Italy · Exemptions

Who does not need the B1 certificate, and which routes never ask for it

Article 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. And it applies only to two routes, residence and marriage. Every other way of becoming Italian is outside it.

Article 9.1Residence and marriageSentenza 25/2025

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One requirement, two routes

Article 9.1 opens by saying which applications it covers: “La concessione della cittadinanza italiana ai sensi degli articoli 5 e 9”. Article 5 is the spouse of an Italian citizen. Article 9 is the residence route in all its variants, ten years for most non-EU nationals, four for EU nationals, five for stateless people and adopted adults, three for people born in Italy and two for people with a parent or grandparent who was an Italian citizen by birth.

Everything else is outside it. Citizenship by descent under article 1 is by birth and asks for no language. A person born in Italy who has lived here without interruption to eighteen becomes Italian under article 4.2 by declaring so within a year of that birthday, and article 9.1 does not touch article 4. Neither does it touch reacquisition or the election routes.

So the first question is not whether you are exempt. It is which article you are applying under.

Under articles 5 and 9: who does not have to produce a certificate

The law lists two groups, the Ministero dell'Interno's application page lists the same two and adds the third from the Corte costituzionale.

Anyone who has signed the accordo di integrazione under article 4-bis of the Testo unico sull'immigrazione. Article 9.1 says the duty to attest a diploma or produce a certificate falls on applicants “che non abbiano sottoscritto l'accordo di integrazione”.
Anyone holding a permesso di soggiorno UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo under article 9 of the same Testo unico. The Ministry's page lists them as “esentati”, alongside the accordo group.
People with serious limits on their capacity to learn a language because of age, illness or disability, certified by a public health service. The Corte costituzionale, in sentenza 25/2025, declared article 9.1 unconstitutional in the part where it did not exempt them, and the Ministry's page now lists them too.
Nobody else. There is no nationality that exempts anyone, and no other status the law or the Ministry names.

The diploma that counts instead of a certificate

Article 9.1 lets an applicant attest “un titolo di studio rilasciato da un istituto di istruzione pubblico o paritario riconosciuto” by the education ministry, or by the education and foreign ministries together for schools abroad.
The law names no minimum level of qualification and no minimum number of years. It says titolo di studio and leaves it there. What a given Prefettura accepts is not published nationally on the pages Belong Italy could read, so check with yours before relying on a diploma.
The diploma is attested at filing, in the same place the certificate would be uploaded, and the Ministry's page asks for it or for the certificate, not both.

Why the long-term permit and the accordo are on the list

Both already carry a language test. A permesso di soggiorno UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo requires Italian at A2, and the accordo di integrazione is completed by reaching A2 as well. Article 9.1 does not lower the citizenship level to A2 for these people. It simply does not ask them to produce proof of B1.

That is the honest reading of the text and it is the Ministry's. The application page says “sono esentati” of both groups. Whether a Prefettura later asks anything further is not something the published pages say, and Belong Italy does not guess at it.

It also means the exemption is a documentary one. You still have to show the permit or the signed accordo. Neither is assumed.

The 2025 ruling, and what it did not do

Sentenza 25/2025 of the Corte costituzionale struck article 9.1 down only in the part where it failed to exempt people with “gravi limitazioni alla capacità di apprendimento linguistico derivanti dall'età, da patologie o da disabilità, attestate mediante certificazione rilasciata dalla struttura sanitaria pubblica”. It did not lower the level, add an age threshold or exempt anyone else.

The certification has to come from a public health structure. A private doctor's letter is not what the Court described.

Exemptions, in short

I have a permesso di soggiorno UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo. Do I need the B1?

The Ministero dell'Interno's application page lists holders of that permit as esentati from producing the certificate, and article 9.1 puts the duty to produce one only on applicants who do not hold it. You still upload the permit.

I signed the accordo di integrazione. Do I need the B1?

The same answer. Article 9.1 puts the duty on applicants “che non abbiano sottoscritto l'accordo di integrazione”, and the Ministry lists those who signed it as esentati.

I am applying by descent. Do I need the B1?

No. Article 9.1 covers only articles 5 and 9, marriage and residence. Citizenship by descent is by birth under article 1 and asks for no language certificate.

Does an Italian school diploma replace the certificate?

Article 9.1 says a titolo di studio from a public or paritario school recognised by the education ministry can be attested instead. The law names no minimum level, and what your Prefettura accepts is not published nationally, so ask before you rely on it.

Is there an age exemption?

Not as such. Sentenza 25/2025 exempts people whose capacity to learn a language is seriously limited by age, illness or disability, on a public health service certificate. Age alone, without that certificate, is not an exemption.

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