DELE A2 and CCSE for Spanish Citizenship: Fees, Dates and Pass Marks

Spanish citizenship by residence is granted by the Justice Ministry, but two of its conditions are tested by the Instituto Cervantes: the nationality regulation requires a Spanish diploma of at least level A2, the DELE A2, and the CCSE, a test on the Constitution and Spanish society. For an American, the two exams run on different clocks. The DELE can be taken in the United States and never expires; the CCSE is held only in Spain, is booked with an NIE, and its certificate lasts 4 years. This article is for informational purposes only and is not immigration or legal advice; verify current requirements with the relevant Spanish authority or a licensed professional.

Which exam detail can stall a nationality application?

The detail that can stall a file is a date: the one printed on the CCSE certificate. Orden JUS/1625/2016, the ministerial order that governs nationality files, requires every document to be valid on the day of application and gives the CCSE certificate 4 years of validity from its date. A CCSE passed early in the years spent in Spain, long before the residence period is complete, will have lapsed by the time of filing, and a new registration costs another 85 euros.

Three other details can stop a file or an exam day:

• A pending dispensa. Since October 29, 2022, according to the Ministry of Justice’s notice on dispensa requests, any nationality application filed while a request for exemption from the tests is unresolved is archived.
• The wrong ID. Nationality candidates register for the CCSE, and for a DELE A2 taken in Spain, with their NIE; how to obtain the number is covered in the NIE guide.
• One document short. The order has exam centers check your passport together with your TIE, and the CCSE FAQ asks for both originals plus the registration receipt, with narrow exceptions such as a stolen document backed by a police report under 4 months old. The card itself is covered in the TIE guide.

CCSE and DELE A2 side by side

Both tests are required by article 6 of Royal Decree 1004/2015, the nationality regulation: a DELE of at least level A2, and the CCSE.

Since 2023, the CCSE fee has stood at 85 euros; the DELE prices are taken from the Instituto Cervantes’ 2026 price table.

The CCSE: 25 questions from a published list of 300

The exam is built in five tasks. It opens with 10 multiple-choice questions on government, institutions, civic participation and the rights and duties of nationality, moves through true or false items, geography questions with a map and questions on traditions, art and history, and ends with 7 questions on daily life and administrative procedures. On the balance of subjects, the regulation places 60 percent of the questions on the Constitution and Spain’s administrative and territorial organization and 40 percent on culture, history and society, which the FAQ expresses as 15 and 10. Every question is closed and written in contemporary peninsular Spanish, and since a wrong or blank answer costs nothing, leaving none unanswered is the sensible course.

The questions themselves are public. According to the Instituto Cervantes’ preparation page, the free 2026 manual supplies the questions for every exam from January 2026, with 25 percent of them changed from 2025. The FAQ gives a total of 300, also available in the free official app, CCSE Nacionalidad Española, but it still presents the 2023 manual as current; the 2026 edition named on the preparation page is the one to study. An audio version serves visually impaired candidates and those who cannot read. The order states that no course is ever compulsory; for anyone who wants a long Spanish course in Spain regardless, the stay it requires is set out in the Spain student visa guide.

Booking, attempts and results

Registration and payment happen online; the exam site currently directs DELE and CCSE registrations to the Instituto Cervantes’ online store. The test is held at more than 200 centers in Spain, though not all of them take part in every session. The Instituto Cervantes nationality page refers to two time slots per session, whereas centers using the appointment system agree a date and time with the candidate within a window that ends on the official date. Two sessions remain in 2026: October 29 (registration closes October 8) and November 26 (registration closes November 5). Registration for 2027 opens on November 23, 2026, and the first 2027 session is on January 28.

The 85 euros pay for the exam, the certificate and the preparation materials, and they cover up to two attempts. A candidate who failed or missed the first requests the second once results are published and sits it at the same center within 6 months of the first exam date. Beyond that, a new payment is due, with no limit on registrations. A refund may be requested within 14 calendar days of registering.

Results come by email about 20 days after the exam. The certificate states only APTO, NO APTO or NO PRESENTADO (pass, fail or absent), never the score, and a review can be requested within one calendar month.

Where the 4 years begin depends on the page consulted: the order and the results page count from the date of the certificate, the FAQ from the approval of the results record. A margin of several months before the fourth anniversary is safer than relying on the later start. The exam should also be planned in person: the order says both tests are taken in person, and although a 2020 amendment to the regulation allows remote exams where the Instituto Cervantes so decides, none of its pages offers one.

The DELE A2: four papers, two groups

The Instituto Cervantes’ DELE A2 page sets out four papers: reading (60 minutes, 25 items), listening (40 minutes, 25 items), writing (45 minutes, 2 tasks) and speaking (12 minutes after 12 of preparation). Each is worth 25 points, and the exam guide groups them in pairs, reading with writing and listening with speaking. A pass requires at least 30 of the 50 points in each group, so a strong reading score cannot make up for a weak speaking one.

Level A2 is a minimum, not a target: the law asks for a DELE of level A2 or higher. The order also accepts official A2, B1 or B2 certificates from Spanish education authorities or an Escuela Oficial de Idiomas (official language school), provided they are entered in the authority’s register and you authorize the ministry to check them. SIELE, the Spanish test the Instituto Cervantes runs with three universities, does not appear among the credentials the legal texts name, and the institute’s comparison table lists nationality among the uses of the DELE alone.

Sitting the DELE in the United States

In the United States, the Instituto Cervantes of New York coordinates DELE centers in Atlanta, Boston, Miami, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, Charlottesville, New Orleans and Lake Charles, plus sites in New York State and Maryland. Its dates and fees page gives the 2026 A2 fee as $130, with up to 30 percent off for students in its in-person classes, and lists A2 sessions on May 23, October 17 and November 13, 2026; registration for November 13 closes on September 30. Centers outside that list can be found through the Instituto Cervantes’ center search.

The general calendar for 2027 sets A2 sittings on February 12, April 2, May 22, July 9, September 10, October 15 and November 13, with registration opening on November 18, 2026; not every center offers every date.

On results timing, the pages disagree: about three months in the DELE FAQ; about two, or three for the May and November sessions, on the results page; one to three in the 2022 exam guide. Three months is the safer assumption, which places a November 13 diploma around mid-February 2027. The diploma arrives by email and never expires.

Who is exempt, and when to ask for a dispensa

Law 19/2015 exempts from both tests minors under 18 and people whose legal capacity has been modified by a court.

Spanish-speaking nationals are spared the DELE, though not the CCSE. The regulation lists 20 countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. The order accepts such a nationality even when it is not the main one, on a valid passport of that country or a consular certificate, while the Instituto Cervantes’ DELE FAQ limits the exemption to nationality by origin. A second nationality acquired later therefore points to sitting the DELE A2. Puerto Rico is on the list, yet none of the texts cited here says what a U.S. citizen born there should show; the Ministry of Justice is the body to ask first.

ESO in Spain. Completing compulsory secondary education after schooling in Spain can lead to a dispensa from the tests, and the order then lets the applicant file directly with the documents. The CCSE pages describe this as a total dispensa from the CCSE, while the DELE FAQ says only that the ministry may grant it.

Reading, writing and learning difficulties. Here the request goes to the Ministry of Justice, online and on its official form, before any nationality application is filed. The Directorate General for Legal Certainty and Public Faith decides within 6 months, silence counts as refusal, and the outcome can be a dispensa, a refusal or adapted tests at the Instituto Cervantes.

Disabilities. The regulation requires the Instituto Cervantes to offer adjustments in both tests; deaf candidates still take the CCSE but may sit it in Spanish Sign Language. According to the DELE FAQ, deaf applicants with official certification need not take the DELE A2, but neither the regulation nor the order lists that exemption, so the Ministry of Justice should confirm it before anyone relies on it.

How your results reach the nationality file

The ministry can obtain the results itself or receive them from you. On the nationality application form, you may authorize it to check your DELE and CCSE results with the Instituto Cervantes; otherwise you attach them, namely the CCSE electronic certificate or a paper copy with its verification code, and a copy of the DELE diploma with Royal Decrees 1137/2002 and 264/2008 on DELE equivalences, as listed in the DELE FAQ.

The regulation exempts anyone who already holds a DELE of at least A2 and attaches no condition on where it was obtained. No official page states in so many words that a diploma earned in the United States counts, so a copy kept ready to attach is a sensible precaution even with the authorization signed. The rest of the file is described in the Spanish nationality guide.

Sit the DELE when you are ready, the CCSE near filing time

The two exams are best timed backward from the filing date. On the day you expect to file for nationality, the CCSE certificate must still be within its 4 years, whereas the DELE can be taken at any point, even before leaving the United States. In the meantime, the 2026 CCSE manual or the app gives access to the 300 questions. Public Spanish classes, from official language schools to adult education centers, and DELE fees at every level are compared in the guide to learning Spanish and the regional languages.

Both tests can be registered online and managed without help. The Ministry of Justice or a licensed professional is worth consulting when the plan depends on an exemption (a second nationality, deafness, a Spanish ESO diploma), when a dispensa is needed, or when the CCSE certificate is approaching its fourth year. What becoming Spanish means for U.S. citizenship is covered in the dual citizenship guide.

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