Italy · The paper

What Italy asks for: a B1 certificate, not a citizenship test

Italy has no knowledge test. Article 9.1 of Law 91/1992 asks for Italian at level B1 of the Common European Framework, proven with a certificate from one of four recognised bodies or with a qualifying school diploma. The shortest route to that certificate is a paper written for citizenship applicants, the CILS B1 Cittadinanza.

Level B1Four abilità12 points each

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What the law asks, in its own words

Article 9.1 of Law 91/1992, added by Law 132/2018, says that the granting of citizenship under articles 5 and 9 “è subordinata al possesso, da parte dell'interessato, di un'adeguata conoscenza della lingua italiana, non inferiore al livello B1 del Quadro comune europeo di riferimento per la conoscenza delle lingue (QCER)”.

Article 9 is citizenship by residence and article 5 is citizenship by marriage, so the same B1 applies to both. There is no separate test of Italian history, the Constitution or civic life. Italy asks you to prove the language and nothing else.

The article gives two ways to prove it. Either a titolo di studio from a state or paritario school recognised by the education ministry, or a certificate from an ente certificatore recognised by the education and foreign ministries. The certificate has to be attached when the application is filed, “all'atto della presentazione dell'istanza”.

The four recognised certificates

The Ministero dell'Interno names four bodies. Any B1 or higher certificate from any of them satisfies article 9.1. The order here is alphabetical and means nothing.

CELI, Università per Stranieri di PerugiaThe B1 paper is CELI 2. Perugia also runs a CELI 2 i (B1) Cittadinanza, described on its own site as a title suitable for the citizenship requirement, with written parts and an oral and a total duration it states as two hours and thirty minutes.
CERT.IT, Università degli Studi Roma TreThe B1 is called livello soglia. Roma Tre publishes a four part paper scored out of 100 and says it is passed at 60 per cent of the total, with the oral judged separately at 60 per cent. Three sittings in 2026: 3 March, 25 June and 6 October.
CILS, Università per Stranieri di SienaThe standard B1 exists and counts. So does a shorter paper called B1 Cittadinanza, or B1 c, which Siena says is aligned with level B1 of the QCER and which runs at all six 2026 sittings. It is the paper the rest of this guide describes.
PLIDA, Società Dante AlighieriA B1 PLIDA satisfies the requirement. The Dante's own FAQ opens with the question of what to do if you need a B1 for citizenship. Sittings are run through its committees and centres on its 2026 calendar.

The CILS B1 Cittadinanza, as Siena publishes it

Every line here is from the Centro CILS sillabo for the B1 Cittadinanza, from the sample quaderno or from the published criteri di valutazione. Nothing is inferred.

Four abilità: ascolto, comprensione della lettura e riflessione grammaticale, produzione scritta and produzione orale.
Ascolto: two prove, about 30 minutes. A multiple choice test of 6 items and a true or false test of 12 items.
Comprensione della lettura e riflessione grammaticale: two prove, 40 minutes. A true or false test of 12 items and a completion test of 6 items with multiple choice options.
Produzione scritta: one prova, 40 minutes. An email of 80 to 120 words asking for information or sorting out a problem with a service.
Produzione orale: about 10 minutes. A presentation of yourself of about one minute, then a dialogue with the examiner of two to three minutes.
Each abilità is scored out of 12 and the paper is scored out of 48.
The written and oral prove are marked on communicative effectiveness, morphosyntactic correctness and lexical range, with smaller shares for register, spelling and punctuation in the written part and for pronunciation in the oral.
The sillabo says the paper is written for adults applying for citizenship under Law 132/2018 and tests Italian for personal, public, work and study situations in Italy.

How it is passed, and the number Siena does not print

The rule is that every abilità has to be passed. The Centro CILS page for the B1 c says it plainly: “Se l'esame non è superato in qualche abilità, questa non si potrà recuperare, ma si dovrà sostenere di nuovo tutto l'esame nella sessione successiva”. That is different from the standard CILS levels, where a passed abilità is kept for later sittings. On the citizenship paper there is no capitalizzazione and no partial credit.

What Siena does not print on the pages Belong Italy could read is the score that counts as passing an abilità. The criteri di valutazione give the maximum, 12 per abilità and 48 in total, and the FAQ speaks of reaching “la sufficienza in tutte le abilità”, but no page states the number. Treat any figure you see elsewhere as a centre's or a school's own reading, not Siena's.

The practical consequence is that the paper is balanced. Four parts, twelve points each and all four to pass means you cannot let the oral or the writing go in the hope that the reading carries you.

Why the citizenship paper is shorter

The standard CILS B1 has five parts and three ascolto prove. The B1 Cittadinanza has four parts and two, drops the separate analisi delle strutture di comunicazione and runs the reading and grammar together. The written parts are 30 plus 40 plus 40 minutes, and the oral about ten. It is built for the single purpose the sillabo names and, according to the Centro CILS page, it is aligned with the same B1 of the QCER as the standard paper.

Siena publishes the durations of the parts and not a single total. The Istituto Italiano di Cultura in Algiers, a foreign ministry office that runs the exam, gives it as about two hours and fifteen minutes including the oral.

The certificate, in short

Is there a citizenship test in Italy?

No. Law 91/1992 asks only for Italian at level B1, in article 9.1. There is no test of history, the Constitution or civic life, and no interview on them.

Does it have to be the CILS?

No. The Ministero dell'Interno recognises four bodies: CILS from Siena, CELI from Perugia, PLIDA from the Società Dante Alighieri and CERT.IT from Roma Tre. A B1 or higher from any of them counts. The CILS B1 Cittadinanza is simply the shortest paper written for this purpose.

Does a higher level help?

The law says “non inferiore al livello B1”, so a B2 or above from any of the four bodies satisfies it. It does not shorten the residence period or the procedure.

Do I have to pass every part of the CILS B1 Cittadinanza?

Yes. The Centro CILS says that an abilità not passed cannot be recovered and the whole exam has to be sat again at a later session. There is no carrying over of passed parts on the citizenship paper.

There are 450 practice questions in the app.

450 questions for the reading and grammar abilità, in five chapters Belong Italy wrote, with a daily five, chapter drills, a mistakes deck and a progress screen. The other three abilità, listening, writing and speaking, are listed in the app with no questions behind them, so you see the whole exam and which part you are training.

No mock paper, here or in the app: three-option questions cannot reproduce a paper whose reading part is a true or false test and a gapped text. The questions are written by Belong Italy, not by the Università per Stranieri di Siena.

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