The same citizenship costs A2 in Madrid and B2 in Paris

Every immigration forum has a thread that asks what level of the language you need for citizenship, and every answer in it is somebody’s memory of somebody’s summary. This page answers it from the statute or decree of each country, quoting the words that set the level, on 11 and 20 September 2026. Where an instrument names an exception, the exception is here. Where we could not read the law itself, the row says so instead of guessing.

The spread is two whole levels. Across eighteen countries whose law we read, the answer runs from A2 in Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands to B2 in France, with B1 the most common answer, Finland asking for a level of its own naming, and Denmark and Sweden naming a test rather than a letter. And the level is only half of the rule: Norway tests speaking alone, France tests speaking and writing, Switzerland wants B1 spoken but only A2 written, Luxembourg wants A2 spoken but B1 understood, and the Netherlands tests all four skills at a level its own integration law has since abandoned.

Three levels for one act. The Council of Europe’s scale was built so that a B1 in one language means the same as a B1 in another. Sixteen states have used it to set sixteen thresholds for the same legal event, and they span A2 to B2; two more, Denmark and Sweden, name a test and never write a letter at all. A candidate who moves from Madrid to Paris does not become a worse speaker; the bar moves two rungs under them.

The direction is up, almost everywhere. France raised nationality from B1 to B2 on 1 January 2026. Sweden, which had no language condition at all, wrote one into its citizenship act on 6 June 2026 and has a national test scheduled for 1 October 2027. Finland lengthened residence from five years to eight in 2024 and, by a law of 16 June 2026, adds a citizenship test from 1 January 2027. Germany’s faster route, which the 2024 reform attached to a C1 certificate, now reads (weggefallen) in the statute. Italy’s court moved the other way on one point only, carving out people who cannot learn. The Netherlands is the exception in the whole table: its 2021 integration law went to B1, and its naturalisation regulation answered by pinning itself to the repealed A2 law, which is how a country ends up with a requirement of A2 by explicit reference to a text no longer in force.

Skills are not interchangeable across rows. Norway’s § 8 names the oral test and nothing else: a candidate who writes at C1 and speaks at A2 does not qualify. France’s decree names oral and written. The Dutch decree names four skills. Germany names an exam at B1 and leaves the skills to the exam. Switzerland and Luxembourg split the level itself by skill: B1 spoken and A2 written in one, A2 spoken and B1 understood in the other, and Luxembourg never tests a written word. Comparing “B1” across those rows without reading the skills column is how people arrive with the wrong paper.

The proof can expire before the right to use it. France’s arrêtés give a test attestation two years and a diploma no term at all, so the same B2 is permanent proved one way and dead in two years proved the other. Britain goes the opposite direction and accepts a B1 that has already run out, provided it was accepted at settlement. Whether a certificate is still good is a question about the country, not the certificate.

Décret n° 2025-648 amends the 1993 decree twice with one sentence: la référence : « B1 » est remplacée par la référence : « B2 », once for acquisition by marriage and once for naturalisation. The arrêtés of 22 December 2025 set the whole staircase on one afternoon: A2 for the carte de séjour pluriannuelle, B1 for the carte de résident, B2 for nationality. The date that counts is the filing date, not the decision.

Two doors prove the same B2, and only one expires: a diploma (DELF or DALF, which France Éducation international says is valable à vie) or a test (TCF or TEF), and la durée de validité des attestations linguistiques est de deux ans. On 11 September 2026 FEI’s own TCF page adds that re-marking of the oral and written papers is suspended from the 1 September 2026 sessions for about a year. The full reading of the law is in the nationality guide.

Statsborgerloven § 8, read on lovdata.no: Søkere mellom 18 og 67 år skal ha oppnådd minimum nivå B1 på muntlig prøve i norsk og ha bestått statsborgerprøve. The oral test, and a passed citizenship test. The age limit is counted from the date of application. The B1 requirement entered into force on 1 October 2022 (lov 30 okt 2020 nr. 123).

Statsborgerforskriften § 4-1 lists who is exempt from the oral requirement — among them a grade of 2 or better in Norwegian or Sami at school, 30 credits of university Norwegian, and stateless applicants — and then adds a floor under four of the exempt groups: må oppnå minimum nivå A2 på muntlig prøve i norsk. So the real range in Norway is A2 to B1, and it is oral at both levels. The exam itself is in the norskprøven muntlig guide.

§ 10 Abs. 1 Nr. 6 StAG requires ausreichende Kenntnisse der deutschen Sprache, and Abs. 4 defines them: Die Voraussetzungen des Absatzes 1 Satz 1 Nr. 6 liegen vor, wenn der Ausländer die Anforderungen einer Sprachprüfung der Stufe B 1 des Gemeinsamen Europäischen Referenzrahmens für Sprachen erfüllt. Read on gesetze-im-internet.de on 11 September 2026. The residence requirement in Abs. 1 is five years.

The exceptions are in the same paragraph. A child under 16 qualifies with altersgemäße Sprachentwicklung. Someone who came under a recruitment agreement before 30 June 1974, or as a contract worker to the GDR before 13 June 1990, qualifies if they can sich ohne nennenswerte Probleme im Alltagsleben in deutscher Sprache mündlich verständigen — oral, everyday, no level. Abs. 4a extends the same oral standard to anyone who shows that reaching B1 was impossible trotz ernsthafter und nachhaltiger Bemühungen, and Abs. 6 waives the requirement for illness, disability and age.

Abs. 3 reads (weggefallen). The 2024 reform had placed there a three-year route for applicants with a C1 certificate and special integration; the text read today no longer contains it. Which B1 exam to sit is the subject of telc B1 or Goethe B1.

Article 9.1 of Law 91/1992, read on normattiva.it, text in force from 13 March 2025: La concessione della cittadinanza italiana ai sensi degli articoli 5 e 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. Articles 5 and 9 are citizenship by marriage and by residence.

Who must produce a certificate: applicants who have not signed the accordo di integrazione and do not hold the EU long-term residence permit. They attest either a qualification from a recognised school or apposita certificazione rilasciata da un ente certificatore riconosciuto. The Constitutional Court, judgment no. 25 of 30 January–7 March 2025, struck the article nella parte in cui non esonera dalla prova della conoscenza della lingua italiana il richiedente affetto da gravi limitazioni alla capacità di apprendimento linguistico arising from age, illness or disability. Article 9-bis sets the application contribution at €250. The CELI, one of the recognised certifications, is documented in the CELI guide.

Article 30 ust. 2 of the Ustawa o obywatelstwie polskim, consolidated text of 27 November 2025 on isap.sejm.gov.pl: an adult applying to be recognised as a citizen jest obowiązany posiadać znajomość języka polskiego potwierdzoną urzędowym poświadczeniem … na poziomie biegłości językowej co najmniej B1, świadectwem ukończenia szkoły w Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej lub świadectwem ukończenia szkoły za granicą z wykładowym językiem polskim. Ust. 2a adds that a post-secondary school (szkoła policealna) certificate does not count.

Two things worth reading twice. This is the uznanie route, article 30; the President’s grant of citizenship under article 18 carries no language clause in the text. And the certifying body’s own FAQ declines to name the level for citizenship and refers people to the voivodeship office — the level is in the statute, not on the exam body’s site. The exam is in the Polish certificate guide.

Kansalaisuuslaki 13 § 1 mom. 6 kohta, read on finlex.fi: the applicant must have suomen tai ruotsin kielen tyydyttävä suullinen ja kirjallinen taito — satisfactory oral and written Finnish or Swedish — or the equivalent in Finnish or Finland-Swedish sign language. 17 § lists how it is shown, and the first way is yleinen kielitutkinto taitotasolla kolme, the YKI at level 3. The statute names no CEFR letter; the YKI’s own scale places level 3 at B1, and that mapping is documented in the YKI guide.

The residence requirement became eight years by law 474/2024. And law 552/2026 of 16 June 2026 adds a seventh condition from 1 January 2027: riittävät tiedot suomalaisesta yhteiskunnasta, shown by passing a multiple-choice kansalaisuuskoe in which valtaosa — the great majority — of answers must be correct, or by a Finnish- or Swedish-medium matriculation or university degree. It does not apply under 18 or from 65.

gov.uk, Prove your knowledge of English for citizenship and settling, read 11 September 2026: applicants aged 18 or over prove it with an English qualification at B1, B2, C1 or C2 level from an approved Secure English Language Test provider, or a degree taught or researched in English. GCSEs, A levels and NVQs are expressly not accepted. The citizenship page adds that Welsh or Scottish Gaelic satisfy the requirement too.

The detail nobody expects: Some recognised test qualifications only last for 2 years, and yet for citizenship you can use a B1, B2, C1 or C2 level qualification that’s run out if it was accepted when you settled, even if the test is no longer on the list. The B1 stands on 11 September 2026; nothing on the page read today raises it. Which bands correspond is in the IELTS guide.

The foreigners’ state-language exam, set by the National Commission for State Language Standards and read on its own pages on 9 September 2026, returns a B1 certificate at 70% or a refusal below it — there is no A2 to fall back on. Four parts, each weighted at 25%, sat only inside Ukraine. That exam and its rules are in the Ukrainian state exam guide; this page repeats nothing it has not read there.

Real Decreto 1004/2015, article 6.1, read on boe.es: applicants deberán superar tanto los exámenes para la obtención del diploma de español como lengua extranjera (DELE) como mínimo de nivel A2, como la prueba que acredite el conocimiento de los valores históricos, constitucionales y socioculturales de España (CCSE). Both are designed and administered by the Instituto Cervantes and are in person, though the decree allows remote administration with identity checks.

The preamble states the exemptions: no DELE is needed for nationals of a Spanish-speaking country, or for anyone who already holds a DELE of A2 or above. The registry may verify results electronically with the Cervantes rather than asking for the certificate. The DELE’s levels and prices are in the DELE guide.

The Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap, article 8(1)(d), asks for a degree of knowledge of Dutch bij algemene maatregel van rijksbestuur te bepalen. That decree, the Besluit naturalisatietoets, names four skills — spreekvaardigheid, luistervaardigheid, schrijfvaardigheid en leesvaardigheid — and no level. The level is in the ministerial regulation, in force from 28 June 2025: the test is passed when the applicant het inburgeringsexamen, bedoeld in artikel 7, tweede lid, van de Wet inburgering met goed gevolg heeft afgelegd.

Which Wet inburgering? Article 1(f) of the same regulation defines it: de Wet inburgering, zoals die wet luidde onmiddellijk voorafgaand aan het tijdstip waarop de Wet inburgering 2021 in werking treedt — the act as it stood before the 2021 act replaced it. That act’s article 7(2)(b), which wetten.overheid.nl marks vervallen per 01-01-2022, set the language parts op ten minste het niveau A2. So the naturalisation level is A2, fixed by a live regulation pointing at a repealed statute, while the 2021 act’s own integration duty is B1. Holders of the Staatsexamen NT2, Programma I or II, are exempt from the test under article 3(1)(c) of the Besluit; that exam is in the NT2 guide.

§ 10a Abs. 1 Z 1 of the Staatsbürgerschaftsgesetz, in the text in force since 1 October 2017, makes every grant of citizenship conditional on proof über ausreichende Deutschkenntnisse gemäß § 7 Abs. 2 Z 2 Integrationsgesetz, and Z 2 adds basic knowledge of the democratic order and of the history of Austria and the applicant’s Land. The level is therefore not in the citizenship act at all. § 7 Abs. 2 Z 2 of the Integrationsgesetz defines Modul 2 of the integration agreement as German zur selbständigen Sprachverwendung auf dem Sprachniveau B1 gemäß dem Gemeinsamen Europäischen Referenzrahmen für Sprachen, against Modul 1’s A2. Read on ris.bka.gv.at on 20 September 2026.

§ 10a Abs. 4 deems the proof given when die deutsche Sprache die Muttersprache des Fremden ist or when the applicant has completed Modul 2 auch wenn er nach dem Integrationsgesetz dazu nicht verpflichtet ist. Abs. 2 exempts minors under fourteen, people whose lasting physical or mental condition, including speech or hearing impairment, makes the proof impossible and is certified by an official doctor, and a list of cases in §§ 10, 11a, 13 and 57 to 59. Abs. 3 lets a school pupil pass on a positive mark in Deutsch in the previous school year. The exam itself is the ÖIF’s Integrationsprüfung, which the integration act names in § 10 and § 12; the B1 it certifies is the same B1 as in the telc and Goethe guide.

§ 14 odst. 4 of zákon č. 186/2013 Sb. says citizenship may be granted to an applicant který prokáže znalost českého jazyka, and nothing about a level. The same paragraph excuses anyone who completed at least three school years at a primary, secondary or higher school taught in Czech, anyone mladší 15 nebo starší 65 let on the day of application, and anyone whose physical or mental disability makes learning the language impossible. § 78 hands the scope to the education ministry.

The ministry’s vyhláška č. 433/2013 Sb., § 2 odst. 1, in force since 1 January 2014, supplies the number: Požaduje se znalost jazyka alespoň na úrovni B1 podle Společného evropského referenčního rámce pro jazyky. Odst. 2 lists what that covers, four descriptors lifted almost word for word from the CEFR’s B1 column. The decree also names the exams that replace the language part of the state examination, so a B1 certificate in Czech as a foreign language from a body it recognises is accepted without sitting the ministry’s own paper. Read on zakonyprolidi.cz on 20 September 2026.

§ 8 lg 1 of the Kodakondsuse seadus, in the wording in force since 1 August 2012, defines the required Estonian as the everyday general language mis vastab vähemalt keeleseaduses sätestatud B-1 tasemele või sellele vastavale tasemele. Lg 2 then writes the level out in four sentences: coping in most everyday situations, describing experiences and plans and briefly giving reasons, understanding the essentials on familiar topics such as work, school and free time, and writing a simple text on a familiar subject. Lg 3 puts the assessment in an exam whose rules the Government sets; lg 5 excuses anyone kes on omandanud eesti keeles põhi-, kesk- või kõrghariduse.

The unusual clause is § 8¹. A person who passes both the language exam and the constitution-and-citizenship exam is reimbursed kuni 100 protsenti of the tuition paid to a licensed provider for Estonian courses aimed at the level exam, up to a ceiling the Government sets, on application to the Haridus- ja Noorteamet within three months of the second pass, paid within two months. No other row in this table pays the candidate back. Read on riigiteataja.ee, text as of 5 July 2025, on 20 September 2026.

The Bürgerrechtsgesetz leaves the level to its ordinance. Art. 6 Abs. 1 of the Bürgerrechtsverordnung, text as of 1 August 2026, requires the applicant to show, in a national language, mündliche Sprachkompetenzen mindestens auf dem Referenzniveau B1 und schriftliche Sprachkompetenzen mindestens auf dem Referenzniveau A2 of the European framework. It is the only row in the table that sets two levels for two skills in one sentence, and the writing bar is a full level below the speaking bar. Read on fedlex.admin.ch on 20 September 2026.

Abs. 2 deems the proof given for anyone who eine Landessprache als Muttersprache spricht und schreibt, who attended at least five years of compulsory school in a national language, who completed upper-secondary or tertiary education in one, or, under a letter d in force since 1 January 2019, who holds a certificate from a testing procedure das den allgemein anerkannten Qualitätsstandards für Sprachtests entspricht. The cantons check the certificates and may run their own tests, with the SEM’s support. A Goethe or telc B1 in German satisfies both halves at once; the levels are explained in the telc and Goethe guide.

Art. 14(1) 2° of the loi du 8 mars 2017 sur la nationalité luxembourgeoise asks for une connaissance de la langue luxembourgeoise, documentée par le certificat de réussite de l’examen d’évaluation de la langue luxembourgeoise, and art. 15(1) says what that exam is: l’épreuve d’expression orale portant sur le niveau A2 and l’épreuve de compréhension de l’oral portant sur le niveau B1 of the European framework. No reading, no writing. The applicant must sit both papers; the exam is passed on half marks in speaking, and a lower speaking mark can be rescued by the listening mark if the rounded average of the two reaches half. The Institut national des langues runs it. Consolidated text of 24 December 2024, read on legilux.public.lu on 20 September 2026.

Danish naturalisation is granted by statute, one bill at a time, and the conditions for getting onto a bill sit in a circular. § 24 stk. 1 of the Cirkulæreskrivelse om naturalisation of 17 June 2021 requires proof of Danish ved bevis for at have bestået danskuddannelsernes Prøve i Dansk 3 eller en af de i bilag 3.a angivne prøver. Stk. 2 lets an applicant who meets the self-support test in § 23 and has drawn no more than three months of the listed public help in nine years qualify on Prøve i Dansk 2 instead. Stk. 3 adds the Indfødsretsprøven af 2021 on society, culture and history. Stk. 4 sends cases of lasting physical, mental, sensory or intellectual impairment to the Folketing’s naturalisation committee for dispensation.

The circular never writes A2, B1 or B2. The level is whatever Prøve i Dansk 3 is, and that is a question for the test’s own body, not for this page. The 2022 amending circular, nr. 9432 of 11 April 2022, leaves § 24 untouched. Read on retsinformation.dk on 20 September 2026.

Until this summer the Swedish citizenship act had no language clause. Lag (2026:447), in force 6 June 2026, rewrote 11 § of Lag (2001:82) om svenskt medborgarskap: an adult may be naturalised if they, among five other conditions, har visat tillräckliga kunskaper i svenska och om det svenska samhället enligt 13 §. The same section says Kravet i första stycket 6 gäller inte den som har fyllt 67 år, and lengthens residence to eight years. Read on riksdagen.se on 20 September 2026.

What counts as sufficient Swedish is in 13 a §, for now: a pass in Swedish or Swedish as a second language from the final year of compulsory or upper-secondary school, the highest course of SFI, the test universities use for entry, or ett annat kunskapsprov i svenska som med hög grad av säkerhet visar kunskaper i svenska på funktionell nivå. Civics is already a medborgarskapsprov. From 1 October 2027, under Lag (2026:448), a medborgarskapsprov i svenska takes over, testing reading and listening på funktionell nivå; a further law, (2026:449), whose start date the government has yet to set, adds speaking and writing på grundläggande nivå. 13 b § exempts anyone with a passing school grade in Danish or Norwegian from another Nordic country. The ordinance (2026:451) gives the test to the Universitets- och högskolerådet and sets a fee of 2 000 kronor. No CEFR letter appears in any of the four instruments.

The Code de la nationalité belge defines its own term. Art. 1 § 2, 5°, text updated to 10 March 2026, reads la connaissance minimale d’une des trois langues nationales correspondant au niveau A2 du Cadre européen commun de référence pour les langues, proved by the means a royal decree lists. Art. 12bis § 1, 2° c) then makes that proof one of the conditions for the declaration after five years’ legal residence, and 3° c) repeats it for the ten-year route. Dutch, French or German, the applicant’s choice.

A law of 28 March 2024, in force 8 April 2024, added the exception the Constitutional Court had asked for: for a person who is illiterate in the code’s sense, seule la preuve d’une connaissance orale correspondant au niveau A2 is required, once the competent community authority certifies that the written skills cannot be acquired even with the training it offers. The French A2 is the DELF A2 level described in the DELF and DALF guide. Read on ejustice.just.fgov.be on 20 September 2026.

Each row was read on the official legislation portal of the country on 11 and 20 September 2026 — gesetze-im-internet.de, normattiva.it, boe.es, wetten.overheid.nl, lovdata.no, finlex.fi, isap.sejm.gov.pl, gov.uk, fedlex.admin.ch, ris.bka.gv.at, zakonyprolidi.cz, ejustice.just.fgov.be, legilux.public.lu, retsinformation.dk, riigiteataja.ee, riksdagen.se — except France and Ukraine, whose readings are dated in their own guides on this site. The first ten rows were read on 11 September 2026; Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Luxembourg, Sweden and Switzerland were added on 20 September 2026. Quotations are verbatim in the original language; translations and every cross-country comparison are ours.

What is deliberately absent: any country whose instrument we could not open, any level we know only from a summary, and any exam fee, which belongs to the exam body and is recorded in the exam comparison. Laws move — two rows here changed in 2025, one was written in June 2026, and two change in 2027 — so the date beside each row is part of the fact.

We run a marketplace for language teachers, so read this as interested rather than neutral. The defence is the same as on the other research pages: nothing here is ours except the comparison, every quotation is checkable on the government’s own site, and the country we could not read is named as unread rather than filled in. Corrections to hello@kololingo.com, and we will publish who corrected us.