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This is the 3^rd part in a series of taking the Italian B1 Citizenship language exam.  If you haven’t read them yet, you might want to start with the post on the Prep or the Exam.

Ah, the waiting—the hardest part (not really, but it was hard).  I was fortunate that I didn’t need to pass the test.  Mr Snacks was less fortunate.  So, it was impossible to leave the test and set fire to your text books, forgetting everything you’ve learned.  For the citizenship test, if you don’t pass any portion you will need to retake the whole test.  So, after a few weeks of break, we opted to continue some lessons, but at a very reduced level—only one hour per week.  Figuring he’d learn nothing new, but keep some of the existing knowledge active in case he needed to study again.

Just about every day we’d log into the website to look for results.  For infuriating weeks, all of the results had zeros in them—indicating the results were not in yet.  Then, slowly people who took the same day as us seemed to hear results.  Anecdotally, it seems that they are graded one location at a time.  Here’s some date specifics, to give you an understanding of waiting times: 

• Exam date: June 8, 2023
• Philly exam received grades: July 14, 2023
• Florence (us!) exam received grades: July 27, 2023
• Austin exam received grades: August 2, 2023

After finding out he passed, there MAY have been cheering, weeping and moments of utter relief.  Finally, he knew that he didn’t have to take the test again!  He had completed the hardest part of the Jure Matrimonio citizenship process.  

Now, you get an opportunity to wait yet again.  While we got our grades on July 27, it took a few extra days for an electronic version of the completion to appear on the web site.  However, for the Chicago consulate, we had heard that they were asking for original copies of this certificate.  Those get mailed to your testing facility.  The Florence and Austin certificates arrived the week of December 15.  We needed to reach out to our exam proctors to get the certificates shipped to us.

When Mr Snacks went to his Chicago consulate appointment, he brought both the original certificate and a copy of it.  The consulate did inspect the original, but keep the copy—so waiting the many months for the original seemed worth the wait.

This is a second in a series on taking the CILS Italian Citizenship B1 Exam.  If you haven’t yet read the first part on preparing for the exam, you can find it here.

The CILS test is run by the University of Siena and proctored all over the world.  While some small differences may exist where you take your test, this is what we experienced in Florence—and was echoed by friends who took it in the United States.  The test itself is 100% standardized—mailed by University of Siena to the proctor locations the day before the test.  Many levels (B1, B2, C1…) take the test in the same few days, so it is quite a production.

Continue reading “Test: Italian Citizenship Language Exam”

As many of you know, I had my Italian citizenship (through my ancestry) recognized several years ago.  Mr Snacks is allowed to apply for Italian citizenship, as my husband however he needed to get a B1 level language certification in Italian.  This series will talk about preparing for, taking and getting results of the B1 Citizenship CILS language exam. (While I was not required to take the exam, our Italian teacher strongly suggested it, as he said when a couple takes the test together, they usually get better results.)

Background

When we started this process in June 2022, neither of us spoke any Italian.  

Mr Snacks spoke some Spanish (mostly present tense verbs which he learned in high school and a deeper vocabulary from traveling to Spanish speaking countries frequently).  He would also have been the first to tell you he is “horrible at languages”.

I spoke intermediate level Spanish, all learned as an adult.  I enjoy the process of learning another language, so studying or doing language homework isn’t tortuous to me (the same cannot be said for my husband). 

Strategy

Since Mr Snacks is the only one who was planning to take the test (I only got conned into a month beforehand), the strategy for how to approach the learning was 100% his plan.  In June 2022, he announced that he wanted to find a school in Italy that proctored the test, begin studying with them online, go to the school for the 1-2 months leading up to the test for in-person classes, then take the test in Italy in June 2023.  He chose Florence completely on a whim because he had been and thought it sounded cool to spend time there learning.  

Continue reading “Prep: Italian Citizenship Language Exam”