After the exam: the result, the certificate, the file, the decree and the giuramento

What the Centro CILS publishes about results

• For the B1 Cittadinanza, Siena's manual for centres gives a turnaround from 45 days, and says the citizenship module is the only level that fast. The general results page says about three months and adds “Non si eseguono valutazioni anticipate”.
• You check your own result online, on the university's results page, with your numero di matricola and your date of birth. If nothing appears, the paper is still being marked.
• The certificate is sent by the university to the centre where you sat. The results page says “Per il ritiro del certificato devi rivolgerti alla Sede in cui hai sostenuto l'esame”.
• Siena says the riepilogo delle prove d'esame has no scadenza, and nothing in Law 91/1992 puts an expiry on the certificate for citizenship.
• You have 30 days from publication of the result to ask to see your marked paper, by email, with a copy of your identity document and the access fee under Law 241/1990.

Filing on the Ministry's portal

The application is made online only. The Ministero dell'Interno's page says you enter with SPID or CIE, or register on the portal if you live abroad, and the file goes electronically to the Prefettura for residents in Italy or to the Consolato for residents abroad. The Ministry's page gives the address as cittadinanza.dlci.interno.it; the same service is the ALI Cittadinanza area of portaleservizi.dlci.interno.it, which was showing a temporary unavailability notice when Belong Italy last checked it.

The certificate is one of the documents the Ministry lists: an identity document, the birth certificate and criminal record from your country of origin, the certificazione of Italian “non inferiore al livello B1 del QCER” unless you are exempt, the receipt for the contributo of 250 euro and the details of the marca da bollo telematica for applications made in Italy.

The contributo is in the law itself. Article 9-bis says applications under articles 5 and 9 are “soggette al pagamento di un contributo di importo pari a 250 euro”. It is paid before filing and the receipt is uploaded.

The clock at the Prefettura

• Article 9-ter fixes the term for deciding an article 5 or article 9 application at “ventiquattro mesi prorogabili fino al massimo di trentasei mesi dalla data di presentazione della domanda”.
• The term runs from the date of filing, so a complete file on the day you press send is the date that matters.
• Under article 9 citizenship is granted by decree of the Presidente della Repubblica, on the proposal of the Ministro dell'interno after the Consiglio di Stato has been heard. Under article 5 it is a decree of the Ministro dell'interno.
• The law sets the term. It does not publish how long files actually take, and Belong Italy does not estimate that for you.

The giuramento, and the day after

The decree is not the end either. Article 10 says it “non ha effetto se la persona a cui si riferisce non presta, entro sei mesi dalla notifica del decreto medesimo, giuramento di essere fedele alla Repubblica e di osservare la Costituzione e le leggi dello Stato”. Six months from notification, at the comune where you live, and if the oath is not sworn in time the decree lapses.

Article 15 then fixes the moment: acquisition of citizenship takes effect “dal giorno successivo” to the day the conditions and formalities are completed. You are Italian from the day after the giuramento, not from the decree and not from the ceremony itself.

Between the certificate and that day there are, in order, the upload, the Prefettura's twenty-four to thirty-six months, the decree, its notification and the oath. The certificate is the only one of those with a calendar you control, which is why the app tracks it first.

After the exam, in short

More on the CILS B1 Cittadinanza

• CILS B1 CittadinanzaSample questions and what the exam is
• The B1 certificateItaly has no knowledge test.
• The official materialThere is no manual the questions come from, because there are no questions to come from anywhere.
• Booking, fee and datesYou do not register with the university.
• Who is exemptArticle 9.1 names two groups who do not have to produce anything, a diploma that counts instead of a certificate and, since 2025, a third group added by the Corte costituzionale.

See all Italian citizenship requirements

Questa pagina in italiano