Italian citizenship · Updated September 2026

CILS B1 Cittadinanza: the Italian citizenship exam

If your citizenship application needs proof of Italian at B1, this is the shortest way to get it: four papers, about two and a quarter hours, 100 euro, six sittings a year. It is also the one exam of the accepted set where failing a single paper costs you the whole thing. Here is exactly what is in it, how it is marked, and how it compares with CELI, PLIDA and cert.it.

Checked against the Centro CILS, September 2026Four papers, about 2h15 in totalSix sessions in 2026

Mocko does not have practice tests for the CILS B1 Cittadinanza yet. This is our guide to the exam while we build them. What is live on Mocko today is French and English exam prep: TEF, TCF, CELPIP and Versant. If you want to practise for the CILS B1 Cittadinanza here, say so at the bottom of this page and we will prioritise it.

CILS B1 Cittadinanza at a glance

CILS, the Certificazione di Italiano come Lingua Straniera, is run by the Universita per Stranieri di Siena. The Cittadinanza module is a separate, shortened exam built after Italy made B1 Italian a condition of citizenship. Every figure below comes from the official CILS B1 Cittadinanza page and the syllabus and marking documents it links to, checked in September 2026.

Level	B1 on the CEFR (QCER)
Exam owner	Centro CILS, Universita per Stranieri di Siena
What it certifies	Italian at B1, for the Italian citizenship application onlyNot a general-purpose B1 certificate
Papers	Four: listening, reading and grammar, writing, speaking
Total duration	About 2 hours 15 minutes, including a speaking test of about 10 minutesThe written papers run 110 minutes in total
Marks	12 points per paper, 48 in total
Pass rule	Every paper must pass on its own. Marks do not average across papers.
Failing one paper	No capitalizzazione: you resit the whole exam and pay the whole fee again
Sessions in 2026	Six: 19 February, 14 April, 16 June, 22 July, 21 October, 3 December
Fee	100 euro, in Italy and abroadCentres abroad convert it locally and may add their own charges
Results	About 45 days, the fastest of any CILS level
Where you sit it	CILS centres in Italy, Italian cultural institutes and accredited centres abroad

This certificate is only good for the citizenship file. The Centro CILS states that this module is valid solely for requesting Italian citizenship. If you will also need B1 for a job, a university place or a professional registration, sit CILS B1 standard: longer and harder to schedule, but valid everywhere.

Who needs a B1 certificate, and who does not

The requirement comes from article 14 of decree-law 113 of 4 October 2018, converted into law 132 of 1 December 2018, which inserted article 9.1 into the citizenship law, law 91 of 1992. It applies to every application filed online from 4 December 2018 onwards, as the prefecture guidance on the language certificate sets out.

You must prove B1 if

You are applying for citizenship by residence, under article 9 of law 91/1992.
You are applying through marriage or a civil union, under article 5.
You hold no qualification from an Italian state or state-recognised school.

You are exempt, or already covered, if

You signed the accordo di integrazione under article 4-bis of legislative decree 286/1998.
You hold the permesso di soggiorno UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo.
You have a qualification from an Italian public or state-recognised school, which is accepted in place of a certificate.

Both exemptions exist because the law already checked your Italian once, so you quote the agreement or the permit instead of attaching a certificate. Recognition by descent is a different route, and the 2025 reform of it did not add a language requirement. Confirm your own route with the prefecture or consulate handling your file.

The four certificates Italy accepts, side by side

The Interior Ministry recognises certificates from four bodies: Siena, Perugia, the Societa Dante Alighieri and Roma Tre, together with their accredited networks. In Italy a CPIA, the state adult education centres, can also issue one. If a consulate appointment is waiting and you need to choose fast, this is the table that matters.

Exam	What it is good for	Keep the parts you passed?	Worth knowing
CILS B1 CittadinanzaUniversita per Stranieri di Siena	Citizenship application only	No. One failed paper means the whole exam again	The shortest sitting, the most sessions a year, the fastest result at about 45 days. Fee 100 euro.
CILS B1 standard (UNO-B1)Universita per Stranieri di Siena	Citizenship, and work or study too	Yes. Passed skills stay valid 18 months and you resit only what you failed	Five skills, close to four hours, fewer sessions. Worth it if you will ever need the certificate for anything but the application.
CELI 2 / CELI 2 iUniversita per Stranieri di Perugia (CVCL)	Citizenship, and general purposes	Confirm with the centre	CELI 2 is the B1 exam; CELI 2 i is the version written for adult migrants. Fees are set per centre and vary widely.
PLIDA B1Societa Dante Alighieri	Citizenship, and general purposes	Confirm with the centre	The widest network outside Italy, through Dante Alighieri committees. Four papers, fees set locally.
cert.it B1Universita degli Studi Roma Tre	Citizenship, and general purposes	Confirm with the centre	Computer based. Listening, reading and writing run 90 minutes together, speaking about 10, and the published rule is 60 percent of the marks.

Fees for CELI, PLIDA and cert.it are set by each accredited centre, so a price on a school website is that school’s price and nothing more. Confirm the fee, the dates and the partial-pass rule with your centre in writing before you pay.

The format, paper by paper

Four papers, 12 points each, 48 in total. The written papers run back to back in the morning, in the order below, and the speaking tests normally start the same afternoon. Standard CILS B1, by contrast, has five skills and close to four hours. Task counts and timings here come from the official syllabus and sample Quaderno.

Listening

Ascolto

30 minutes12 points

Task 1: six short recordings, six three-option multiple choice questions, one point each.
Task 2: two longer recordings and twelve true or false statements, half a point each.
400 to 700 words of studio-recorded speech in total, two native speakers, normal speed, played twice. The recording contains the pauses for answering.

What the marking rewards. Gist and key detail in everyday exchanges: a call to the Carabinieri, directions in the street, a radio programme. Nothing tests note-taking, so use the first play for the shape of the text and the second for the answers you are unsure of.

Reading and grammar

Comprensione della lettura e riflessione grammaticale

40 minutes12 points

Task 1: one text of roughly 350 to 500 words with twelve true or false statements, half a point each.
Task 2: a cloze with six gaps and three options each, one point per gap. The only part of the exam that tests grammar directly.
Texts come from real administrative sources: regional notices, news articles, instructions, regulations, websites.

What the marking rewards. That you can find information in a bureaucratic text and pick the right article, preposition, pronoun or tense. The syllabus caps the grammar at six tenses and moods, relative pronouns, articulated prepositions and the common subordinate clauses. Nothing outside that list appears.

Writing

Produzione scritta

40 minutes12 points

One task only: an email of 80 to 120 words.
The prompt is a practical errand: asking for information, or sorting out a problem with a good or a service.
Forty minutes for one short email is generous, which is why the marking is unforgiving about accuracy.

What the marking rewards. Twelve points across five criteria: effectiveness up to 3, register up to 1, grammar up to 4, vocabulary up to 3, spelling and punctuation up to 1. Grammar and vocabulary alone are worth more than half the paper, so a short correct email beats an ambitious one full of errors.

Speaking

Produzione orale

About 10 minutes12 points

A presentation of yourself lasting about a minute, built from a list of questions you are given.
A dialogue with the examiner of two to three minutes on an everyday topic.
The whole thing is audio recorded and marked centrally in Siena, not by the person sitting opposite you.

What the marking rewards. Twelve points across four criteria: effectiveness up to 4, grammar up to 4, vocabulary up to 3, pronunciation and intonation up to 1. The syllabus expects you to give an opinion, agree or disagree, and cope when the examiner introduces something you did not plan for.

How it is marked, and what a fail actually costs

This is the part most pages get wrong, and it is worth 100 euro to get right. CILS marks everything centrally in Siena, including the recorded speaking test, so the examiner in the room has no influence over your mark.

Four separate verdicts, not one total

Each paper is marked out of 12 and each must reach the sufficiency threshold on its own, with no averaging and no compensation. Twelve out of 12 in speaking does nothing for a failed writing paper.

CILS does not publish the cut score for this module

The marking scheme is public; the pass mark for this module is not, and the figures repeated on prep sites are not on an official CILS page. Aim comfortably above half marks in every paper, and ask your centre in writing for the current threshold.

No capitalizzazione, and this is the trap

On standard CILS levels a candidate who fails one skill keeps the rest for 18 months and resits only that skill. This module is explicitly excluded: fail any one paper and you take the whole exam again at the next session, at the full 100 euro.

Results in 45 days, and no re-mark

The fastest level CILS marks. Check against your matricola number on the university results page and download a provisional Riepilogo. The Centro CILS states its decision is final, though you can request access to your papers within 30 days of publication.

Read this before you choose the module. On standard CILS B1 a candidate who fails one skill keeps the rest for 18 months and pays only for the retake. Here there is no such thing. If your Italian is borderline in one skill, the standard exam is the cheaper gamble despite being the longer one.

Sessions, registration and what to bring

You never register with the university. You register with a centre that holds an agreement with the Universita per Stranieri di Siena: a school, a CPIA or a university language centre in Italy, and an Italian cultural institute or accredited school abroad. Each sets its own paperwork and payment method, so contact yours as soon as you have a date.

2026 session	Registration closes
19 February 2026	19 January 2026
14 April 2026	14 March 2026
16 June 2026	7 May 2026
22 July 2026	22 June 2026
21 October 2026	21 September 2026
3 December 2026	24 October 2026

Dates are from the Centro CILS calendar for 2026, where this module is written as “B1 C”; a 2027 calendar is already published. Centres often close registration earlier than the national deadline because they have to order materials, so treat these as the latest possible dates, not the local ones.

What to bring

Photo identity: an ID card, a residence permit or a passport. Centres in Italy also want your codice fiscale and an email address. You are identified individually and sign an attendance sheet. Bring a black pen, the only colour that gets marked.

If you miss your session

With documented grounds such as illness or work, sent to the centre within 15 days of the exam date, your fee can be carried to a later session, up to 18 months from your first registration, with a 10 euro supplement. Without documentation the fee is lost.

Disability and access arrangements

Extra time or adapted materials are arranged by the centre, not by you. It sends your medical documentation to the Centro CILS during the registration window, and the Centro CILS decides what to provide. Requests sent by candidates, or sent late, are not considered.

How to prepare for CILS B1 Cittadinanza

B1 is a modest level and most applicants living in Italy are close to it already. The failures come from format, not from Italian. Two months of focused work is enough from a solid A2, and the highest-value thing you can do is sit the official sample exam under timed conditions before you pay for anything else.

Start with the free official materials

CILS publishes a full sample paper for this module: the Quaderno, the audio, the transcripts, the answer key, the prompts and the marking criteria. Sit it against a clock and mark it. That afternoon tells you which of the four papers is your problem, which is the only thing worth planning around.

Read the syllabus, then stop studying grammar

The syllabus names every structure the exam can test, and nothing outside it appears. Drill exactly that list in the cloze format and leave the subjunctive alone.

Write one 100-word email a day

More than half the marks are for accuracy and vocabulary, so this paper rewards editing. Write it, then spend ten minutes hunting your own agreement errors, wrong prepositions and missing accents. Keep a list: you will repeat them on exam day.

Rehearse the one-minute presentation out loud

The speaking test opens with about a minute about yourself from a question list, the only part you can fully script. Record yourself: the examiners in Siena will hear a recording, so you should too.

Practise on the answer sheet

Answers only count on the foglio delle risposte, and for listening the transfer time sits inside the recording. Candidates lose real marks running out of time copying. Print the official sheet and use it every time.

Get used to administrative Italian

The reading texts come from regional notices, public service announcements and regulations, not literature. Ten minutes a day on an Italian comune news page is the exact register the exam uses, and the rest of the citizenship process too.

Where Mocko fits, honestly

We do not have CILS practice tests. Italian is not in the product yet, and we are not going to pretend otherwise while you are deciding how to spend the next two months. What is live on Mocko today is French and English exam prep, so if a second exam is in your plans, the useful pages here are TEF prep, CELPIP prep and the Versant test guide. If you are weighing an Italian passport against a Canadian immigration route, the Express Entry language test guide compares the tests IRCC accepts, and the Mocko blog covers the rest.

CILS B1 Cittadinanza: frequently asked questions

Is CILS B1 Cittadinanza the same exam as CILS B1?

No, they are two different exams from the same university. The Cittadinanza module has four papers and about two and a quarter hours, against five skills and roughly four hours for standard CILS B1. Its certificate is valid only for the citizenship application, and unlike standard B1 it does not let you keep the papers you passed.

What happens if I fail one part of CILS B1 Cittadinanza?

You sit the entire exam again at a later session and pay the full fee again. Capitalizzazione, the CILS rule that banks passed skills for 18 months, does not apply to this module. CILS says so on the exam page itself.

How much does CILS B1 Cittadinanza cost?

The fee set by the Centro CILS is 100 euro, in Italy and abroad, checked in September 2026. Centres abroad convert that locally and some add a charge of their own, so confirm the total before you register.

When can I sit CILS B1 Cittadinanza in 2026?

Six sessions: 19 February, 14 April, 16 June, 22 July, 21 October and 3 December. Registration closes about a month before, though the June deadline falls earlier, on 7 May. This module runs more sessions a year than any other CILS level.

Which certificates does Italy accept for the B1 citizenship requirement?

Certificates from the four recognised bodies: CILS from Siena, CELI from Perugia, PLIDA from the Societa Dante Alighieri and cert.it from Roma Tre, plus their accredited networks. A CPIA can also issue one, and a qualification from an Italian state or state-recognised school counts instead.

Who is exempt from the B1 requirement?

Applicants who signed the accordo di integrazione under article 4-bis of legislative decree 286/1998, and holders of the permesso di soggiorno UE per soggiornanti di lungo periodo. Both already involved a language check, so you quote the agreement or the permit instead of a certificate.

Do I need B1 for Italian citizenship by descent?

The requirement sits in article 9.1 of law 91/1992 and applies to citizenship granted under article 5, by marriage or civil union, and article 9, by residence. Recognition by descent works differently, and the 2025 reform of descent-based citizenship did not add a language requirement. Check your route with your consulate: the descent rules changed significantly in 2025.

Does the B1 certificate expire?

CILS states that the Riepilogo of your exam results has no expiry date, and Italian language certificates are not issued with a validity period. Other documents in a citizenship file do expire, a criminal record certificate being the usual example, so the timing risk is rarely the language one.

How hard is CILS B1 Cittadinanza?

The content is ordinary B1: everyday conversations, an administrative text, a short email, a chat with an examiner. What makes people fail is the structure. One writing task and one speaking task means a single bad performance is the whole paper, with nothing to bank if you fail.

Can I take CILS B1 Cittadinanza outside Italy?

Yes. Exams run at centres holding an agreement with the Universita per Stranieri di Siena, which abroad means Italian cultural institutes and accredited schools and associations. The papers, the fee and the marking are identical, and you register with the centre directly, never with the university.

Exam rules, fees and calendars change. Everything here was checked against the Centro CILS and Italian government sources in September 2026, but the centre you register with is the authority on your own sitting.

Other exams we are building

Guides to the other language certificates joining Mocko, with the format, the levels and what each one is accepted for.

DELE A2 · SpanishThe Instituto Cervantes A2 diploma, and the exam route to Spanish nationality.fide test · FrenchSwitzerland’s oral and written language test for residence and naturalisation.SLE · FrenchThe Government of Canada’s Second Language Evaluation, graded A, B, C and E.CIPLE · PortugueseCAPLE’s A2 certificate, the language proof for Portuguese nationality.

Want to practise for the CILS B1 Cittadinanza on Mocko?

Practice tests for the CILS B1 Cittadinanza are not live yet. Email us and we will tell you the day they open, and we will use what you tell us about your exam date to decide what to build first.