Citizenship Test Answers for Illinois
Four of the 128 civics questions depend on where you live. Here is how to answer them if you live in Illinois.
62. What is the capital of your state?
Answer for Illinois
Springfield
This is the one state-specific answer that does not change. The three below change with elections. Every name on this page is checked each night against the congressional record and, for governors, two independent public records, and a name is left out rather than printed when the sources disagree.
23. Who is one of your state's U.S. senators now?
Answer for Illinois now
- Richard J. Durbin
- Tammy Duckworth
You only need to give one of these names.
Illinois has two U.S. senators, like every state. You only need to name one of them. Senators are elected to six-year terms, so this answer changes; give the name of a senator serving on the day of your interview.
Look up Illinois's senators at senate.gov
29. Name your U.S. representative.
Your representative depends on your congressional district, not just your state, so it is different for two people living in the same city. Look it up by ZIP code.
All 17 of Illinois's representatives, by district
| District | Representative |
|---|---|
| 1 | Jonathan L. Jackson |
| 2 | Robin L. Kelly |
| 3 | Delia C. Ramirez |
| 4 | Jesús G. "Chuy" García |
| 5 | Mike Quigley |
| 6 | Sean Casten |
| 7 | Danny K. Davis |
| 8 | Raja Krishnamoorthi |
| 9 | Janice D. Schakowsky |
| 10 | Bradley Scott Schneider |
| 11 | Bill Foster |
| 12 | Mike Bost |
| 13 | Nikki Budzinski |
| 14 | Lauren Underwood |
| 15 | Mary E. Miller |
| 16 | Darin LaHood |
| 17 | Eric Sorensen |
If you do not know your district, the lookup below finds it from your ZIP code.
Find your representative at house.gov
Residents of territories with nonvoting Delegates or Resident Commissioners may provide the name of that Delegate or Commissioner. Also acceptable is any statement that the territory has no (voting) representatives in Congress.
61. Who is the governor of your state now?
Answer for Illinois now
JB Pritzker
Governors are elected and change, so answer with whoever is serving on the day of your
interview. Your state government's official .gov website is the reliable
place to check.
Background on Illinois
Springfield has been Illinois's capital since 1839, and Chicago, roughly twenty times larger, is not the answer — a common mistake. Springfield won the seat partly through the lobbying of a young legislator named Abraham Lincoln and his allies, who moved it from Vandalia. Illinois entered the Union in 1818 as the 21st state. It now has 17 congressional districts and 19 electoral votes. Lincoln lived in Springfield for a quarter century before the presidency and is buried there, which links this page to several history questions: what he is famous for, what the Emancipation Proclamation did, and which war ended slavery. Only the capital among the four answers here is safe to memorize; the other three change with elections.
This background section is written by US Citizenship Test Practice. It is not part of the USCIS question list, and it names no senator, representative or governor itself: those names change with elections, so they appear only in the answers above, which are checked every night.
The other 124 questions
Everything else on the civics test is the same no matter where you live.