The arrêté of 10 October 2025 on the civic exam: what it actually says

On 10 October 2025, the Minister of the Interior signs an arrêté (a ministerial decree) of a few pages. Thirteen weeks later, on 1 January 2026, hundreds of thousands of applicants for a French residence permit shift into a regime they hadn't seen coming: 40 questions, 45 minutes, 32 correct answers required to pass. Before that signature, most of them earned their carte de séjour pluriannuelle (CSP, multi-year residence permit), their carte de résident (CR, ten-year residence card) or their naturalisation (French naturalization) at the end of an individual interview at the préfecture (the prefecture, the local arm of the state), at a civil servant's discretion. After it, no more discretion: you tick the boxes, or tick them again in six months.

This article takes the arrêté for what it is — a short text that changes a great deal — without reciting it line by line and without inventing passages it doesn't contain. If you're building a case file or a legal brief, always start from the official version on Légifrance; what follows is a reading, not a copy.

Why an arrêté, and not just a law

The arrêté doesn't drop from the sky. It picks up after a broader text, law n° 2024-42 of 26 January 2024 on controlling immigration and improving integration, dubbed the "immigration law" by the press. That law sets a political principle: you don't become French, nor a permanent resident, without demonstrating a minimum knowledge of the history, institutions and values of the Republic. But a law only declares; it doesn't describe how that knowledge is assessed.

Hence the need for an arrêté. It's the arrêté that answers the concrete questions: how many questions, in how much time, at what threshold, in which centres, under whose authority. Without it, the law's sentence would have stayed a dead letter; with it, 1 January 2026 was a real entry-into-force date, not a slogan. That's what allowed préfectures to reorganise their queues, France Education International to mobilise its centres, and candidates to know exactly what to revise.

What the arrêté concretely changes

Four shifts deserve a stop, because they're the ones that transform the life of a case file.

First, the format is unique. Whether you're applying for a CSP, a carte de résident or French nationality, you sit the same test: 40 multiple-choice questions, 45 minutes on the clock, 32 correct answers to pass. Before, assessment was scattered — the assimilation interview for naturalization, the charte des droits et devoirs for residency, not much standardised for the multi-year permit. Today, it's the same paper for everyone.

Next, the language requirement differs by permit, but the civic exam itself is written once, in standard French. A2 opens the CSP, B1 opens the carte de résident, B2 opens naturalization — the latter threshold raised by a notch in the same reform, which is straining files filed early in 2026 by candidates who thought they'd be sitting at B1.

Third shift: a single operator. The arrêté hands the exam to France Education International, the public agency that already issues the DELF and the TCF. You no longer take the exam at the préfecture, you take it at an FEI authorized centre, which then transmits the result to the administration via the ANEF (Administration numérique pour les étrangers en France, the digital portal for foreign nationals in France). The préfecture keeps its role for the rest — case instruction, condition checks — but the score comes from elsewhere.

Finally, the certificate is durable. Once the 32/40 is obtained, the PDF you receive remains valid for several years (the precise duration is set by implementing texts and may evolve; check Légifrance before any filing). Concretely, you can sit the exam for your CSP in 2026 and reuse the same certificate for your carte de résident in 2029 or your naturalization in 2032, without starting over.

Who's in scope, who's out

The arrêté draws a clean line. Inside its perimeter sit the carte de séjour pluriannuelle, the carte de résident valid for ten years, and French naturalization, by decree or by declaration (marriage, brothers and sisters born in France, and other paths of article 21-13 and following of the Code civil).

Outside it remain the procedures not meant to ground long-term settlement: short-stay visas, student permits, working holiday visas. International protection — asylum, subsidiary protection, statelessness — is also exempt, as are permits issued for medical care or to victims of violence, whose logic isn't civic-knowledge assessment but protection. The implicit rule reads cleanly: the arrêté targets those who choose France to build their life here, not those passing through or seeking refuge. For the exhaustive list and edge cases, see our Examens couverts page.

Language, level by level

The arrêté doesn't create the Cadre européen commun (CEFR) levels, it cites and ranks them for the three permits concerned.

Permit applied for	Level required	Diplomas accepted
Carte de séjour pluriannuelle (CSP)	A2	DELF A2, TCF, TEF
Carte de résident (CR)	B1	DELF B1, TCF, TEF
Naturalisation	B2	DELF B2, TCF, TEF, French secondary or higher-education diploma

The civic exam is taken in French. No translated version, no interpreter: what you read on screen is in standard French, and the test assumes you understand what you read. Pedagogical tools like Cocorico can offer subtitles in English or Chinese during prep, so a notion like "souveraineté" (sovereignty) or laïcité (French secularism) doesn't stall you for three minutes — but on test day, the screen stays in French. On the B1 → B2 jump imposed on naturalization candidates, the most strained regulatory step in the reform, we go deeper in B2 level for naturalization 2026.

France Education International, the chosen operator

Handing the exam to FEI rather than to the préfectures is a structural choice. It's a public administrative agency, under the Ministry of Education, that has long managed the DELF, DALF and TCF certifications — that is, French as a foreign language assessment for hundreds of thousands of candidates a year. The network of authorized centres already existed, the technical infrastructure too. The arrêté simply plugged a new test onto rails already laid.

For you, the candidate, that means you don't sit the exam in a préfecture officer's office. You sit it in an FEI centre — often an Alliance française, a French Institute abroad, or an authorized partner — on a computer or tablet. The result then flows up to the administration digitally. The préfecture learns your score only after FEI does. For details on the network, registration fees and the convocation procedure, see France Education International civic exam.

Before 2026, after 2026: the rule that saves files in flight

That's the question that comes back on loop in our exchanges with candidates: which regime does my file fall under? The arrêté sets a simple, mercifully protective rule. What counts is the filing date, not the decision date. If your file was filed before 1 January 2026, you stay in the old regime, even if the préfecture takes eighteen months to process it: no civic exam required mid-procedure, the assimilation interview remains the key step for naturalization, and the previous arrangements hold for the CSP and the CR.

Conversely, any file filed from 1 January 2026 falls into the new regime. The civic exam — 40 Q / 45 min / 80 % — becomes an admissibility condition just like regular residence, resources, criminal record and certified French level. The rule protects candidates engaged in long procedures — no changing the conditions mid-stream — but it's final for files lodged afterwards. If you doubt your filing date, the dated récépissé the préfecture gave you (or its ANEF equivalent) is the proof of record.

A two-year timeline, and a three-month airlock

The shift from framing law to concrete procedure happened in two political steps (the law of January 2024, the arrêté of October 2025) and three operational steps (publication in the Journal officiel in autumn 2025, release of the 245 official questions on 12 December 2025, entry into force on 1 January 2026). That three-month airlock between publication and application isn't a detail: it's what gave FEI time to finalise its centres, ANEF time to integrate the new flows into its back-office, and candidates time to start revising the official syllabus rather than forum rumours. For anyone watching public administration up close, the arrêté of 10 October 2025 is also a textbook case of fast-track reform.

If you fail: what actually happens

The arrêté doesn't create a sanctions regime; it sets an admissibility condition. The nuance changes everything in practice. If you fail, your file isn't refused: it's suspended until the condition is met. You keep your current residence permit, you remain in France in regular standing, and you can retake the exam — the text sets no strict cap on attempts, but each session has an FEI registration cost and a logistical delay. The recommended practice is to wait a few weeks, seriously revise the weak themes revealed by your score, and come back.

On appeals, the arrêté leaves common-law channels open — administrative appeal to FEI for a clerical error, contentious appeal before the administrative court in last resort — but multiple-choice tests being objective by nature, the room for contestation is narrow. A documented technical incident on test day is the strongest angle of attack; contesting how a question is weighted, much less so. For the vast majority of candidates, energy is better spent preparing the next session than on litigation.

FAQ

Where can I read the full text of the arrêté?

On Légifrance (legifrance.gouv.fr), by searching "arrêté 10 octobre 2025 examen civique" or via the NOR number released by the Ministry of the Interior. The site service-public.fr (service-public.fr) also offers a plain-language summary that links back to the source text; start there if you're new to the topic, then go up to Légifrance for the verbatim.

Does the arrêté require free mock exams?

No. The arrêté says nothing about preparation, which falls outside its perimeter. It only sets the official test's modalities. Mock exams are part of the private market — training platforms like Cocorico, NGOs supporting migrants, paper textbooks. The ministry, however, makes the 245 knowledge questions available for free on interieur.gouv.fr, which is already an official base for revision.

What accommodations are there for disability or illiteracy?

The arrêté refers to the general provisions on exam accommodations: extra time, adapted format, human assistance. The request is made at registration with FEI, with medical evidence or an MDPH certificate. For candidates who can't read or write, an oral arrangement is provided case by case. Don't let the supposed complexity of the system discourage you: those accommodations exist precisely so eligible profiles aren't excluded.

Can the text be modified quickly?

Yes, in theory. An arrêté can be amended by another arrêté from the same minister. In practice, expect several years of stability before the first feedback — pass rates by préfecture, real difficulty level, complaints — prompts an adjustment. Any change would likely be at the margins (question rotation, additional accommodations) rather than to the 40/45/80 baseline format.

My file is in flight: which regime applies to me?

The date of record is the filing date. Before 1 January 2026: old regime (assimilation interview for naturalization, prior arrangements for CSP and CR). From 1 January 2026: new regime, civic exam mandatory. If you're uncertain, check your filing récépissé or your ANEF account — the date is recorded there and stands in case of dispute.

In short

The arrêté of 10 October 2025 isn't a trap, it's a framework. A unique format, a single operator, clear language levels, a firm entry-into-force date. Once you've read it for what it is — a few pages of procedure rather than a philosophical text — there's nothing left to do but get to work. The 245 official questions are public, the language levels are known, the format is locked for several years. Paradoxically, that's good news for anyone organising early: no surprises, no trick questions out of nowhere.

To start guided prep, create an account on Cocorico and first walk through the complete 2026 civic exam guide. If you're targeting the CSP or CR rather than nationality, see also civic exam CSP and civic exam CR.