French civic exam: format, booking and results

1. The exam format

The format is set by the ministerial order (arrêté) of 10 October 2025. Each question has 4 options, and only one is correct. You need 32 correct answers out of 40, which is 80%. The exam lasts 45 minutes at most, longer only with an adjustment for medical reasons.

There is one version (« mention ») per application: multi-year residence permit (carte de séjour pluriannuelle, CSP), resident card (carte de résident, CR) and naturalisation. The difficulty depends on the version.

The knowledge questions are published by the French Ministry of the Interior. The official situation questions are not: the ones you find online, including on Recite, are examples written for practice.

2. Booking at an approved centre

Two organisations are approved to run the exam: CCI Paris Île-de-France (« Le français des affaires ») and France Éducation International. You book at one of their centres. On 26 May 2026, the ministry counted 444 centres, covering every département.

• Multi-year permit or resident cardThe maps of both organisations’ centres can be reached from service-public.gouv.fr (links in the sources at the bottom of the page).
• NaturalisationThe centres are listed separately. If you take the exam from abroad, contact an Institut français, an Alliance française or the consulate.
• On the dayYour identity is checked (residence permit or passport; identity card for an EU citizen applying for naturalisation) and a photo is taken. It appears on your certificate.

3. The price

There is no national fee: each centre sets its own price. According to the answer of the Minister of the Interior published in the Journal officiel on 11 August 2026, it is « compris entre 60 € et 80 € selon les centres » (between €60 and €80 depending on the centre). Check the price when you book.

Preparing, on the other hand, can be done for free with the official resources. The civic training of the republican integration contract (contrat d’intégration républicaine: 4 days, 24 hours) is funded by the State.

4. Results and the certificate

• How long it takesNo national text sets a deadline for results. CCI Paris Île-de-France says results are sent « dans un délai de 24 à 48 heures ouvrées » (within 24 to 48 working hours), with the certificate by email. For France Éducation International, ask your centre.
• ValidityThe pass certificate (attestation de réussite) does not expire. A CR-version certificate is also valid for a multi-year permit application.
• Keep it safeCCI Paris Île-de-France says it only keeps certificates on file for 2 years. After that, it can no longer send you a copy, and you would have to retake the exam. Keep the original and a digital copy.

No official source confirms that a naturalisation-version certificate is valid for a resident card or a multi-year permit. Only the CR version’s equivalence for the multi-year permit is confirmed.

5. If you fail

You can retake the exam « à tout moment et autant de fois que nécessaire » (at any time and as many times as needed; CESEDA, art. L413-3). You then book again at a centre.

Beware of cheating: an attempt to cheat or detected cheating leads to a ban on taking the exam for the following 2 years, and breaking the rules can make the exam void.