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ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP

What you need to know about Italy’s language test for citizenship

Planning to apply for Italian citizenship? A new language test was introduced for some applicants in 2018. Here's what you need to know about taking it - and adding your certification to the pile of required documents.

Published: 27 August 2020 15:53 CEST
Updated: 2 September 2020 09:15 CEST
What you need to know about Italy's language test for citizenship
Photo: Unsplash/CraftedbyGC

Changes to Italian law in December 2018 mean that anyone applying for Italian citizenship through marriage or residence (but not ancestry) must now prove they speak the Italian language to B1 level or higher.

A B1 level certification is ‘intermediate’ level and means you are proficient enough in the language to manage everyday interactions, according to the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL).

If you’re already living and working in Italy it’s likely that you’ll speak the language at this level or higher already and the test will be nothing to worry about. However, for the citizenship application the government wants official proof of your skills.

 
How and where do I get the certificate?

For the citizenship application, your B1 level certificate must come from an educational institution approved by the Italian Education Ministry (“MIUR”) or Foreign Ministry (“MAECI”).

That means you’ll need to be certified by one of the following four institutions::

  • CILS – The University of Siena for foreigners
  • CELI – The University of Perugia for foreigners 
  • PLIDA – The Dante Alighieri Association 
  • CERT – The University of Rome 3
These certificates can be used for other purposes too, including when applying for jobs or studies (though many unversity courses may demand a higher level certificate.)
 

If you need to study for the test, many language schools offer preparation courses for the B1 certification. Online courses are also available. These schools will generally then help arrange for you to sit the exam.

 

Typically, the test takes several hours, depending on the institution and your familiarity with the materials.

The exam may need to be booked months ahead of time, and there are fees involved. For example, the CILS exam currently costs €100, payable to the University of Siena, plus any additional fees required by your own language school.

It is also possible to take a shorter ‘B1 Cittadinanza’ exam – the difference being that this certifcate can only be used for your citizenship application and not for other purposes.

And, though it is shorter, it may not actually be easier to pass; if you fail on one section you will have to retake the entire test (as opposed to just retaking that section under the standard B1 level tests listed above.)

However if you’re fairly confident of passing and don’t need it for anything else, it may be a more convenient option. Anyone planning to take the test soon should note that language schools may adjust testing procedures due to pandemic-related rules and restrictions.

Once I’ve passed the exam, then what?

Passing the exam will feel good, but you’ve still got some admin to do. Plus, the certificate will usually take around three months to arrive. This does at least give you time to gather the other documents which you’ll need as part of your application, which will vary depending on your route to citizenship.

Many who have been through the process recommend taking the language test as your first step because other documents, such as copies of your marriage certificate, will only be valid for six months from the date of issue while your language certificate will not have an expiry date.

All the documents will need to be scanned and uploaded to the Italian Interior Ministry’s web portal, known as ALI.

To do so you’ll need to register an account at: https://cittadinanza.dlci.interno.it and then submit your application form as well as all the required supporting documents, including your B1 certificate.

Speak to your consulate or see the Interior Ministry’s website (in Italian) for the latest information on the process and requirements when applying for citizenship.

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ITALIAN CITIZENSHIP

How ancestry detectives help Americans and Brits find their Italian roots

Whether it's for a citizenship application or just to satisfy curiosity, tracking down long-lost Italian ancestors can be a difficult task. Reporter Silvia Marchetti finds out exactly what one Sicilian family tree researcher's work involves.

Published: 20 March 2024 11:53 CET
Updated: 24 March 2024 07:42 CET
How ancestry detectives help Americans and Brits find their Italian roots

Fabio Cardile from Palermo has a very peculiar job. For 25 years he’s been working as a family tree researcher for American and European clients interested in discovering their Italian origins.

They have an Italian background and an Italian-sounding last name, but have no idea who their ancestors were and, in most cases, don’t even know from where they migrated. 

“I started doing these investigations first by dedicating myself to researching the origin of my own last name, Cardile, where exactly my family came from,” 44-year-old Cardile tells The Local.

“Then this passion turned into a job, and now I have clients from abroad contacting me and hiring me to dig into their family history and unearth information on their ancestral backgrounds.”

He was the one who discovered the origin of the last name of American actor John Travolta, and he also carried out research on the origins of Jill Biden’s Sicilian heritage. 

In all cases, these are stories of Italian immigrants who left their homes decades, if not centuries ago, to find a brighter future in the US or in Europe, including the UK, France and Germany. 

“In the hardest cases all clients are able to give me is their last name and I need to trace back in time the origin of it and the location in Italy where still nowadays there are similar-sounding names.”

READ ALSO: An expert guide to getting Italian citizenship via ancestry

What makes his job particularly tough is that most immigrants, when they landed in their country of destination, changed their surname by adapting it linguistically to the community they had moved to.

“It was very common for immigrants in the past to make their names sound American or English in order to adapt, be accepted by the local community and find a job more easily. They did not want to stand out from the crowd as Italians and be discriminated against in any way,” says Cardile.

Fabio Cardile has worked as a family tree researcher for 25 years. Photo: Fabio Cardile

Cardile’s job is very complex. He starts his investigations by digging into state records, as well local parish and graveyard archives, for ancient documents to support the ancestry claims of his foreign clients, who are pushed by a nostalgic need to reconnect with their forsaken roots.

He starts off with some online tools: four basic websites (gens.info; familysearch.org; ancestry.it; antenati.cultura.gov.it) where he can start looking for the geographic origin of last names by just typing them into a search bar – but as three of these sites are only in Italian, his foreign clients need his help.

On some of these websites, particularly the one run by the Culture Ministry, he finds state archives concerning birth certificates, death certificates, wedding certificates, or divorce certificates with specific dates and names, which allow him to start drawing up a family tree. 

READ ALSO: Five surprising things to know about applying for Italian citizenship via ancestry

“Obviously, the more information people give me on where their ancestors might have hailed from, the easier it is for me to find the location and narrow down the search,” he says. 

Cardile works across Italy, not just focusing on Sicily where most Italian emigrants left in the 1800-1900s. 

State archives go back until the 1860s, when the Italian kingdom was formed, and in some cases, all the way back to the Renaissance, he says. Initial research starts at around €300 then Cardile’s fee rises if he needs to travel around Italy for further investigation.

When he has unearthed specific information on the probable origins of a family, he makes a trip to the local parishes, churches and graveyards which in a pre-unified Italy were the only places where birth and other family-related certificates could be found. This is where he may discover the original names of ancestors, who they were, when they got married, if they had children and who these could be, so he can more precisely define the family tree. 

READ ALSO:  What a law from 1912 means for your claim for Italian citizenship via ancestry

“When you get to digging into centuries-old religious documents, the hard part about dealing with churches and parishes is you need to interface with the priest or the chief of the local parish community, jump through hoops and tons of bureaucracy to get their permission to lay your hands on, and analyse, old documents”. 

“Then, most of these documents are written in Latin, so you either need the priest as translator, or to know Latin yourself”. 

After so many years of ancestry investigations Cardile has learned to read it and continues to hone his Latin language skills.

Find out more about putting together an application for Italian citizenship via ancestry in The Local’s Italian citizenship section.

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