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

The DELE A2 and the CCSE are the two Instituto Cervantes exams that stand between a resident of Spain and Spanish citizenship by residence: the nationality regulation requires a Spanish diploma of at least level A2 and a test on the Constitution and Spanish society. For an American, the two run on different clocks. The DELE can be sat 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 date on your CCSE certificate. The ministerial order that governs nationality files, Orden JUS/1625/2016, requires every document to be valid on the day you apply and gives the CCSE certificate 4 years of validity from its date. A CCSE passed in your first years in Spain, long before the residence period is complete, will have lapsed when you file, and a new registration costs another 85 euros.

Three other details stop files or exam days:

• A pending dispensa. The Ministry of Justice’s notice on dispensa requests warns that since October 29, 2022, it archives any nationality application filed while a request for exemption from the tests is unresolved.
• The wrong ID. Nationality candidates register for the CCSE with their NIE, and for a DELE A2 taken in Spain too; getting 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

Article 6 of Royal Decree 1004/2015, the nationality regulation, requires both: a DELE of at least level A2 and the CCSE.

The CCSE fee has been 85 euros since 2023; the DELE prices come from the Instituto Cervantes’ 2026 price table.

The CCSE: 25 questions from a published list of 300

The five tasks run from 10 multiple-choice questions on government, institutions, civic participation and the rights and duties of nationality, through true or false items, geography questions with a map and questions on traditions, art and history, to 7 questions on daily life and administrative procedures. The regulation puts 60 percent of the questions on the Constitution and Spain’s administrative and territorial organization and 40 percent on culture, history and society; the FAQ counts 15 and 10. Every question is closed and written in contemporary peninsular Spanish, and a wrong or blank answer costs nothing, so answer them all.

The questions are public. The Instituto Cervantes’ preparation page says the free 2026 manual supplies the questions for every exam from January 2026, with 25 percent of the questions changed from 2025. The FAQ puts the total at 300, also held in the free official app, CCSE Nacionalidad Española; it still describes the 2023 manual as current, so study from the 2026 edition the preparation page names. An audio version serves visually impaired candidates and those who cannot read. No course is ever compulsory, the order says; if you want a long Spanish course in Spain anyway, the stay it needs is set out in the Spain student visa guide.

Booking, attempts and results

You register and pay online; the exam site currently sends DELE and CCSE registrations to the Instituto Cervantes’ online store. More than 200 centers in Spain hold the test, not all of them in every session. The Instituto Cervantes nationality page speaks of two time slots per session, while centers that use the appointment system agree a date and time with you in 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 falls on January 28.

The 85 euros cover the exam, the certificate and the preparation materials, and give you up to two attempts. The second, for candidates who failed or missed the first, is requested once results are published and sat at the same center within 6 months of the first exam date. After that you pay again, with no limit on registrations. A refund can be requested within 14 calendar days of registering.

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

The 4 years start at different points depending on the page: the order and the results page count from the date of the certificate, the FAQ from the approval of the results record. Keep a margin of several months before the fourth anniversary rather than bet on the later start. Plan on an in-person exam too: the order says both tests are in person, and although a 2020 amendment to the regulation allows remote exams where the Instituto Cervantes decides, none of its pages offers one.

The DELE A2: four papers, two groups

The Instituto Cervantes’ DELE A2 page lists reading (60 minutes, 25 items), listening (40 minutes, 25 items), writing (45 minutes, 2 tasks) and speaking (12 minutes after 12 of preparation). Each paper is worth 25 points, and the exam guide pairs them: reading with writing, listening with speaking. You pass only with at least 30 of the 50 points in each group, so a strong reading score cannot rescue a weak speaking one.

A2 is a floor: 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), if 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, is not among the credentials the legal texts name, and the institute’s comparison table lists nationality among the uses of the DELE only.

Sitting the DELE 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 A2 sessions on May 23, October 17 and November 13, 2026; registration for November 13 closes on September 30. For centers outside that list, use the Instituto Cervantes’ center search.

For 2027, the general calendar lists A2 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 holds every date.

Results timing differs by page: 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. Plan on three, which puts a November 13 diploma around mid-February 2027. It arrives by email and never expires.

Who is exempt, and when to ask for a dispensa

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

Spanish-speaking nationals skip the DELE, 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 your main one, with a valid passport of that country or a consular certificate; the Instituto Cervantes’ DELE FAQ limits the exemption to nationality by origin. If you acquired the second nationality, plan on sitting the DELE A2. Puerto Rico is on the list, but none of the texts cited here says what a U.S. citizen born there should show: ask the Ministry of Justice first.

ESO in Spain. Applicants schooled in Spain who completed compulsory secondary education may be dispensed from the tests and, under the order, file directly with their documents. The CCSE pages call this a total dispensa from the CCSE; the DELE FAQ says only that the ministry may grant it.

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

Disabilities. The regulation obliges the Instituto Cervantes to offer adjustments in both tests, and deaf candidates must still take the CCSE but may sit it in Spanish Sign Language. The DELE FAQ says deaf applicants with official certification need not take the DELE A2, but neither the regulation nor the order lists that exemption: confirm with the Ministry of Justice before you skip it.

How your results reach the nationality file

Either you authorize the ministry, on the nationality application form, to check your DELE and CCSE results with the Instituto Cervantes, or you attach them: 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 the DELE FAQ lists.

The regulation exempts anyone who has already obtained a DELE of at least A2 and sets no condition on where. No official page says in so many words that a diploma earned in the United States counts, so keep a copy ready to attach even if you sign the authorization. The rest of the file is set out in the Spanish nationality guide.

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

Work out the date on which you expect to file for nationality and plan backwards: the CCSE certificate must still be inside its 4 years on that day, while the DELE can come at any point, even before you leave the United States. Meanwhile, download the 2026 CCSE manual or the app and work through the 300 questions.

You can register for both tests online and handle them on your own. Get help from the Ministry of Justice or a licensed professional if your plan rests on an exemption (a second nationality, deafness, a Spanish ESO diploma), if you need a dispensa, or if your CCSE certificate is nearing its fourth year. What becoming Spanish means for your U.S. citizenship is covered in the dual citizenship guide.

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