Vivre ensemble Luxembourg: the 40-question exam or the 24-hour course

guichet.lu sets the rule: before you acquire Luxembourg nationality by naturalisation, and in certain cases by option, you must document knowledge of the Luxembourgish language and of the fundamental rights of citizens, the state and communal institutions, and the history of Luxembourg and European integration. The second part is what the Vivre ensemble certificate documents. You present it when you apply, and for naturalisation the application is made in person to the civil registrar of the commune where you usually live.

The 20-year case is the one exception worth checking carefully. guichet.lu says an adult who has lived in Luxembourg for at least 20 years, without interruption for the last 12 months, can acquire nationality by option and needs only to take part in 24 hours of Luxembourgish lessons; lifelong-learning.lu adds that such an applicant is then exempted from the language test and from the Vivre ensemble course or exam. The course must carry the official mention that it is given under Article 28 of the amended law of 8 March 2017. Once you have completed it, guichet.lu says you send the course attendance certificate, with a stamped, self-addressed envelope, to the Service de la formation des adultes, which stamps it to certify your participation. If you are not sure a course qualifies, the Ministry of Education asks you to write to nationalite.sfa@men.lu before you enrol.

The certificate says one of two things: you attended the 24-hour course, or you passed the exam without attending it. The regulation of 7 April 2017 is equally plain: the head of the Service de la formation des adultes (SFA) issues it either on passing the exam or on attendance lists showing 24 hours of course. lifelong-learning.lu lists a third arrangement, an 18-hour course for people who already hold the civic-classes certificate of a Welcome and Integration Contract (CAI).

The course is open to all adults. Neither route costs anything to register for. The choice is really about time and certainty: the course takes 24 hours of your diary but has no test at the end, while the exam takes one sitting but asks you to reach a pass mark that the official pages we read do not publish.

Course and exam cover the same three subjects. The Ministry of Education gives the hours of course and the number of exam questions for each, and the two scales match: institutions carry twice the weight of each of the other two modules on both.

Half of the exam is institutions. If you study alone, plan your time the same way: a quarter on rights, half on institutions, a quarter on history and Europe. On the exam route the history module is never dropped, as the next sections explain.

A useful pace figure: 40 questions in at most 60 minutes is 1.5 minutes per question on average. That is generous for a one-line question you know, and short for one you have to reason through, so the time goes on knowing the material rather than on working things out in the room.

We read the guichet.lu pages in English and French, the Ministry of Education page in both languages, lifelong-learning.lu and the regulation of 7 April 2017. None of them states a pass mark for the Vivre ensemble exam, nor whether it applies to the whole paper or to each module. Some non-official websites print a figure; we could not confirm it on any official page, so we do not repeat it. We could not confirm the pass mark on an official page (checked 20 October 2026); ask the SFA at sfa@men.lu before relying on any number, and aim well above any figure you are given.

Registration for the course or for the exam is free, and it is done online through the SFA's course portal (ssl.education.lu/ve-portal). lifelong-learning.lu warns that registering via the portal is possible only from within the Grand Duchy, so a cross-border worker should register from a connection in Luxembourg.

You are exempt from the module "The history of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and European integration" if you hold either a certificate of attendance at the civic education courses of the Welcome and Integration Contract, or a certificate of participation in the minimum 6-hour module giving an overview of Luxembourg, organised under the citizens' pact for intercultural living together. In both cases guichet.lu says the exemption is recognised automatically and there is no procedure to follow.

The catch: the exemption applies to the course, not to the exam taken on its own. guichet.lu says that if you do not wish to attend the modules and just want to take the exam, you will not benefit from the exemption and must take and pass the history module test; special exam sessions are organised for this case. So a CAI holder who chooses the exam studies all three modules, while the same person on the course route skips history.

If your physical or mental state does not allow you to acquire knowledge in the subjects taught, you can apply to the Minister of Justice for exemption from both the course and the exam, with a medical certificate from a specialist doctor. The same procedure exists separately for the Luxembourgish test.

The Ministry of Education lists courses in Luxembourg-Hollerich, Esch-Belval and Diekirch, with more planned in the north of the country from late 2026, and online courses in English. The exam itself is held in Esch-Belval. Dates, times and remaining places are on the portal only; we could not confirm how often exam sessions run.

The examples below come from official pages (the Chamber of Deputies, the consolidated Constitution, luxembourg.public.lu, the European Union and the association of communes). They show the kind of fact each module deals with; they are not the exam questions, and no official question bank is published.

Rights are now set out in the revised Constitution, in force since 1 July 2023. It states that Luxembourgers are equal before the law, and guarantees freedom of opinion and of the press, and freedom of religious and philosophical belief. The 2023 text added new objectives such as the right to housing and the right to work, the best interests of the child and the protection of personal data. A useful way to revise is to ask, for each right, what is guaranteed and to whom.

This is half the exam. The Chamber of Deputies has 60 deputies, elected for five years: 23 from the South constituency, 21 from the Centre, 9 from the North and 7 from the East. The government needs the confidence of a parliamentary majority, a minimum of 31 of the 60 deputies. Voting is compulsory for everyone on the electoral roll, and municipal councils are elected every six years. Since 1 September 2023 the country has 100 communes. The 2023 Constitution also lets citizens propose a law: a reasoned proposal introduced by at least 125 voters is debated in public session if at least 12,500 voters support it.

Dates carry this module. The 1839 Treaty of London fixed the borders Luxembourg has today; the 1867 Treaty of London brought down the fortress and made the country neutral; and 10 May 1940, when the Second World War began in Western Europe, opened four years of hardship for the country. On the European side: the Schuman Declaration of 9 May 1950, membership of what is now the EU since 1 January 1958, and the Schengen Agreement, signed on 14 June 1985 at Schengen on the Moselle. The revised Constitution also states that Luxembourg takes part in European integration.

A practical warning: an official fact can change after a course book was printed. The Constitution was revised in 2023, communes merge, and governments change after elections. Learn from current official pages and check anything dated.

If you take the exam without the course, a sensible minimum is about half the course time, split by question share. This is our suggestion, not an official requirement.

That gives institutions 6 of 12 hours, matching their 20 of 40 questions. End each block with timed questions, and leave the last session for whichever module scored lowest.

For naturalisation you need both certificates, and they are run by different bodies. Nothing on the pages we read requires one before the other, so you can prepare Vivre ensemble while you wait for a Sproochentest date.

For the Sproochentest you pass with at least 50% in speaking; a lower speaking score can be offset by listening if the average of the two, rounded up, reaches 50%. A claim to reimburse its fee can be sent only after you have filed your nationality application with the commune.