Search for the Luxembourg nationality test and most pages describe one exam. The application actually asks for two. The Sproochentest tests your Luxembourgish. The "Vivre ensemble au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg" requirement tests your civics, through a course or a test. Both certificates go into the same nationality file, on top of a residence condition of five years.
Most guides explain one half and gesture at the other. This page walks through both halves, what each one costs, and the two exemptions that can replace the language half, so you see the whole application at once.
Luxembourg nationality rests on two certificates: the Sproochentest for the language, and the Vivre ensemble course or test for civics. Meet the five year residence condition, collect both, and you can file.
Before any test: five years of residence
Naturalisation requires at least 5 years of legal residence in Luxembourg, and the final year, the one immediately before your application, must be uninterrupted, per guichet.lu.
If you are still inside those five years, that time is preparation time, not waiting time. The language half of the file rewards a long runway more than anything else in it.
Test one: the Sproochentest, the language exam
The Sproochentest is run by the Institut national des langues Luxembourg (INLL). It has no written part: you speak, and you listen.
| Part | What happens | Level |
|---|---|---|
| Speaking, 10 minutes (2 x 5) | An interview with the examiner, then you describe one visual you pick from a choice of three | A2 |
| Listening, 35 minutes | Three recordings: a radio message, an everyday conversation, an exchange or presentation on a topic; answers are multiple choice on a tablet | B1 |
The pass rule is friendlier than people expect. At least 50 percent in the speaking test passes outright, and a weaker speaking score still passes when the average of speaking and listening reaches 50 percent, per guichet.lu. Registration costs 75 euros per attempt.
It is a passable exam, and that is not a feeling. It is the institute's own arithmetic: 69 percent of the candidates who sat the exam between December 2008 and July 2022 passed, per the statistics report the INLL published in December 2022.
Two administrative mercies are worth knowing. The certificate is valid for an unlimited period, and there is no limit on the number of attempts; you can register again as soon as the result of your previous test is in, per the INLL.
One timing warning. As of 11 August 2026, the INLL's MyINL portal shows no published 2026 session still bookable, the remaining December dates sold out or closed for registration, with registration for the January 2027 sessions opening on 1 September 2026 at 10:00. If the exam is in your plan, how registration works is worth ten minutes now, and the language requirement in detail explains what A2 speaking and B1 listening ask of you in plain terms.
Test two: Vivre ensemble, the civics requirement
The second certificate has two doors, and you only need one.
Door one is the course. "Vivre ensemble au Grand-Duché de Luxembourg" runs 24 hours in three modules: 6 hours on fundamental rights, 12 hours on the state and communal institutions, and 6 hours on the history of Luxembourg and European integration. Registration is free, for the course and for the test alike, per guichet.lu. Attend the 24 hours and the certificate is yours.
Door two is the test. If the classroom does not fit your life, you can sit an exam on the same topics instead: a computer based, multiple choice test organised at Esch-Belval, per the Ministry of Education's course and exam page.
Either way, the certificate is issued by the Service de la formation des adultes, and you present it with your nationality application.
Choosing a door is mostly a calendar question. The course asks for attendance, not performance: no revision, no exam day. The test compresses the requirement into one sitting but adds preparation. If exam nerves already live in your Sproochentest plans, the course is the calmer path for the civics half.
Who can skip the language exam
Two exemptions exist, both narrow, and both about the language exam only.
The twenty year route. An adult who has legally lived in Luxembourg for at least 20 years, without interruption over the last 12 months, can acquire nationality by option and take a 24 hour introductory Luxembourgish course in place of the language exam, organised through the Service de la formation des adultes and approved providers, per guichet.lu. What the course stands in for is the Sproochentest; the option route carries its own conditions, and guichet's page owns them.
The medical exemption. Applicants whose physical or mental state prevents them from learning Luxembourgish can be exempted from the language test, with a specialist's certificate, granted by the Minister of Justice.
Neither exemption says anything about the Vivre ensemble requirement, so do not assume the civics half falls away with the language exam; confirm the conditions for your own route on guichet.lu. If neither describes you, both tests are yours to pass.
One application, two kinds of preparation
The two requirements are different kinds of work, so they schedule differently.
Vivre ensemble is bounded. The content fits in 24 hours by design, the state teaches it to you, and attendance alone earns the certificate. Book it around your work calendar and it takes care of itself.
The Sproochentest is a skill. Skills need calendar time, not intensity: A2 speaking grows from short daily practice out loud, not from one heroic weekend. Give the language months, book the civics course whenever it fits, and let the two run in parallel rather than in sequence.
Do this next
Two moves this week. Find out where your speaking actually stands with a free mock exam, while it costs nothing. Then put 1 September 2026 in your calendar, because registration windows matter more than motivation.