Italian citizenship B1 language test: how to pass (English guide)

If you apply for Italian citizenship by marriage or by residence, Italian law asks for Italian at B1 level or above on the Common European Framework (CEFR). Most applicants prove it with a certificate from one of four recognised certifiers: the Università per Stranieri di Siena (CILS), the Università per Stranieri di Perugia (CELI), the Università Roma Tre (Cert.IT) and the Società Dante Alighieri (PLIDA). Some applicants do not need a certificate, and since 2025 some are exempt from the test altogether. This guide explains both from the official texts, then shows where each certifier’s B1 exam can be taken if you live outside Italy.

It is written in English for people who live abroad or are new to Italian bureaucracy. The four other guides in this series are in Italian and go deeper into the CILS exam; we link to them rather than repeat them. Where something is our own reading or our own plan, we say so. ProSyllabus is an independent study site, not linked to any certifier, university, the Società Dante Alighieri or any Italian ministry. The certifier decides on the exam; the authorities decide on your application.

The requirement comes from the citizenship law, not from the certifiers. Decree-law 113 of 4 October 2018, converted by Law 132 of 1 December 2018, added article 9.1 to Law 91 of 5 February 1992. This is the text as normattiva.it publishes it, with our English gloss under each sentence:

The article names two routes. Article 5 is the spouse route; in Italian, the spouse of an Italian citizen «può acquistare la cittadinanza italiana quando, dopo il matrimonio, risieda legalmente da almeno due anni nel territorio della Repubblica, oppure dopo tre anni dalla data del matrimonio se residente all’estero» (our gloss: after marriage, two years of legal residence in Italy, or three years from the wedding if living abroad) [official: normattiva, art. 5]. Article 9 is the grant route; the Ministry of the Interior’s page says, for example, that citizenship «può essere richiesta anche dagli stranieri che risiedono in Italia da almeno dieci anni e sono in possesso di determinati requisiti» (our gloss: it can also be requested by foreigners who have lived in Italy for at least ten years and meet certain requirements) [official: interno.gov.it].

Two things the text does not say. It does not name any other route, so it says nothing either way about, for example, applications by descent; we did not read the rules for those routes and do not guess. And it does not name a specific exam: it asks for a level «non inferiore al livello B1» (not below B1) from a recognised certifier. A Ministry of the Interior office, the Prefettura di Pistoia, writes that the requirement applies to applications under articles 5 and 9 filed from 4 December 2018 [official: Prefettura di Pistoia, PDF of 8 April 2024].

The last row comes from the Constitutional Court. In ruling 25 of 2025, decided on 30 January 2025 and filed on 7 March 2025, the Court declared article 9.1 unconstitutional «nella parte in cui non esonera dalla prova della conoscenza della lingua italiana il richiedente affetto da gravi limitazioni alla capacità di apprendimento linguistico derivanti dall’età, da patologie o da disabilità, attestate mediante certificazione rilasciata dalla struttura sanitaria pubblica» [official: Corte costituzionale, ruling 25/2025, operative part; also in the note on normattiva]. Our gloss: the article is unconstitutional insofar as it does not exempt from the Italian-language test an applicant with serious limits on the ability to learn a language, caused by age, illness or disability, attested by a certificate from the public health service.

Read it closely, because it is narrower than it sounds. Age alone is not the test: the limits must be serious, they must affect the ability to learn a language, and a public health facility must certify them. The ruling was published in the Official Gazette on 12 March 2025, and the article’s text on normattiva was not rewritten: the exemption works through the ruling. None of the official pages we read describes how to submit the health certificate with an application, so ask the office that handles your case.

Also note what “no certificate needed” means in the first two rows. The first sentence of article 9.1 still makes B1 knowledge a condition of the grant; the second sentence only says who must prove it with a document. The Pistoia checklist adds that the language document «dovrà obbligatoriamente essere scansionata nella domanda online» (must be scanned into the online application).

Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs explains that the association «Certificazione Lingua Italiana di Qualità – CLIQ» «riunisce quattro enti certificatori» (brings together four certifying bodies): the Società Dante Alighieri and the universities for foreigners of Perugia and Siena, plus Roma Tre [official: esteri.it]. The Prefettura di Pistoia names the same four and adds that their «rete nazionale e internazionale di istituzioni ed enti convenzionati» (national and international network of partner institutions) also counts. In plain words: a B1 certificate from any of the four, taken at one of their official centres in Italy or abroad, is what the law means.

This is the question most English-speaking applicants have: you live in Buenos Aires, Toronto or Bengaluru, and you want the certificate before you file. Each certifier answers it differently, and each answer below comes from that certifier’s own pages.

Siena’s syllabus says the exam is for adults «che vive in Italia o all’estero» (living in Italy or abroad) who want Italian citizenship, and the B1 c page says «La tassa di esame è di 100 euro, in Italia e all’estero» (the exam fee is 100 euro, in Italy and abroad) [official: Unistrasi]. Abroad, «Gli Istituti Italiani di Cultura all’estero e gli altri referenti coordinano e organizzano in loco gli esami» (Italian Cultural Institutes and other partners organise the exams locally) [official: Unistrasi, Le sedi di esami]. Unistrasi lists venues by continent and then by country. Two cautions from the Italian guides in this series: you register with the venue, not with Siena, and a venue may set an earlier deadline or a higher total. One venue abroad, the Italian Cultural Institute in Stuttgart, charges 120 EUR; details in Date esami CILS B1 Cittadinanza.

The CVCL’s exam calendar is blunt: «Le sessioni CELI Immigrati sono disponibili solo per i centri italiani» (CELI Immigrati sessions are available only at Italian centres) [official: CVCL calendar]. That rules out the CELI 2 i Cittadinanza abroad. CELI centres as such exist «sia in Italia che all’estero» (both in Italy and abroad), and the CVCL publishes a list of its centres outside Italy [official: CVCL, Centri d’esame convenzionati CELI]. Our count of that list: centres in 55 countries. A CVCL notice of 2019 says the B1 exam «nelle sue tre tipologie: CELI 2 standard, CELI 2 i per immigrati e CELI 2 a per adolescenti» was recognised for citizenship. So abroad, the CELI route for an adult is the standard CELI 2, whose remaining dates are 9 March, 11 June and 16 November 2027 (the registration deadline for 11 November 2026, 9 October 2026, has passed) [official: CVCL calendar]. CELI fees are set by each centre.

Roma Tre’s registration page says the exam can be taken at «sedi d’esame convenzionate» (partner exam centres), registering and paying with the chosen centre, or at its own seat in Rome, Via Ostiense 123–129 [official: Cert.IT, Iscrizione agli esami]. At the Rome seat the B1 fee is 80 EUR, and the 2026 calendar puts B1 on 3 March, 25 June and 6 October [official: Cert.IT, fees and 2026 calendar]. On 15 October 2026 all three had passed, and the calendar showed no further B1 date in 2026. Its centres page links two lists, centres in Italy and in «resto del mondo» (rest of the world); the list abroad, dated December 2025, has centres in 12 countries (our count): Argentina, Australia, Benin, Brazil, Cameroon, China, Congo, Democratic Republic of the, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, Togo, Tunisia, United Kingdom. Partner centres set their own dates and fees.

Cert.IT’s B1 page also links the exam to citizenship in its own words: to apply for citizenship «è necessario il possesso di un’adeguata conoscenza della lingua italiana non inferiore al livello B1» [official: Cert.IT B1 page]. Its format, which the other guides in this series do not cover, is: listening (3 tasks, 20 points), reading (4 tasks, 30 points), writing (2 tasks, 20 points) and speaking (3 tasks, 30 points). Listening, reading and writing take 90 minutes together; speaking takes 10. «L’esame è superato se si raggiunge il 60% del punteggio totale nelle sezioni Ascolto, Lettura e Produzione scritta, e il 60% del punteggio nella sezione di Produzione orale» (you pass with 60% of the combined listening, reading and writing score and 60% in speaking). At the Rome seat the B1 is taken on a computer.

The PLIDA site says «Gli esami PLIDA si svolgono in più di 300 Centri d’esame in più di 60 Paesi» (PLIDA exams take place at more than 300 centres in more than 60 countries) [official: PLIDA]. Its 2026 calendar marks every PLIDA B1 session «Tutti i Centri» (all centres): 11 February, 10 June, 9 September and 18 November 2026. One condition is unique to PLIDA: «I candidati all’esame PLIDA devono essere soci della Società Dante Alighieri» (candidates must be members of the Società Dante Alighieri) [official: Regolamento PLIDA]. Its centre list is an interactive directory that we could not read as a list, so the checker below does not look PLIDA up by country.

Read it here: Esame B1 cittadinanza: CILS, CELI o PLIDA? Quale scegliere.

This section is our opinion, not a rule of any certifier or authority. In the official texts we read, the law asks for a recognised B1 certificate and states no preference between certifiers.

CILS B1 Cittadinanza is one of two exams built specifically for citizenship applicants (the other is Perugia’s CELI 2 i Cittadinanza, Italy-only), and it is the one this series covers in depth. In one paragraph: four abilities, each marked out of 12 by Siena itself; listening (2 tasks, about 30 minutes, played twice), reading with grammar (2 tasks, 40 minutes), one email of 80 to 120 words (40 minutes), and a speaking test of about 10 minutes (a short self-introduction, then a conversation with the examiner). The written papers take about 2 hours 5 minutes including a 15-minute break. Siena publishes no pass mark per ability for this level, and there is no carry-over: fail one ability and you resit the whole exam. Results take from 45 days to about 3 months, depending on which Siena page you read. Everything in this paragraph is sourced, in Italian, in CILS B1 Cittadinanza: guida completa all’esame; the official sample files are explained in CILS B1 Cittadinanza PDF, and dates and venues in Date esami CILS B1 Cittadinanza.

Siena’s free sample paper includes a writing sheet. We describe it here and do not copy it; the original is linked below. The sheet asks you to choose one of two topics and write 80 to 120 words, with a space for a title. Both topics are practical messages from daily life in Italy. In the first, you are having trouble with your neighbours and want to move out, so you write to your landlord, explaining why and asking what you need to do about the rent. In the second, you speak for the parents at your child’s school and write to the head teacher about the canteen, asking for the problem to be fixed.

What this tells you (our reading): the task is not an essay about Italy. It is a short, polite, purposeful message, which is exactly what the syllabus describes, an email to ask for information or solve a problem with goods and services. To prepare, practise three moves in every message: say who you are and why you are writing, explain the problem in two or three sentences, and ask for something specific, using the conditional for politeness (“vorrei”, “potrebbe”). Siena marks writing on communicative effectiveness, style, grammar, vocabulary and spelling, with grammar worth the most (4 points of 12) [official: CILS B1 Cittadinanza marking criteria]. The sheet itself: Produzione scritta B1 Cittadinanza (PDF, Unistrasi).

This plan is ours, not any certifier’s. It assumes you are already close to B1; if you are further away, choose a later session. It works for any of the four exams because it uses each certifier’s own free material, and it differs from the CILS-only 8-week plan in Date esami CILS B1 Cittadinanza: it starts by choosing the certifier and the centre, which is the step that decides everything else when you live abroad.

Two habits matter more than any book (our view). First, keep the exam’s own word limits and timings from week one, so the real paper holds no surprises. Second, practise speaking about the topics an applicant actually deals with: housing, health care, work, your children’s school, and the documents for your application. The CILS sample’s speaking topics come from that world, and the CELI 2 i adds civic questions.

For the exam’s page on ProSyllabus, see the CILS B1 Cittadinanza exam page.