Civic exam for the multi-year residence permit (CSP): the 2026 guide

Four years without going back to the préfecture — that's what the carte de séjour pluriannuelle (CSP, multi-year residence permit) promises. Since January 2026, those four years are earned by getting 32 correct answers out of 40, in 45 minutes, on a tablet sitting in a centre in Sèvres, Lyon or Aix-en-Provence. The test is short, the syllabus is public, the language level required is the lowest of the three permits concerned (A2). But it's new, it's mandatory, and it's conditional: without the 32/40, your CSP file waits.

This guide takes the system as it now applies — who sits the exam, who's exempt, what the centre looks like on test day, how many weeks of prep to aim for, and how to revise without burning out on a syllabus written for someone else.

What the CSP changes in your life

The carte de séjour pluriannuelle is a permit valid for two to four years depending on the grounds. It takes over from a one-year first card or a long-stay visa worth a residence permit, and precedes the carte de résident (CR), which lasts ten years renewable. Concretely, it's the permit that pulls you out of the annual préfecture queue without yet settling you permanently in France.

The grounds that grant access cover most settlement situations: students whose course aligns with the duration of their studies, salaried employees or temporary workers, spouses of French nationals or parents of a French child under the vie privée et familiale (private and family life) heading, passeport talent (talent passport) holders and researchers, and visitors meeting resource conditions. The exact length — two, three or four years — depends on the grounds and your personal situation; the official sheet on service-public.fr lists the cases.

The practical effect of the CSP is the end of the annual administrative carousel. You open a bank account without being asked for your permit every six months, you sign a three-year lease without a precarity clause, you land a permanent contract without HR blocking you on the residual length of your permit. That's what you gain. And that's what the civic exam now conditions.

Why this exam, and why now

The reform rests on a short text: the arrêté of 10 October 2025, signed by the Minister of the Interior, published in the Journal officiel in autumn 2025, in force from 1 January 2026. It picks up after the law of 26 January 2024, the so-called "immigration law", which laid down the principle of a minimum knowledge of the Republic as a condition for long-term settlement permits. Before this arrêté, the civic exam was only required for naturalization. From now on, it applies to three permits: the CSP, the carte de résident, and naturalization.

And what surprises those discovering the system is that it's strictly the same test in all three cases. Same 40 questions drawn from the same corpus, same 45 minutes, same 32-out-of-40 threshold. What changes from one permit to another is only the parallel French level required (A2 for the CSP, B1 for the CR, B2 for naturalization), not the exam itself. That's the system coherence the examens couverts page explains in detail. The practical consequence for you: your certificate, once obtained for the CSP, will follow you later if you apply for a carte de résident or French nationality.

The format at a glance

The test is public, the arrêté set it once and for all. Here it is.

Parameter	Value
Total questions	40
Knowledge questions	28
Scenario questions	12
Duration	45 minutes
Pass mark	80 % (32 / 40)
Authorized operator	France Education International (FEI)
Medium	Digital tablet
Result	Immediate at the end of the test

The syllabus fits in five official themes: France and its values, the organization of the Republic, history and culture, daily life, rights and duties. Our 5 themes of the civic exam piece details what each covers.

The single most powerful prep lever fits in one sentence: the 245 knowledge questions are public. The Ministry of the Interior publishes them on interieur.gouv.fr, with their exact wording. You literally revise on what may come up. The 12 scenario questions, however, are not published: they are concrete cases of judgement (the neighbour saying a woman shouldn't vote, the public official asked to remove a religious sign), and that's where most candidates lose points for lack of specific training. The exam is delivered exclusively by France Education International, the public operator designated by the arrêté.

Language: A2 really is enough

The CSP is the permit for which the arrêté requires the lowest level of French — A2 on the Cadre européen commun (CEFR), the elementary user who can manage in simple situations. Above, the carte de résident requires B1 (the independent-user threshold) and naturalization requires B2 (the advanced user who can argue a point). You prove your A2 with a DELF A2, a TCF or a TEF at the matching level, or with a French diploma of equivalent value — the arrêté leaves several certification paths open.

The reassuring detail most candidates don't know: the civic exam itself is written at an A2-B1 reading level, because it also serves CSP applicants. Institutional vocabulary (préfet, sénat, laïcité, suffrage) recurs from question to question, and you absorb it within two weeks of regular practice. Many candidates discover they're better readers than they feared. If certain words block you when reading, listening helps enormously to anchor them — our guide on pronouncing exam questions details how to build the ear before the test.

Who sits the exam, who's exempt

The exam concerns all adult applicants for a CSP under the common grounds: salaried employee, vie privée et familiale, passeport talent, visitor, and certain student cases transitioning to a non-student permit. If you're applying for your first CSP in 2026 or later, and no exemption applies, you'll sit the exam.

Exemptions are set by the arrêté and target situations where the test would be either inapplicable or unfair. Exempt are minors at the time of application, persons whose health condition prevents them from sitting the test on medical evidence, certain humanitarian grounds inscribed in the CESEDA (the French Code on the entry and stay of foreign nationals), and holders of long-term medical care permits. Students in their initial course of study fall under a regime adapted to the academic logic of their permit. If you think you fall into one of these cases, check your situation on service-public.fr or with your préfecture — the exemption is one-off and tied to the permit applied for, it doesn't create an acquired right for your future permits.

Test day, step by step

It all starts with a convocation sent through the ANEF, the Administration Numérique pour les Étrangers en France. It tells you the date, time and exact address of the authorized centre — usually an Alliance française, a French Institute or an FEI partner. You arrive 30 minutes before the slot, valid ID in hand, and leave everything else outside: phone, bag, smartwatch go into a secure locker. No personal documents enter the room.

Once seated in front of the tablet, the test starts. 45 minutes on the clock, 40 questions shown one at a time with four choices each. You can navigate between questions, go back, change your answers as long as time hasn't run out. An on-screen clock keeps you informed. When time runs out, or upon manual validation if you finish early, the score appears immediately: 32/40 or higher, you've passed. The certificate arrives right after, and is also made available on your ANEF account — keep a digital copy in addition to the original, because the paper version always ends up disappearing into the thickness of a renewal file.

If you fail: what really happens

A score below 32/40 doesn't close your file. The regulations don't formally cap the number of attempts, but a practical waiting period applies between two sittings — you generally have to wait a few weeks for FEI to reopen slots. On the préfecture side, the absence of a certificate suspends the issuance of your CSP: your application can be deferred, or refused depending on the grounds and how long it drags on. Check the deadlines written on your récépissé to know where you stand.

The practical advice fits in one line: prep seriously for the first session. Re-sitting costs time, sometimes money, and pushes back your delivery date. To structure your prep, the complete 2026 civic exam guide remains the reference, since the test content is strictly the same as for naturalization.

How many weeks to put into it

Useful prep time depends on your starting point, but the range is narrow — between four and twelve weeks at half an hour per day, that's what comes out of the profiles we see. Here are the orders of magnitude.

Profile	Recommended time
Recently arrived in France, fragile A2	10 to 12 weeks, 30 min/day
Settled for 1 to 2 years, confirmed A2	8 to 10 weeks, 25 min/day
Follow French current affairs regularly	6 to 8 weeks, 20 min/day
Already prepped another civic test	4 to 6 weeks, 15 min/day

These durations are indicative; what makes them converge toward success is regularity. Thirty minutes a day for eight weeks crushes six hours on a Sunday afternoon, because civic memory works in successive layers, not by cramming. If your deadline is closer, the prepping the civic exam in 1 month guide offers a compact day-by-day plan.

The method that works, in three levers

Effective prep combines three levers that don't substitute for each other. The first is spaced repetition: you review each question at increasing intervals — one day, two, four, seven, fourteen — to anchor memory without saturating the brain. It's the Leitner method, used by language learners for fifty years, and it's what our piece on memorising the civic exam with spaced repetition walks through step by step.

The second lever is the weekly mock exam. Once a week, you do a full 40-question test in 45 minutes, in real conditions, no notes. That ritual anchors the format, tames the time-pressure stress, and above all reveals where you slip — a poorly absorbed theme, a scenario you read sideways. Our free mock exam reproduces the official format identically for that work.

The third lever, often underestimated at A2, is listening. If fast reading blocks you, hearing each question and its explanation consolidates the institutional vocabulary — préfet, sénat, laïcité, Marianne (the symbolic figure of the French Republic) become familiar sounds, no longer just strings of letters. Our pronunciation guide explains how to build that ear without spending your weekends on it. These three methods work indifferently for the CSP, the carte de résident and naturalization, since the exam content is identical from one permit to the next — every Cocorico resource carries over as is.

FAQ

Is the test for the CSP really the same as for naturalization?

Yes. The civic test is strictly identical: 40 questions, 45 minutes, 80 % to pass. Same 5 themes. Same 245 public knowledge questions. Same 12 scenarios drawn from the same corpus. The only difference concerns the parallel language level required for the permit: A2 for the CSP, B1 for the CR, B2 for naturalization. Source: arrêté of 10 October 2025, available on Légifrance.

How long is the certificate valid?

The civic-exam pass certificate is valid for several years. It is reusable from one permit to another. Concretely, if you pass the exam for your CSP, you don't have to retake it to apply later for your carte de résident, nor for a naturalization application. Only the language proof changes depending on the permit targeted. Keep your certificate carefully.

Who can be exempt from the civic exam for the CSP?

The main exemptions are: minors, persons whose health condition makes the test impossible (medical evidence required), certain humanitarian grounds set in the CESEDA, and holders of long-term medical care permits. The detail is in the arrêté of 10 October 2025. If in doubt, check your situation on service-public.fr or with your préfecture.

Is the test paid for the CSP?

Within the official framework, sitting the civic exam is covered by the State for the applicants concerned. So you don't pay for the test session itself. What stays at your charge are any costs tied to your language certification (DELF, TCF, TEF), which are distinct from the civic exam. Check the up-to-date arrangements on the Ministry of the Interior site.

What happens if I fail the exam for my CSP application?

Without a pass on the civic exam, your CSP application can be deferred or refused depending on your grounds and your situation. You retain the option to retake the test. If a refusal is motivated by the absence of an exam pass, you can file a recours gracieux (administrative appeal) with the préfecture, then a contentious appeal before the administrative court. The best strategy remains aiming to pass on the first try.

Prepping the CSP with Cocorico

The CSP civic exam isn't an insurmountable obstacle. It's a predictable format, a public corpus of 245 questions, and the most accessible language level of the three permits. With thirty minutes a day for two months, almost all the candidates we accompany hit 32/40 at the first session. Create your free account in two minutes to test the method — short lessons, timed mock exams, audio on every question, EN or ZH subtitles if a word blocks you. The full list of permits covered by our method is here. You're closer to the goal than you think.