Citizenship testing in the UK assesses the applicant’s knowledge of English and of life in the UK as part of a legal requirement. This testing is one part of the British citizenship process which also creates other forms of assessment for applicants that function as bordering techniques. This paper demonstrates how these non-test forms of assessment emerge, in some cases, before the citizenship test through pre-arrival language testing for non-EU spouses and family reunification. They also take place after the citizenship test through citizenship ceremonies and post-ceremony passport interviews. The data is drawn from a four year project examining the experiences of those experiencing the citizenship process. Using the notion of raciolinguistic perspectives and Derrida’s metaphor of the Shibboleth, I show how the individual may stand in the face of judgment in various forms through their interactions with the State. The multiple assessment points in the naturalisation process beyond the main test itself enforce the need for ‘believeability’ of the applicant who must submit themselves to be assessed – in some cases, repeatedly.

英国的公民身份测试会评估申请人的英语知识以及在英国生活的情况，这是法律要求的一部分。该测试是英国公民身份程序的一部分，该程序还为具有边界技巧的申请人创建了其他形式的评估。本文说明了在某些情况下，在通过非欧盟配偶到达前的语言测试和家庭团聚进行公民身份测试之前，这些非测试形式的评估是如何出现的。他们也发生在通过入籍仪式和入职后护照采访进行入籍考试。数据来自一个为期四年的项目，该项目检查了那些经历入籍过程的人们的经验。使用raciolinguistic观点和德里达的隐喻概念的Shibboleth，我展示个人可以如何站在审判的脸以各种形式通过与国家的互动。入籍过程中的多个评估点超出了主要测试本身，这迫使申请人必须具有“可信度”，他们必须提交自己进行评估-在某些情况下需要反复进行。