At a glance
Rules checked in October 2026. Requirements change: before you apply, check the official site of your country’s authorities.
Which certificates are accepted
| Exam | What to know |
|---|---|
| CILS B1 Cittadinanza | Issued by the Università per Stranieri di Siena. A shorter B1 built for citizenship: four parts, about 2 hours of written papers and about 10 minutes of speaking, and the certificate is valid only for the citizenship application. Held at CILS centres in Italy and abroad, including many Italian Cultural Institutes. |
| CELI 2 i Cittadinanza (B1) | Issued by the Università per Stranieri di Perugia (CVCL). Reading and writing take 2 hours and listening 20 minutes, and the 10–12 minute oral with two examiners covers an introduction, describing photos, comparing Italy with your country, questions on the Constitution and civic rights, and a role play. The standard CELI 2 (B1) is accepted as well. |
| PLIDA B1 | Issued by the Società Dante Alighieri. The standard B1 exam in four skills: listening and reading 40 minutes each, writing 60 minutes and speaking about 15 minutes, alone or in a pair. More than 300 centres in over 60 countries. |
| Cert.IT B1 | Issued by Roma Tre University. Listening, reading and writing take 90 minutes together and the oral 10 minutes; at Roma Tre itself B1 is taken on a computer. Centres in Italy and abroad. |
| Ce.Co.L. B1 Cittadinanza | Issued by the Università per Stranieri “Dante Alighieri” in Reggio Calabria, which prefectures list among the recognised bodies. It is a B1 exam only for citizenship applicants, held in Reggio Calabria and at partner centres in Italy. There are few centres, so make sure the one you pick really is a partner of the university. |
| A standard B1 or a higher level | Any certificate from these bodies at B1 or above counts: CILS UNO-B1, CELI 2, PLIDA B2, Cert.IT B2 and higher. If you also need Italian for work or study, take a standard version: CILS B1 Cittadinanza is accepted only for citizenship. |
Who does not need a certificate
- Holders of a valid EU long-term residence permit (permesso di soggiorno UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo): you enter its details instead of a certificate. A residence card for family members of Italian or EU citizens (carta di soggiorno per familiari), or registration as an EU citizen, does not exempt you.
- Applicants who signed the integration agreement (accordo di integrazione), usually signed together with the first residence permit: you give the agreement’s details in the application.
- Holders of an Italian school diploma (licenza media or diploma di maturità, including one from a CPIA adult school or a recognised Italian school abroad) or an Italian university degree.
- Applicants with serious limits on learning a language due to age, illness or disability, certified by a public health facility: the Constitutional Court added this exemption in ruling 25 of 2025.
- B1 applies only to citizenship by marriage (art. 5) and by residence (art. 9 of Law 91/1992). Recognition by descent, the declaration at 18 for people born and raised in Italy, and minor children who become citizens together with a parent do not need it.
How the exam works
The first of the four parts of CILS B1 Cittadinanza. Two tasks: six short everyday dialogues (in a shop, in the street, on the phone) with three answer options each, and 12 true or false statements about longer recordings such as a radio programme or an interview. You hear every recording twice, and at the end you copy your answers onto the answer sheet (foglio delle risposte).
Tips- Use the pause before each recording to read the questions and underline the key words: who, where, when, how much.
- In the true or false task, anything the recording simply does not say is false. Answer from what you heard, not from what sounds logical.
- Listen to Italian radio or podcasts for 15–20 minutes a day and practise numbers, times, prices and addresses by ear: many answers depend on them.
Two tasks: an informative text, for example about new regional services for commuters, with 12 statements to mark true or false, then a short text with six gaps where you choose the right word or verb form from three options. The texts add up to about 350–500 words: notices, letters, articles, rules.
Tips- Find the evidence for each statement in the text: if the text does not say it, the answer is false, even if it is usually true in real life.
- For the gaps, read the whole sentence: the choice often depends on the article, the preposition or the tense (le foto che i partecipanti hanno fatto, not facevano).
- Split your time: about 25 minutes for the long text, 10 for the gaps and 5 to copy your answers onto the sheet.
One task, chosen from two: an email or message of 80–120 words to ask for information or sort out an everyday problem. In the official sample you write to your landlord because you want to move out after trouble with the neighbours, or to the head teacher about poor school meals. Marks go to task completion, register, grammar, vocabulary, and spelling and punctuation.
Tips- Pick the topic you have the words for and cover every point: if you must give a reason and ask a question, do both.
- Learn the frame of a formal email: Gentile signor Rossi (or Gentile Dirigente), Le scrivo per…, La ringrazio per l’attenzione, Cordiali saluti. Register is marked separately.
- Stay within 80–120 words and leave 5 minutes to check articles, endings, double consonants and punctuation.
One to one with an examiner, and the conversation is recorded. First a short introduction (about a minute: your name, where you are from, where you live and since when, what you do), then a 2–3 minute conversation on a topic you choose from a list: city or country life, healthcare in Italy and in your country, the documents you need for citizenship.
Tips- Rehearse your introduction until it sounds natural: Mi chiamo…, Sono di…, Vivo a Bologna da sei anni, Lavoro come…
- For the conversation, prepare phrases for opinions and comparisons: Secondo me…, Da una parte… dall’altra…, In Italia…, invece nel mio Paese… Choose the topic you have most to say about.
- Prepare the citizenship topic: which documents you need (permesso di soggiorno, certificato di nascita, certificato penale, the B1 certificate) and how the procedure works (domanda online, prefettura, giuramento in Comune).
How it is scored
In CILS B1 Cittadinanza each of the four parts is marked separately out of 12 points, and you need the pass mark in every part: strong reading cannot make up for weak listening. Passed parts are not carried over, so if you fail one you register again and sit the whole exam. Other exams work differently: CELI 2 i adds reading, writing and listening together (at least 72 out of 120) and marks the oral separately, while PLIDA needs 18 out of 30 in each skill and lets you resit only the failed skills within 18 months.
How many words you need for B1
B1 means knowing about 2,750–3,250 Italian word families that you recognise when reading (Milton and Alexiou, 2009). For the citizenship exam the vocabulary that matters most is everyday life in Italy: offices and documents, housing, work, health and school, plus the polite phrases you need for emails and for talking to strangers.
Check where you are now: the free vocabulary test takes 3 minutes and shows how many of the 5,000 most frequent words of the language you know.
Take the vocabulary test →Vocabulary for the exam topics
- il permesso di soggiorno residence permit
- la carta d’identità identity card
- il codice fiscale tax code
- l’anagrafe residents’ register office at the town hall
- la questura police headquarters that handles residence permits
- il modulo form
- la domanda application; also question
- la scadenza deadline, expiry date
- l’affitto rent
- il contratto d’affitto tenancy agreement, lease
- il proprietario landlord, owner
- l’inquilino tenant
- il condominio block of flats and its management
- la bolletta electricity, gas or water bill
- il trasloco house move
- il vicino di casa neighbour
- il colloquio di lavoro job interview
- il contratto a tempo indeterminato permanent contract
- la busta paga payslip
- lo stipendio salary
- il datore di lavoro employer
- le ferie paid holiday
- il turno shift
- la dichiarazione dei redditi tax return
- il medico di base GP, family doctor
- la tessera sanitaria national health card
- la ricetta prescription
- la prenotazione booking, appointment
- la visita medical appointment, examination
- il pronto soccorso emergency department, ER
- la farmacia pharmacy, chemist’s
- il ticket patient co-payment
- l’asilo nido nursery for children under 3
- la scuola primaria primary school
- la scuola media middle school, ages 11 to 14
- l’iscrizione enrolment, registration
- la mensa scolastica school canteen
- il dirigente scolastico head teacher
- la pagella school report
- il colloquio con gli insegnanti parent-teacher meeting
- la Costituzione the Constitution
- la legge law
- il diritto right
- il dovere duty
- l’uguaglianza equality
- le tasse taxes
- il Comune municipality, town hall
- il giuramento oath
Paste a topic name from the list above into the generation chat in the app and get a word set made for your exam, with examples in context, audio and smart reviews. You can get words for any other topic the same way.
Grammar for B1: what you need
Use the passato prossimo for completed events and the imperfetto for background, states and habits; verbs of movement and change take essere, and the participle agrees. Example: Quando vivevo a Londra lavoravo in banca; nel 2018 sono venuta in Italia.
Prepositions merge with the article (a + il = al, in + la = nella, da + i = dai), and these forms turn up in almost every line of the gap-fill and of your email. Example: Vado dal medico e poi al Comune.
Unstressed pronouns go before the verb, and in a formal email to one person you use Lei with the third person singular: Le scrivo, La ringrazio. Example: Ho ricevuto la bolletta, ma non l’ho ancora pagata.
The conditional softens requests in emails and conversations: vorrei, potrebbe, sarebbe possibile. Example: Potrebbe dirmi se devo pagare l’affitto anche per marzo?
In the oral you are often asked to compare Italy with your country: più or meno with di or che, plus migliore and peggiore. Example: In Italia la sanità è più accessibile che nel mio Paese, ma le liste d’attesa sono più lunghe.
Linking words and relative pronouns make your email hang together and help you cover every point: perché, quindi, però, quando, mentre, che, cui. Example: La casa in cui abito è rumorosa, quindi vorrei trasferirmi.
The app has a big grammar section for every level from A1 to C2, with short lessons and exercises. Paste a topic name from the list above into the generation chat and get exercises on exactly that topic. Any other topic works the same way.
An 8-week preparation plan
Download the official CILS B1 Cittadinanza sample from the Università per Stranieri di Siena (booklet, audio and answer key) and do it under timed conditions. Choose your exam and centre and register now: registration closes weeks before the exam, and results take two to four months.
Topics “Documents and offices” and “Housing”: 15 new words a day with spaced repetition, for example with the exam word sets in NewLexi. Grammar: passato prossimo and imperfetto, essere or avere.
Listening: 20 minutes of Italian radio or podcasts every day plus one listening task from the sample. Practise numbers, times, dates and addresses by ear. Topics “Work” and “Health”.
Writing: learn the frame of a formal email (Gentile…, Le scrivo per…, Cordiali saluti) and write three emails of 80–120 words in 40 minutes each: to a landlord, a school and a doctor’s surgery. Grammar: the conditional and pronouns with Lei.
Speaking: rehearse your one-minute introduction and talk for 3 minutes a day on the sample topics (city or country, healthcare in Italy and at home, documents for citizenship). Record yourself on your phone. Grammar: comparisons.
Second full mock exam under timed conditions. Compare it with week 1 and go through every mistake. Topics “School and family” and “State and citizenship”.
Weak spots: your weakest part every day, plus gap-fills on articles, prepositions and verb forms; the grammar topics above are quick to review in NewLexi. Two more emails and a mock oral with a native speaker or a teacher.
Last mock exam a week before the date, then only light review of words and set phrases. Check your exam invitation, ID and route, and rest the day before.
Common mistakes
Only certificates from the recognised bodies count: CILS, CELI, PLIDA, Cert.IT and Ce.Co.L. Course attendance certificates, regional vocational courses and university Italian exams are not accepted, so check that your centre runs the exam on behalf of one of these bodies.
You must hold the certificate when you file; otherwise the application is refused or declared inadmissible and you have to start again. Results arrive two to four months after the exam, so book early.
Only the EU long-term permit and the signed integration agreement exempt you (plus the Italian school diploma and the medical cases). The residence card for family members of Italian or EU citizens does not, so spouses of Italians usually need B1.
For something still going on, Italian uses the present with da: Vivo in Italia da sei anni, Lavoro qui da due anni. The examiner asks exactly this at the start of the oral: Da quanto tempo vivi in Italia?
English uses have for every perfect tense, but Italian uses essere with most verbs of movement and change and with reflexive verbs, and the participle agrees: Sono andata al Comune, Siamo arrivati nel 2019, Mi sono trasferito a Torino.
How to submit the certificate
- You apply online only, on the Ministry of the Interior portal (Portale Servizi ALI, Cittadinanza section); residents in Italy log in with SPID or CIE. The B1 certificate must exist before you submit: without proof of Italian the application is refused or declared inadmissible, and you have to file again.
- In the language section, upload a scan of the final certificate as a PDF: use a scanner, include every page and do not send a phone photo. Under Ministry circular 666 of 2019 a certificate from a state university can be self-declared with its details, but you may still upload the scan.
- Keep the original: when the prefecture calls you in to check your documents, it may ask for it together with a copy. No translation or legalisation is needed, because an Italian body issues the certificate in Italian, even if you sat the exam abroad.
- If you are exempt, enter the number and issue date of your EU long-term permit or the details of your integration agreement instead; for the medical exemption, upload the certificate from the public health facility.
- Typical reasons for refusal: a certificate from a private school or course instead of a recognised body, A2 instead of B1, a provisional results printout instead of the final certificate (consulates, for example, ask for the final one with a QR code), and an exam passed only after the application was filed.
On exam day
- Bring a valid photo ID, the same one you registered with: without it you are usually not admitted.
- Arrive about 30 minutes early, as ID checks and seating take time. At CILS you write in black pen, and dictionaries, phones and other devices are not allowed.
- In listening each recording is played twice: mark an answer in the booklet the first time and check it the second. At the end, copy your answers onto the answer sheet, since only the sheet is marked.
- In writing, sketch a plan of three or four points first, then write your text and count the words: you need 80–120.
- The oral is recorded, which is normal. Start calmly with your introduction, and if you do not understand a question, ask: Scusi, può ripetere, per favore?
How NewLexi helps you prepare
NewLexi has word sets for every exam topic, already split into categories, and if you need another topic, such as talking to your landlord or a visit to the prefecture, you can generate a set on request and start practising it right away. A big grammar section for every level from A1 to C2, with lessons and exercises, covers the passato prossimo, prepositions and Lei. Practise the emails for the written part in the writing trainer with instant AI feedback, and train your listening with stories and dialogues written for you, at your level and with your words, with audio.
