CIPLE A2 · CAPLE, Universidade de Lisboa · Updated September 2026

CIPLE: the A2 Portuguese exam for nationality

CIPLE, the Certificado Inicial de Português Língua Estrangeira, is the A2 exam in the CAPLE suite, written and marked by the Universidade de Lisboa, and for most candidates it is the language proof that goes into a Portuguese nationality file. It is European Portuguese from end to end, the one fact that catches out people who prepared with Brazilian material. Here is the exam paper by paper, the pass mark, the fee, and the alternative route through a Português Língua de Acolhimento course.

Three papers, weighted 45, 30 and 25 percent55% to pass, one grade for the whole examMay, July and November worldwide

Mocko does not have practice tests for the CIPLE 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 CIPLE here, say so at the bottom of this page and we will prioritise it.

CIPLE at a glance

Every figure below comes from CAPLE, the exam owner, checked on 22 September 2026. Fees and dates are set by CAPLE and by each exam centre, so confirm both with the centre you book. The official CIPLE page is the source to check them against.

	CIPLE
CEFR level	A2Quadro Europeu Comum de Referência
Exam owner	CAPLE, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de LisboaThe only Portuguese body that certifies Portuguese as a foreign language
Variety	European PortugueseWritten, recorded and marked in Lisbon
Papers	ThreeReading with writing 45%, listening 30%, speaking 25%
Total time	About 2 hoursPlus one 15 minute break
Pass mark	55%Reported on a 55% to 100% scale
Grades	Suficiente 55-69%, Bom 70-84%, Muito Bom 85-100%Below 55% is Insuficiente, a fail
Fee	95 eurosCAPLE list price, checked 22 September 2026, never refunded
Validity	No expiry dateCAPLE certificates are issued for life
Sittings	May, July and November worldwidePortugal adds extra CIPLE dates through the year
Where	About 100 authorised centres in 35 countriesCAPLE calls them LAPE, and each one chooses its levels
Minimum age	16Ages 12 to 15 sit CIPLE-e, the school version
Mainly used for	The language proof in a Portuguese nationality fileAlso used for work, study and residence

This is European Portuguese, not Brazilian Portuguese

CAPLE writes the papers and records the audio in Lisbon, and examiners are trained in Portugal. If your Portuguese came from Brazilian teachers, music or television, the listening paper is where you will feel it first: Portuguese from Portugal swallows unstressed vowels, so a word you read easily can be unrecognisable when spoken. The everyday vocabulary differs too, comboio rather than trem, autocarro rather than ônibus, casa de banho rather than banheiro, and so does the grammar you will hear most, estar a falar where Brazilian Portuguese says está falando. Nobody fails you for an accent, but marks go on not understanding the person in front of you.

Who actually needs CIPLE

Almost everyone sits CIPLE for one reason: a naturalisation file needs proof of Portuguese, and A2 is the level the nationality regulation names. CAPLE puts it the same way, that under the legislation in force CIPLE at A2 is the minimum level for acquiring Portuguese nationality. The exam is also used for work, study and residence, but nationality is what fills the rooms.

What changed in 2026, and what is still open

Naturalisation now needs seven years of legal residence for nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries and citizens of EU member states, and ten years for everyone else.
Article 6 was rewritten: applicants must now prove, through a test or a certificate, sufficient knowledge of the Portuguese language and culture, national history and symbols, plus the rights and duties of citizenship and how the state is organised.
The law names no CEFR level. The level lives in the nationality regulation, where it is A2, and CAPLE says CIPLE at A2 is the minimum under the legislation in force.
Article 4 gave the government 90 days to amend that regulation. As of 22 September 2026 we found no published amendment defining the culture, history and symbols test, and the Ministry of Justice still lists parts of the law as awaiting it.
Applications already pending on 19 May 2026 continue to be decided under the previous version of the law.

Check before you book. This is live legislation. Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 is in force, but the regulation that would define a combined language and culture test had not been published when we checked on 22 September 2026, and the Ministry of Justice still lists parts of the law as awaiting regulation. Confirm the current requirement with IRN before you pay for an exam or a course.

Three routes to the same language requirement

CIPLE, the CAPLE exam95 eurosAnyone who wants a certificate on a fixed date, including applicants outside Portugal

Article 25 of the nationality regulation accepts a certificate from an evaluation centre recognised by the Portuguese ministry under protocol, which is what CAPLE issues.
Sat in 35 countries, so it works when you do not live in Portugal, and it costs one exam day rather than an enrolment.
One sitting gives you one result. There is no partial pass and nothing carries over.

A PLA course certificateFree on the public networkApplicants in Portugal who would rather attend classes than sit an exam

Português Língua de Acolhimento courses run at public schools, IEFP centres and Centros Qualifica under Portaria n.º 183/2020, and a certificate at A2 or higher proves the language exactly as the exam does.
Article 25 also accepts an A2 certificate under Portaria n.º 1262/2009, or a national qualifications certificate covering at least 100 hours of Portuguese.
It takes months of attendance instead of one morning, and in practice it needs you to be in Portugal.

The PaN state test65 eurosApplicants who want the cheapest official test, when a sitting is scheduled

The Prova de Língua Portuguesa para Aquisição de Nacionalidade is run by IAVE under Portaria n.º 176/2014, for applicants aged 18 or over.
A written test of reading, writing and listening plus an oral interview, with results inside 30 working days.
IAVE states on its own page that no sitting is expected before the end of the current year, checked 22 September 2026, so treat this route as closed for now.

The regulation accepts other proofs as well, including a school certificate showing you passed Portuguese, or Portuguese as a non-native language, in at least two school years.

Who does not need to sit it

Nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries are presumed to meet the language requirement, which is why most Brazilian, Angolan, Mozambican and Cape Verdean applicants never book a language exam. Article 25 of the nationality regulation also entitles applicants with a certified disability or serious health problem, and applicants aged 60 or over who cannot read or write, to proof suited to their capacity. CAPLE applies that by letting candidates whose disability prevents the written papers, and candidates over 60 who cannot read or write, sit the oral component alone. If you are weighing a language test for immigration somewhere else instead, our guide to Express Entry language tests covers the Canadian side of the same question.

The three papers, one by one

CIPLE is a paper exam of about two hours plus a fifteen minute break, and CAPLE publishes the format, the duration and the weighting of every component. The weightings are worth memorising: 45% of the grade is decided in the first 75 minutes, and listening and speaking together, the two papers candidates fear most, are worth 55%.

Reading comprehension with written production

Compreensão da Leitura e Produção e Interação Escritas

45% of the grade1 hour 15 minutes

Part I: notices of the kind posted in streets and public buildings, plus short texts, tested with multiple choice and simple matching.
The material is deliberately ordinary: timetables, opening hours, the sections of a menu, dosage on a medicine box, small ads, notes and postcards.
Part II: you write two short texts at A2 level, typically a form to fill in, a postcard, or a short note or request to a colleague.
Write in blue or black pen. Pencil answers and rough paper are not marked, and putting your name on the script voids the exam.

What it is really testing. Proof that you can act on everyday written Portuguese and produce a few clear sentences of your own. Nobody is looking for elegance, only the right information in the right box and a message a Portuguese reader understands first time.

Listening comprehension

Compreensão do Oral

30% of the grade30 minutes

Recordings in informal register from public, professional and educational situations, tested with multiple choice.
The syllabus covers greetings, personal and family information, border questions, directions, timetables, renting a room, food, prices, health, post office and bank enquiries, invitations and phone messages.
It is the shortest paper and the second heaviest, so it carries the most marks per minute on the exam.

What it is really testing. Comprehension of spoken European Portuguese at natural speed, with its reduced vowels and swallowed final syllables. This is where candidates trained on Brazilian audio lose marks they did not expect to lose.

Oral production and interaction

Produção e Interação Orais

25% of the grade15 minutes per pair

Wherever possible you sit it with a second candidate, and the session is recorded on video.
Part I: the examiner asks you both about personal identification, family, work, studies and free time.
Part II: simulated everyday situations, such as booking a room, ordering a meal, asking about goods in a shop, making a polite complaint or asking for help.
Part III: a short conversation with the examiner about a current events topic, where you give an opinion and a reason.

What it is really testing. That you complete the transaction. Fifteen minutes shared with another candidate leaves you around seven minutes of speech, so short complete answers with one extra detail beat a memorised speech or a silence.

How CIPLE is marked

One percentage for the whole exam, built from 45% reading and writing, 30% listening and 25% speaking. Reach 55% and you pass. CAPLE reports the result on its website as a word rather than a number: Suficiente for 55 to 69 percent, Bom for 70 to 84, Muito Bom for 85 to 100, and Insuficiente below 55. The certificate and the results statement also show your percentage for each language activity, so you can at least see where the marks went.

A pass gives you a certificate for lifeA1 and A2 passes produce a Certificado, B1 and above a Diploma, and CAPLE states that neither carries an expiry date. A fail brings a Comunicação de Resultados instead.

There is no partial passNothing carries over. A fail means registering and paying for the whole exam again, and missing any paper annuls the exam, with one exception: a missed oral can be rescheduled by the centre if you justify it.

Verification, not appealAsk CAPLE through your centre to verify the result within five working days of publication. The answer comes within 25 working days and cannot be appealed, scripts are never released, and the 2026 tariff prices this at 25 euros.

Budget months, not daysOn the Lisbon centre calendar for 2026, results appear roughly six to eight weeks after the exam and certificates about four weeks later. Centres abroad running only May and November wait longer, so work backwards from the date your file is due.

Registration, dates and exam day

Registration is online only, on the CAPLE site, and you pick an authorised centre as you register. There are around 100, in Portugal and 34 other countries, and each decides which levels it runs and how many seats it opens. Registration stays open until 21 days before the first exam of the season, the fee is paid within 24 hours and never refunded, you may sit only one CAPLE exam per season, and you never have to pass a lower level first.

On the day

Bring the original of the identity document you registered with: national citizen card, passport or residence title.
Arrive 20 minutes before the start. More than 15 minutes late for the reading and writing paper, or late for the listening paper, and you cannot sit it.
No phones, laptops, other personal electronics, dictionaries, personal books or correction fluid in the room.
Write the exam in blue or black pen. Pencil is allowed only on the reading and listening papers, and rough paper is never marked.
Do not write your name anywhere on the paper. Scripts are marked anonymously and identifying yourself voids the exam.
The speaking test is recorded on video, and it may be scheduled at a different time of day from the written papers.

The full rules are published by CAPLE as Normas para a realização dos exames, and they are worth reading once before you travel to the centre.

Dates and seatsCAPLE runs three seasons worldwide: May, July and November. Portugal gets extra CIPLE dates, and the Lisbon centre published nine across 2026 with 175 seats each, two of them sold out by the time we checked. If your file has a deadline, book the earliest sitting you can reach.

If you need adjustmentsTell the centre when you register. Centres arrange physical access, and CAPLE handles hearing and vision needs. With a medical certificate for dyslexia, CAPLE recommends repeating every audio track and allowing a third more time on the other papers. Some arrangements may not be possible at every centre or in every season, so ask early rather than on the day.

How to prepare for CIPLE

A2 is a low bar by exam standards and a real one for an adult who has been living in Portugal in English. CAPLE runs no preparation courses and says plainly that no course is required, so the plan is yours to build. Six things are worth doing, in this order.

Sit the official sample before you study anything else

CAPLE publishes a full CIPLE sample: the reading and writing paper, the listening paper with its audio, and the answer key. Do the listening once at full speed with no pauses. If it sounds much faster than the Portuguese you are used to, your input has been Brazilian, and that is fixable.

Switch your listening diet to European Portuguese

Portuguese from Portugal reduces unstressed vowels until whole syllables disappear, so a word you read easily can be unrecognisable in the audio. Podcasts, radio and television from Portugal, thirty minutes a day, beat any grammar book here. Listening is 30 minutes of the exam and 30% of the grade.

Learn the vocabulary pairs that differ

Comboio not trem, autocarro not ônibus, casa de banho not banheiro, telemóvel not celular, pequeno-almoço not café da manhã, boleia not carona. Grammar shifts too, with estar a falar where Brazilian Portuguese says está falando, and so does register: tu with peers, você or the third person with officials.

Rehearse the transactions on the published syllabus

CAPLE lists what an A2 candidate should manage: book a room, order in a restaurant, ask directions on foot and by bus, buy something, post a parcel, ask at a bank, describe a health problem, ask for help. Practise each aloud until you can start within fifteen seconds.

Handwrite the two short texts, timed, in pen

The writing half is two short texts: a form, a postcard, a note to a colleague. Practise on paper, in pen, against the clock. Address, date, greeting and sign-off cost nothing to learn and are easy marks.

Find a speaking partner, because the oral is paired

Fifteen minutes between two candidates leaves you around seven minutes of speech, and short complete answers with one extra detail score better than silence. For part three, read one short Portuguese news item a day and practise an opinion with a reason in three sentences.

Where Mocko fits, honestly

Mocko does not have CIPLE practice tests. We build full mock exams with AI feedback for French and English tests, and CIPLE is on the list we are working on, not in the product. The exams we do cover are TEF, TCF, CELPIP and the Versant test. Our lesson library and the blog cover exam technique that carries across languages, including how to work a listening paper you only hear once.

CIPLE frequently asked questions

What is the CIPLE exam?

CIPLE stands for Certificado Inicial de Português Língua Estrangeira. It is the A2 exam in the CAPLE suite, produced and marked by the Universidade de Lisboa, and it certifies a basic ability to handle predictable everyday situations in Portuguese.

Is CIPLE in European Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese?

European Portuguese. CAPLE writes the papers, records the audio and marks the scripts in Lisbon. Brazilian Portuguese has its own certification in Brazil, and the nationality regulation points to a centre recognised by the Portuguese ministry, so confirm with IRN before assuming a Brazilian certificate counts.

Is A2 still enough for Portuguese nationality in 2026?

A2 is the level written into the nationality regulation, and CAPLE says CIPLE at A2 is the minimum under the legislation in force. The law changed on 19 May 2026 and now asks for proof of language plus culture, history and national symbols, but the regulation defining that test was still unpublished when we checked. Confirm with IRN before booking.

Do Brazilians need to sit CIPLE?

Usually not. Both the law and the regulation presume knowledge of Portuguese for nationals of Portuguese-speaking countries, unless a manifest lack of it is apparent, which is why most Brazilian applicants file without a language certificate. Every other requirement still applies.

How much does CIPLE cost?

CAPLE lists 95 euros, checked on 22 September 2026, paid online within 24 hours of registering and never refunded. The 2026 tariff for extras: 30 euros for an urgent certificate, 25 for a second copy, 25 to post one and 25 for a re-evaluation.

What is the CIPLE pass mark?

You need 55% overall, built from 45% reading and writing, 30% listening and 25% speaking. The grade is reported as Suficiente for 55 to 69%, Bom for 70 to 84%, Muito Bom for 85 to 100%, and Insuficiente below 55%.

If I fail one paper, can I retake only that paper?

No. CIPLE is graded as a whole and nothing carries over, so a retake means registering and paying for the complete exam again. Missing a paper annuls the exam, except that a missed oral can be rescheduled by the centre if you justify the absence.

How often can I sit CIPLE, and where?

CAPLE runs three seasons worldwide, in May, July and November, at about 100 authorised centres in 35 countries. Portugal adds extra dates: the Lisbon centre published nine across 2026, with 175 seats each, and popular ones sell out.

When do results and certificates arrive?

Results go on the CAPLE site, looked up with your candidate number. On the Lisbon centre calendar for 2026 they land roughly six to eight weeks after the exam, with certificates about four weeks later. Centres abroad usually wait longer.

Can I appeal a CIPLE result?

You can ask CAPLE, through your centre, to verify the published result within five working days. The answer comes within 25 working days and cannot be appealed, scripts are never released, and CAPLE gives no detailed feedback.

Does the certificate expire?

No. CAPLE states that its certificates and diplomas carry no time limit. A pass at A1 or A2 produces a certificate, and B1 and above produce a diploma.

Are there special arrangements for candidates who need them?

Tell the centre when you register. Centres handle physical access, CAPLE helps with hearing and vision needs, and with a medical certificate for dyslexia it recommends repeating each audio track and a third more time elsewhere. Candidates whose certified disability prevents them sitting the written papers, and candidates aged 60 or over who cannot read or write, sit the oral component alone.

Sources for this page: CAPLE at the Universidade de Lisboa for the exam itself, Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026 and the Regulamento da Nacionalidade Portuguesa for the nationality rules, and IAVE for the state language test. All checked on 22 September 2026. Rules, fees and dates change, so confirm anything that a decision depends on with the exam centre or with IRN.

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