4 days from booking to result, or 116
Exam bodies publish their fees, their levels and their sample papers. What they publish far less consistently is the thing a candidate with a visa date or an admissions deadline has to plan around: how late you may book, how often it runs, and how long you then wait. 16 bodies were read on 20 September 2026, 22 September 2026 and 24 September 2026 and asked those three questions.
The extremes are 29 to one. The TOEFL iBT can be booked twenty-four hours ahead and reports 3 days later: 4 days from deciding to knowing. TOPIK closes registration 69 days before the sitting and publishes the result 47 days after it — 116 days, or 16.6 weeks. Both figures are the bodies’ own; the subtraction is the only thing added.
Two things emerged from asking the question this way. 8 of the 16 publish no registration deadline at all, because 9 of them leave the date to whichever centre you walk into. And one body answers “how long do results take” twice, differently, on a single page.
The DELE’s two answers are one rule
On the Instituto Cervantes’s DELE frequently-asked-questions page, the prose answer to how long results take reads “un plazo aproximado de tres meses”. Further down the same page, a table comparing the DELE with the SIELE gives the DELE’s results as “Aproximadamente dos meses”, against “Máximo de tres semanas” for the SIELE. Two months or three, on one page.
It reads as a contradiction and it is not one. The body’s Calificaciones page states the rule that both figures come from: about two months from the written papers for every convocatoria except May and November, and about three months for those two. The FAQ prints the ends of that rule without the rule. Read 22 September 2026.
It matters because of the other half of the DELE’s timetable, which the body does publish precisely: registration for the 2026 sittings closes between 37 and 51 days before the exam. So from the day you must commit, the result is 141 days away if you sat in May or November and 111 if you sat at any other convocatoria. That is 30 days of difference decided by which month you chose, which is knowable before you book rather than after.
Both figures keep the body’s own hedge, aproximado, which is why the DELE is still left out of the end-to-end table below. A hedged figure is not a promise, and this page ranks nobody on one.
A DELE re-mark costs 60% of the fee and can lower your grade
The same page publishes the other timetable a candidate may need, and it is the one nobody plans for. A candidate who disagrees with a grade has one month to file a single request for review, and the Instituto Cervantes then has up to three months to answer it. The review itself costs 60% of the exam price before discounts, refunded only if it turns a NO APTO into an APTO, or raises the level on the double-exit exams.
And it runs both ways: “un candidato puede obtener una calificación inferior a la original”. The re-mark re-checks the automatically scored reading and listening papers and sends the written and spoken ones to a third independent marker, so the grade that comes back can be lower than the one being appealed. Norway’s norskprøven publishes the same warning about its written appeal. Two bodies, two languages, one thing candidates are rarely told: an appeal is a re-marking, not a second opinion you may discard.
Booking to result, end to end
The 5 bodies that publish both halves, worst case on each. Everything here is a sum of two published figures: the last day you may register, and the longest the body says the result takes. The DELE is left out of this table because both of its published turnarounds are hedged as approximate.
| Exam | Register by | Result after | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| TOEFL iBT | 1 day before | 3 days | 4 days |
| telc | 14 days before | 42 days | 56 days |
| HSK | 27 days before | 38 days | 65 days |
| TestDaF | 28 days before | 42 days | 70 days |
| TOPIK | 69 days before | 47 days | 116 days |
Who actually decides when the exam is
This is the finding underneath the missing deadlines. 9 of the 16 awarding bodies do not schedule their own exam. France Éducation international states it outright — «France Éducation international n’est pas un centre de passation des épreuves» — and the Goethe-Institut, telc, Cambridge, IELTS and the SIELE all refer the question to a centre. Norskprøven is devolved to the municipality: the directorate announces a five-day national registration window, then notes that not every test centre runs every period.
So for those exams the honest answer to “when is the next one” is that nobody publishes it nationally, and the only page that can tell you is the local centre’s. Where a body does keep the calendar — DELE, JLPT, TOPIK, HSK, CILS and CELI — it is generally precise to the day, and in TOPIK’s case publishes the result date alongside the exam date before registration even opens.
All 16 bodies
Sorted as read. “Register by” is the last day the body itself names; a blank means it names none. “Result after” is counted from the exam date. Working days are converted at five to the week where a body stated them that way.
| Exam | Who sets the date | Sittings a year | Register by | Result after |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Goethe-Zertifikat Goethe-Institut | the local centre | not published | not published | 2–28 days |
| telc telc gGmbH | the local centre | not published | 14 days | 28–42 days |
| TestDaF g.a.s.t. / TestDaF-Institut | body sets dates, centre sets place | not published | 8–28 days | 21–42 days |
| DELE Instituto Cervantes | the awarding body | 5 | 37–51 days | about 60–90 days |
| SIELE Instituto Cervantes and partners | the local centre | not published | not published | 21 days |
| DELF / DALF France Éducation international | the local centre | not published | not published | not published |
| TCF France Éducation international | the local centre | not published | not published | 14–21 days |
| IELTS British Council, IDP and Cambridge | the local centre | not published | not published | 1–13 days |
| TOEFL iBT ETS | the local centre | 170 | 1 days | 3 days |
| Cambridge English Cambridge University Press & Assessment | the local centre | not published | not published | 7–42 days |
| JLPT Japan Foundation and JEES | the awarding body | 2 | not published | not published |
| TOPIK National Institute for International Education, Korea | the awarding body | 6 | 68–69 days | 20–47 days |
| HSK Chinese Testing International | the awarding body | 11 | 10–27 days | 16–38 days |
| Norskprøven HK-dir (Direktoratet for høyere utdanning og kompetanse) | the local centre | 4 | not published | not published |
| CILS Università per Stranieri di Siena | the awarding body | 6 | 30–40 days | about 90 days |
| CELI CVCL, Università per Stranieri di Perugia | the awarding body | 7 | 26–35 days | about 126 days |
Where the range comes from: the delivery mode
Several of the ranges above are not uncertainty. They are one exam marked two ways, and the gap is large enough to decide which version to sit. The paper TestDaF takes twice as long to mark as the digital one and closes three weeks earlier. The paper HSK on 24 January 2026 closes on 28 December and reports on 3 March; the internet-based version, the same exam on the same day, closes on 14 January and reports on 9 February.
And a Goethe-Zertifikat A1 sat in Bremen is marked in one working day, while a B1 in Mannheim takes four weeks — the same certificate, from the same institute, by the institute’s own table.
| Exam | Mode or level | Result after |
|---|---|---|
| Goethe-Zertifikat | fastest institute and level published (Bremen, A1) | 1 working days (2–2 calendar) |
| slowest published (Mannheim, B1 to C2) | 28 days | |
| TestDaF | digital TestDaF | approximately 21 days |
| paper TestDaF | typically 42 days | |
| DELE | every convocatoria except May and November | approximately 60 days |
| the May and November convocatorias | approximately 90 days | |
| TCF | on paper | 15 working days (21–21 calendar) |
| on computer, multiple-choice sections only | 10 working days (14–14 calendar) | |
| IELTS | on computer | 1–5 days |
| online | 6–8 days | |
| UKVI Life Skills | maximum 9 days | |
| on paper | 13 days | |
| on paper, in India | 7 days | |
| Cambridge English | digital exams | approximately 5 working days (7–7 calendar) |
| paper exams | 28–42 days |
The 3 that will not say
DELF / DALF, JLPT and Norskprøven publish no results turnaround. Each says something instead, and the something is worth reading.
DELF / DALF
No national figure is published. The body states plainly that it is not a testing centre and refers every scheduling question to an approved centre.
JLPT
Given as a month-part rather than a figure: score reports for the July sitting are sent in early September in Japan and early October elsewhere, and for the December sitting in early February and early March. No number of days is published, so none is computed here.
Norskprøven
No turnaround is published. The directorate names a date per sitting instead — results for the summer sitting were sent on 20 June 2026 — and the certificate itself comes by post some days later.
What each body says, in its own words
Every quote below was read from the URL beside it, in the language the body publishes in, on 20 September 2026, 22 September 2026 and 24 September 2026 — the date is printed on each body whose reading was not the first sweep. Nothing here is ours.
Goethe-Zertifikat · Goethe-Institut
One table, one exam, and a 28-fold spread between cities. Choosing a literature topic in the writing module adds a flat six weeks at every institute.
“Bei Fragen zur Prüfungsanmeldung (zum Beispiel Termine, Preise)... können Sie sich an die Ansprechpersonen des jeweiligen Prüfungszentrums wenden.”
de · www.goethe.de
“Sollten Sie beim Modul Schreiben bei Aufgabe 2 ein literaturgebundenes Thema wählen, liegen die Zertifikate regulär an allen Instituten sechs Wochen nach Ablegen der Prüfung vor.”
de · www.goethe.de
telc · telc gGmbH
The fourteen days are the centre's deadline, not yours; telc does not publish a date by which a candidate must have signed up.
“Wenn Sie Ihre Prüfung planen, beachten Sie bitte, dass Ihr Prüfungszentrum die Prüfung 14 Tage vor dem Prüfungstermin bei telc anmelden muss.”
de · www.telc.net
“Abhängig von der Anzahl der geschriebenen Prüfungen und der zu bearbeitenden Prüfungen kann es zwischen 4 bis 6 Wochen dauern bis Sie Ihr Ergebnis erhalten.”
de · www.telc.net
TestDaF · g.a.s.t. / TestDaF-Institut
The same exam on paper takes three and a half times as long to mark and closes three weeks earlier.
“Für den digitalen TestDaF liegt der Anmeldeschluss in der Regel acht Tage vor dem Prüfungstermin. Für den papierbasierten TestDaF müssen Sie sich in der Regel spätestens vier Wochen vor dem Prüfungstermin anmelden.”
de · www.testdaf.de
“die Auswertung der Leistung für den papierbasierten TestDaF in der Regel 6 Wochen dauert. Für den digitalen TestDaF umfasst die Auswertungszeit ca. 3 Wochen.”
de · www.testdaf.de
DELE · Instituto Cervantes · read 22 September 2026
The FAQ's two figures look like a contradiction and are not one: the Calificaciones page makes the wait depend on which sitting you took, two months for most and three for May and November. Months are counted here at 30 days, which is the only arithmetic on this page the body did not do itself.
“El candidato dispondrá de los resultados del examen DELE en un plazo aproximado de dos meses desde la celebración de las pruebas escritas en el caso de todas las convocatorias excepto las de mayo y noviembre, en las que el plazo aproximado es de tres meses.”
“un plazo aproximado de tres meses”
“Aproximadamente dos meses”
SIELE · Instituto Cervantes and partners
The only Spanish option with a stated ceiling rather than an estimate.
“En un plazo máximo de tres semanas...”
“You choose the day, time and place from over 1,000 authorised test centres in more than 85 countries.”
en · siele.org
DELF / DALF · France Éducation international
“Non. France Éducation international n'est pas un centre de passation des épreuves. Les candidats doivent contacter un centre agréé pour réaliser une inscription.”
TCF · France Éducation international
The clock starts when the body receives the session's materials, not on the day you sit it, so the wait at your end is longer than fifteen working days. Retakes of this version must be twenty days apart.
“Vos résultats seront disponibles depuis votre espace TCF-Candidat et transmis au centre de passation dans un délai de 15 jours ouvrés* à compter de la date de réception du matériel de session par France Éducation international.”
“Vous devez, cependant, attendre 20 jours entre chaque passation de cette déclinaison du TCF.”
IELTS · British Council, IDP and Cambridge
Computer results are stated as typically arriving within two days. India is the only country given its own paper turnaround.
“Most IELTS on computer results are now issued within 2 days.”
en · ielts.org
“regular test dates at over 1,800 locations, and late booking options when you need them”
TOEFL iBT · ETS
ETS separately advises booking four months ahead, which is admissions advice rather than a deadline; the only hard minimum it publishes is twenty-four hours.
“Your scores will be available in your ETS account 3 days after your test date.”
en · www.ets.org
“Register at least 24 hours in advance of your appointment time.”
en · www.ets.org
Cambridge English · Cambridge University Press & Assessment
Cambridge publishes a release window rather than a date: results appear somewhere inside a period about two weeks long, which starts at the figures above.
“Results release windows for paper-based exams normally start around four to six weeks after the exam date. Results release windows for digital exams normally start about 5 working days after the exam.”
JLPT · Japan Foundation and JEES
The least frequent exam on this page. Registration periods are also left to each test site rather than set nationally.
“There might be some regulations, and registration method/registration period may differ depending on the test sites.”
en · www.jlpt.jp
“Twice yearly, in July and December.”
en · www.jlpt.jp
TOPIK · National Institute for International Education, Korea
Everything is a published date: the calendar gives the registration window, the sitting and the result day for each session, so the waits below are subtraction rather than estimate.
“제105회 · 국내접수기간 2026. 1. 27. ~ 2. 2. · 국내시험일 2026. 4. 12. · 성적발표 2026. 5. 29.”
ko · www.topik.go.kr
HSK · Chinese Testing International
The same exam, the same day, two delivery modes: the paper version closes a fortnight earlier and reports three weeks later.
“Chinese Test Dates in 2026”
en · www.chinesetest.cn
Norskprøven · HK-dir (Direktoratet for høyere utdanning og kompetanse)
Registration is a five-day window announced centrally: the next one opens 26 October at 09:00 and closes 30 October at 23:59. Which sitting your town actually runs is the municipality's decision.
“Påmeldingen åpner mandag 26. oktober kl 9.00 og stenger fredag 30. oktober kl 23.59.”
no · prove.hkdir.no
“De fleste kommunene i Norge har prøver i norsk fire ganger i året.”
no · prove.hkdir.no
“Resultatet fra sommerprøven i norsk blir sendt 20. juni 2026 til din e-postadresse.”
no · prove.hkdir.no
CILS · Università per Stranieri di Siena · read 24 September 2026
The three months are counted at 30 days to the month, the same arithmetic the DELE row needs and the only step here the body did not do itself. The lead time is not one figure: four of the six sittings close 30 or 31 days ahead and the June and December ones close 40, which is the body's own calendar subtracted, not an estimate. Dates are national; enrolment is not, and you arrange it with the centre you intend to sit at.
“I risultati degli esami saranno disponibili dopo circa 3 mesi. Non si eseguono valutazioni anticipate.”
it · cils.unistrasi.it
“Entro 18 mesi, infatti, il candidato può presentarsi allo stesso esame e sostenere solo le abilità che non ha superato.”
it · cils.unistrasi.it
“Per la sessione del 16 giugno, iscriviti entro il 7 maggio.”
it · cils.unistrasi.it
CELI · CVCL, Università per Stranieri di Perugia · read 24 September 2026
The ninety working days are the longest figure on this page, and they do not start when you sit the exam. The CVCL counts from the day it RECEIVES the scripts, so the candidate's own wait is that plus however long the papers take to reach Perugia, which nothing published sizes. The figure is hedged (all'incirca), so it is excluded from the fastest and slowest comparisons like every other hedged one. Dates are national; the fee and the enrolment method are the exam centre's, and the calendar marks every CELI Immigrati session as available only at centres inside Italy.
“Il CVCL provvede alla comunicazione dei risultati all’incirca 90 giorni lavorativi a partire dalla data di ricezione degli elaborati dei candidati da parte del CVCL.”
it · cvcl.unistrapg.it
“I candidati che non abbiano superato la parte scritta […] e che abbiano invece superato la parte orale o viceversa, possono capitalizzare per un anno il risultato parziale ottenuto, sottoponendosi di nuovo alla prova risultata insufficiente nel suddetto arco di tempo, pagando il 70% della tassa complessiva.”
it · cvcl.unistrapg.it
“*Le sessioni CELI Immigrati sono disponibili solo per i centri italiani.”
it · cvcl.unistrapg.it
The two published calendars, row by row
Where a body prints dates rather than durations, the dates are reproduced here and the day counts elsewhere on this page are their difference.
DELE
| Sitting | Registration closes | Exam | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 2026 | 2026-01-07 | 2026-02-13 | not published |
| April 2026 | 2026-02-25 | 2026-04-17 | not published |
| May 2026 | 2026-04-08 | 2026-05-22 | not published |
| October 2026 | 2026-09-02 | 2026-10-16 | not published |
| November 2026 | 2026-09-30 | 2026-11-13 | not published |
TOPIK
| Sitting | Registration closes | Exam | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 105th, paper | 2026-02-02 | 2026-04-12 | 2026-05-29 |
| 16th, internet-based | 2026-09-21 | 2026-11-28 | 2026-12-18 |
HSK
| Sitting | Registration closes | Exam | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24 Jan 2026, paper | 2025-12-28 | 2026-01-24 | 2026-03-03 |
| 24 Jan 2026, internet-based | 2026-01-14 | 2026-01-24 | 2026-02-09 |
CILS
| Sitting | Registration closes | Exam | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 2026 | 2026-01-19 | 2026-02-19 | not published |
| April 2026 | 2026-03-14 | 2026-04-14 | not published |
| June 2026 | 2026-05-07 | 2026-06-16 | not published |
| July 2026 | 2026-06-22 | 2026-07-22 | not published |
| October 2026 | 2026-09-21 | 2026-10-21 | not published |
| December 2026 | 2026-10-24 | 2026-12-03 | not published |
CELI
| Sitting | Registration closes | Exam | Results |
|---|---|---|---|
| February 2026 (Immigrati) | 2026-01-16 | 2026-02-18 | not published |
| March 2026 (CELI) | 2026-02-13 | 2026-03-11 | not published |
| May 2026 (Immigrati) | 2026-04-10 | 2026-05-06 | not published |
| May 2026 (Adolescenti) | 2026-04-10 | 2026-05-09 | not published |
| June 2026 (CELI, all levels) | 2026-05-05 | 2026-06-09 | not published |
| September 2026 (Immigrati) | 2026-08-14 | 2026-09-16 | not published |
| November 2026 (CELI, all levels) | 2026-10-09 | 2026-11-11 | not published |
Questions people ask
How long do language exam results take?
Between 3 days and 47, comparing the slow end of each body's published range: TOEFL iBT at 3 days against TOPIK at 47. Delivery mode matters more than the exam: the TestDaF takes about three weeks digitally and six weeks on paper, and IELTS on computer reports in under a week where IELTS on paper takes thirteen days. 3 of the 16 bodies read publish no turnaround at all: DELF / DALF, JLPT and Norskprøven. Read 20 September 2026, 22 September 2026 and 24 September 2026.
How far in advance do I have to register for a language exam?
It ranges from 1 day to 69: the TOEFL iBT takes bookings up to twenty-four hours before the appointment, while TOPIK closes registration about ten weeks before the sitting. But 8 of the 16 bodies publish no deadline centrally at all — Goethe-Zertifikat, SIELE, DELF / DALF, TCF, IELTS, Cambridge English, JLPT and Norskprøven — because the date is the local exam centre's to set, so the only reliable answer for those is the centre's own page.
Which language exam gives results fastest?
Of the bodies that commit to a figure, TOEFL iBT — scores in an ETS account 3 days after the test date. IELTS on computer is close behind at one to five days. At the other end, TOPIK publishes a result date 47 days after its April 2026 paper sitting, and telc, the paper TestDaF and paper Cambridge exams all run to six weeks.
How long does the whole process take, from booking to result?
For the 5 bodies that publish both halves, 4 days to 116 — a 29-fold difference. TOEFL iBT: register a day ahead, result in 3. TOPIK: registration closes 69 days before the exam and the result lands 47 days after it. If a deadline is driving your choice of exam, that is the number to compare, not the exam fee.
How long do DELE results take?
About two months for most sittings, and about three for the May and November ones. The Instituto Cervantes’s FAQ page appears to contradict itself — its prose says “un plazo aproximado de tres meses” while a comparison table further down says “Aproximadamente dos meses” — but its Calificaciones page states the rule both figures come from: two months from the written papers for every convocatoria except May and November, three for those two. Read 22 September 2026. Both figures stay hedged with “aproximado”, so a candidate with an admissions deadline should still plan on the longer one.
How often can you take a language exam?
It depends far more on who runs it than on the language. 6 of the 16 bodies publish a national calendar — the JLPT twice a year, Norskprøven four times, DELE five, TOPIK six on paper, HSK eleven months out of twelve for levels 1 to 6 but only May and November for 7 to 9. The other 10 leave it to the centre, which is why "when is the next one" has no general answer for IELTS, Cambridge, DELF, telc or the Goethe-Zertifikat.
Method, and how to check it
Each body’s own candidate pages were read on 20 September 2026, 22 September 2026 and 24 September 2026, the most recent of them 24 September 2026; the URLs are beside every quote above. A figure enters this page only if the body stated it as a figure, or if the body printed two dates and the figure is their difference. Where a body hedged — in der Regel, aproximadamente, “typically” — the hedge is kept next to the number rather than dropped. Where a body gave a month rather than a day, as the JLPT does, no number was computed at all.
Comparisons use the slow end of each published range, because a range’s fast end is usually a best case for one mode in one country. IELTS publishes one to five days for its computer test; this page compares it at five. Working days are converted to calendar days at five to the week, rounded up, which is the only unit conversion applied anywhere.
Seven further exams — CILS, CELI, Celpe-Bras, YKI, the NT2 Staatsexamen, TORFL and the Polish state certificate — are absent because they were not read first-hand in this pass. They are named rather than estimated, the same rule the exam comparison and the fee tables follow. Timetables move and this one is dated; we run a marketplace for language teachers, so read it as interested rather than neutral, though nothing in the tables is ours. Corrections to hello@kololingo.com, and we will publish who corrected us.