French Civic Exam: Who Needs It, How to Pass
Facts last checked on 7 November 2026 against the arrêté of 10 October 2025, décret n° 2025-648 of 15 July 2025, service-public.gouv.fr and the pages of the Ministry of the Interior (formation-civique.interieur.gouv.fr and immigration.interieur.gouv.fr). Rules change: confirm with your préfecture before you apply.
Since 1 January 2026, three residence paths in France pass through the same room: the examen civique, a 40-question multiple-choice test in French about the Republic, its institutions, your rights and duties, the country's history and everyday life. You need it for a first multi-year residence card, for a first resident card and for naturalisation, and in each case it comes on top of a French language level: A2, B1 or B2. This post puts on one page who must take it and who is exempt, the exact format and pass mark, the five themes and how many questions each one carries, where to book and what it costs, what the state gives you free to prepare, and how to get to 32 right answers without wasting weeks.
Who needs the civic exam since 2026
The exam exists in three versions, called mentions in the arrêté of 10 October 2025 (article 1): "carte de séjour pluriannuelle", "carte de résident" and "naturalisation". Which one you sit depends on what you are applying for, and each application also has its own language level.
| Application | Civic exam | French level |
|---|---|---|
| First multi-year residence card (carte de séjour pluriannuelle, CSP) | mention CSP | A2 |
| First resident card (carte de résident, 10 years) | mention CR | B1 |
| Naturalisation or réintégration | mention naturalisation | B2 |
A few points that the official pages make and that forum posts often get wrong:
- Renewals are not concerned. The attestation is asked for a first multi-year card or a first resident card, not when you renew one you already hold.
- A CR attestation covers the CSP. The ministry says that a pass with the mention "carte de résident" counts as a pass for the multi-year card when you file in the ANEF system, so if you expect to apply for the resident card later, sitting the harder version once can save you a second booking.
- Naturalisation by declaration is not concerned. The ministry's leaflet of December 2025 states that you do not need the civic exam if you ask for French nationality by declaration, for example as the spouse of a French citizen. The language level for that route still rose to B2, though.
- The exam comes before the application. For naturalisation, the attestation is one of the documents in the file; the ministry's advice is to sit the exam before you lodge the request.
The language levels were set by the immigration law of 26 January 2024 and apply to applications made from 1 January 2026. The tests that prove them (TCF IRN, TEF IRN, DELF) are a separate subject, covered in French nationality now needs B2.
Who is exempt
The exemptions are listed on service-public.gouv.fr and the formation-civique site. For the two residence cards:
- People over 65 do not have to prove the language level or pass the civic exam for a first CSP or a first CR.
- Subsidiary protection and stateless persons, with their family members, are on service-public's list of people who do not need the exam for a first multi-year card.
- Nationals of countries covered by certain bilateral agreements, and holders of cards that do not go through the contrat d'intégration républicaine (CIR), are also outside the obligation.
Refugees. The ministry's exam page says beneficiaries of international protection are not concerned, and the ten-year card that comes with refugee status is not on the list of cards that need the exam. Service-public, however, lists the long-term EU resident card (carte de résident de longue durée-UE) asked for on the basis of a refugee card or a subsidiary protection card among the cards that do need the exam and French B1. If you hold international protection, check with your préfecture which card your application is processed under before you plan around an exemption.
Health and disability, for every mention. If a disability or a chronic health condition makes the evaluation impossible, you can be dispensed on a medical certificate (the ministry publishes a model), and if it only makes the exam harder, you can ask for adjustments. Candidates who read only braille are dispensed. For the two residence cards, service-public says this for the civic exam and for the language test, under CESEDA articles R. 413-15 and R. 433-5 and an arrêté of 30 December 2025; for naturalisation, the same rules come from décret n° 2025-648 and a separate arrêté of the same date.
For naturalisation the list stops there. We found no age exemption on the official naturalisation pages, and the protection exemption is written for the residence cards, not for nationality. If you are a refugee applying for nationality, ask your préfecture or the naturalisation platform what applies to your file before you plan around a dispensation.
The format: 40 questions, 32 to pass, 45 minutes
The arrêté of 10 October 2025 fixes the format, and it is the same for the three mentions (what changes is the language level of the wording and the list the knowledge questions come from).
| Examen civique | |
|---|---|
| Questions | 40, multiple choice, in French, 4 options and 1 correct answer |
| Of which knowledge questions | 28 |
| Of which situation questions (mises en situation) | 12 |
| Pass mark | 32 of 40 (80%) |
| Time | 45 minutes at most, on a computer or tablet |
| Where | An approved centre of the CCI Paris Île-de-France or of France Éducation international |
| Result | An attestation de réussite, with no expiry date |
| Retakes | Any time, as often as needed; a fraud voids the exam and bars you for two years |
The pass mark is the thing to respect. 80% leaves room for only eight mistakes, and the twelve situation questions are the ones you cannot rehearse from a list. In practice that means you want the 28 knowledge questions close to perfect, so that the situations can absorb the errors.
The five themes and how many questions each
Article 3 of the arrêté spreads the 40 questions over the five themes of the civic training, and it says where the situation questions sit:
- Principles and values of the Republic: 11 questions, 6 of them situations. Liberty, equality, fraternity, laïcité, the symbols, equality between women and men.
- Institutions and politics: 6 questions. The President, the Government, Parliament, elections, the mayor, the European Union.
- Rights and duties: 11 questions, 6 of them situations. Freedoms and their limits, taxes, school, justice, what you may and may not do.
- History, geography and culture: 8 questions. Dates and figures, regions and overseas France, heritage.
- Living in French society: 4 questions. Health, work, housing, administration, daily life.
The knowledge questions are public. The ministry publishes the full list of question stems for each mention: the CSP and CR lists on formation-civique.interieur.gouv.fr, the naturalisation list as a PDF dated 12 December 2025 on immigration.interieur.gouv.fr. When we counted them in November 2026 there were around 190 stems on the CSP list, around 210 on the CR list and around 250 on the naturalisation list, with a large overlap between the three. The lists give the questions only: no answer options, no key, no explanation. The 12 situation questions are not published at all, by design, and the ministry says so on each list page.
Where to book, what it costs, what to bring
Two bodies are approved by the Ministry of the Interior to run the exam, and both have centres across mainland France and the overseas territories:
- CCI Paris Île-de-France (Le français des affaires), with registration on lefrancaisdesaffaires.fr and a centre finder.
- France Éducation international (FEI), with a pre-registration form on test-civique.fr and a map of approved centres; service-public.gouv.fr links both.
When you register you choose the mention (CSP, CR or naturalisation) and you give your AGDREF number, the foreigner's number on your residence permit or OFII sticker; EU citizens applying for nationality do not have one and are not asked for it. The fee is set by each centre and varies from one centre to another, so compare two or three near you; neither the ministry nor service-public publishes a single price, and we will not invent one here. The exam is sat on a computer or tablet at the centre. The CCIP says it delivers results within 24 to 48 working hours; the attestation has no expiry date, and you can retake the exam as often as you need.
If you have a disability or a chronic condition, you can ask for adjustments (more time, adapted materials) with a medical certificate, and in cases where the evaluation is impossible, for a dispensation.
Free material from the state, and what it lacks
The ministry is explicit: preparation for the civic exam can be entirely free, and sites that charge for access to "the questions" are not run by the ministry. The free material is good and you should start with it:
- formation-civique.interieur.gouv.fr: the programme, revision sheets by theme and by training day, and the CSP and CR question lists.
- The naturalisation question list (PDF) and the information leaflet on immigration.interieur.gouv.fr.
- The Livret du citoyen and the charte des droits et devoirs du citoyen français, the two texts the questions are written from.
- A 50-question quiz by the association France Fraternité, linked from the ministry's page (the ministry warns that its format differs from the real exam).
What the free material does not give you is an answer key, an explanation of why the other three options are wrong, any situation questions, or a way to practise under the 40-question, 45-minute, 32-to-pass rule. That is the gap a trainer fills.
The order to do things in
Here is the sequence that wastes the least time, whichever card you are after:
- Find your mention and your language level. First CSP: mention CSP and A2. First CR: mention CR and B1 (and it covers the CSP). Naturalisation: mention naturalisation and B2. If you are on the CSP route, the exam follows the four days of civic training you attend under the CIR, so the training itself is your first preparation.
- Read the free material once. The Livret du citoyen and the revision sheets give you the facts behind every question on your list.
- Learn your list and practise situations. The knowledge questions are facts, not skills: which year, which institution, which right. With spaced repetition, 15 minutes a day, most people hold a list of around 200 facts in two to four weeks. Then spend the last days on situation practice, where the question is a scene from daily life and the answer is the lawful or respectful choice.
- Book when your mock exams pass with a margin. 32 of 40 is the rule; aim for mock scores well above it, because the real situation questions are new to you.
- File your application with the attestation, which never expires, and keep a copy.
How to prepare, and where our trainer comes in
Our French Civic Exam Trainer is built for step 3 and step 4. It takes the knowledge questions from the three ministry lists, in the ministry's wording, and adds what the lists leave out: four answer options and the key for every stem, a short explanation of each answer in French or English, our own situation questions written in the style the arrêté describes, and mock exams under real exam conditions (40 questions, 32 to pass, 45 minutes, the theme blocks of article 3). You choose the list for your application (CSP, CR or naturalisation), spaced repetition brings back the questions you miss, and a ready meter tells you when to book. You can try ten questions free on the page without an account. The trainer is included at no extra cost in the French B2 Exam Kit. The answers, explanations and situation questions are ours and are not official; Words on Repeat is not affiliated with the Ministry of the Interior, France Éducation international or the CCI Paris Île-de-France, and the free ministry material is linked on the trainer page.
If you are going for naturalisation, the language part is the bigger job. B2 is argument, register and public-life vocabulary, and the gap from B1 is roughly 1,500 to 2,000 words plus the phrases for the written and spoken tasks. Our French B2 Exam Kit covers the DELF B2, the TCF IRN and the TEF IRN with the B2 words by exam topic, the phrases for each task, audio in natural-sounding text-to-speech voices and a plan that finishes before your exam date, with the civic exam trainer included. The first 20 cards are free, and the free B2 word check shows how far you are from the exam list. The DELF itself (papers, marks, sessions) is covered in DELF B2 2027: format, marks, dates, words.
Do the two in the same stretch of months. The organisers say the questions for the naturalisation mention are written at the B2 level, so learning them is reading practice for the language test, and the vocabulary of institutions, rights and public services is exactly what the B2 exams write their tasks about.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the civic exam only in French?
Yes. The arrêté says the questionnaire is written in French, and the approved organisers state that the wording is adapted to the level required for each title: A2 for the multi-year card, B1 for the resident card, B2 for naturalisation. Translations help while you learn, but on the day you must recognise the French sentence, which is a reason to practise with the ministry's exact wording.
I passed the mention "carte de résident". Do I need the CSP version too?
No. The ministry states that an attestation with the mention CR counts as an attestation with the mention CSP when you file in the ANEF. The reverse is not true: a CSP pass does not cover a later resident card application.
Does the attestation expire, and can I retake the exam?
The attestation has no validity period. You can sit the exam at any time and as many times as you need; only fraud carries a penalty, the exam is voided and you cannot sit it again for two years.
Do refugees need the civic exam?
Not for the ten-year card that comes with refugee status: it is not on the list, and the ministry says beneficiaries of international protection are not concerned. But service-public lists the long-term EU resident card asked for on the basis of a refugee card or a subsidiary protection card among the cards that need the exam and French B1, so check with the préfecture which card your application is processed under. For naturalisation, the exemptions on the official pages are medical ones, so a refugee applying for nationality should ask rather than assume a dispensation.
Do I need the civic exam for French nationality by marriage?
No. The ministry's leaflet says the exam is not required when nationality is requested by declaration, which is the route for spouses of French citizens. The language requirement for that route did rise to B2 on 1 January 2026, and the décret applies it to declarations made from that date.
Official sources
- Arrêté of 10 October 2025 on the programme, the test and the organisation of the civic exam: legifrance.gouv.fr
- Décret n° 2025-648 of 15 July 2025 (civic exam and B2 for nationality): legifrance.gouv.fr
- Arrêté of 30 December 2025 on dispensations for nationality candidates: legifrance.gouv.fr
- Arrêté of 30 December 2025 on adjustments and dispensations for the residence cards (CESEDA R. 413-15 and R. 433-5): legifrance.gouv.fr
- Service Public, the civic exam for residence cards: service-public.gouv.fr
- Service Public, the French level for a residence card: service-public.gouv.fr
- Ministry of the Interior, the civic exam (residence cards, question lists, revision sheets): formation-civique.interieur.gouv.fr
- Ministry of the Interior, the civic exam for naturalisation: immigration.interieur.gouv.fr
- The naturalisation question list (PDF, 12 December 2025): immigration.interieur.gouv.fr
- The Livret du citoyen: immigration.interieur.gouv.fr
Words on Repeat is not affiliated with the Ministry of the Interior, France Éducation international or the CCI Paris Île-de-France. The French Civic Exam Trainer uses the knowledge questions published by the ministry (Licence Ouverte 2.0); the answer options, explanations and situation questions are our own and are not official.