by January 2026.
The decline also reflects targeted pauses and restrictions. The administration suspended certain immigration processes, including naturalizations, for people from 39 countries and for holders of Palestinian Authority travel documents after a late-November attack by an Afghan national in Washington, D.C. That suspect was later charged with murder.
Local officials describe fear and distrust driving the drop in applications. Aurora, Colo., city council member Gianina Horton said many eligible residents are opting out of the process rather than interact with federal agencies amid rhetoric about overwhelmed cities and threats of deportation. “There is an understanding that we’re in a political climate where it is unsafe for a lot of immigrants to engage with federal agencies,” she said.
Some applicants already in the pipeline saw the end of their journeys disrupted: in December and into 2026 some were barred from scheduled citizenship ceremonies, the final oath-taking step. Critics say changing expectations for people who followed the rules creates unpredictability and discourages engagement with the system.
Not everyone was deterred. Daniel Chigirinsky, from Hungary, applied in spring 2025 and became a citizen in March; he described his interview as frightening while procedures were changing but completed the process. Rivera likewise persisted and naturalized despite uncertainty.
The swings in 2025 illustrate how policy announcements and political rhetoric can quickly reshape immigrant behavior and the functioning of the citizenship process. Added tests, pauses for certain nationalities and more invasive investigative steps combined to slow completions and deter some eligible people from applying, prompting warnings from advocates and former officials that confidence in the system may be eroding.