Demystifying the new French Civic Exam
Nothing sends a foreigner into a cold sweat faster than a trip to the French préfecture. I still remember every one of mine.
I'd arrive an hour before an 8am appointment, only to find the line already wrapped around the building on Île de la Cité, appointment confirmation clenched in my hand like a lifeline. Getting through the front door was only the first hurdle – once inside, I'd wait in three separate lines before reaching the one person who'd actually review my file. I never knew if I'd be out in an hour or four. By the time I left, I'd spent half a day proving I belonged in France – only to be told to come back with one more document I didn't know I needed.
Now, France has thrown in the words "new requirement" – a civic exam – next to "carte de séjour”, and it's no surprise the news set off a wave of expat panic.
But the exam is more manageable than the headlines suggest. Here's what you actually need to know.
About the civic exam
Since January 1, 2026, there are three moments that can trigger the new French civic exam:
Your first multi-year residence permit (the ‘carte de séjour pluriannuelle’, or CSP);
Your first 10-year resident card (‘carte de résident’, or CR); or
A French citizenship (‘naturalization’) application.
The exam is a 45-minute, 40-question test spanning five categories:
The Republic's principles and values;
The institutional and political system;
Your rights and duties as someone residing in France;
History, geography, and culture; and
Living in French society.
To pass, you need 32 correct answers (80%), and you must pass before filing your application.
All 40 questions are multiple choice split into two types:
28 straight knowledge (pulled from a published pool – see below); and
12 scenario-style judgment calls (ex. what do you do if XYZ happens) – which aren't part of the public practice list.
Two organizations are accredited by the Ministry to administer the test: the Chambre de Commerce et d'Industrie de Paris (CCIP) and France Éducation International (FEI). They each have their own network of test centers you register with directly, and it costs ~€70 (depending on the test center) to sit the exam.
After taking the test, you’ll receive your results within a couple of days. Once you pass, it’s permanent: the civic exam attestation has no expiration date. The nuance here worth pointing out is that if you pass the CSP-level exam, the results, while permanent, don’t carry forward to any future CR application because the question banks differ (but, pass the CR-level exam and it covers you for the CSP too). So, if the 10-year resident card is in your future, it might be worth taking the harder version now rather than testing again later on.
If you don't pass the first time, don't stress. You can try again, with no cap on how many times you can retake it (the one exception is fraud, which comes with a ban of 1-2 years) – in practice, any ‘wait’ time is however long it takes to get another test slot. Note, you must pay the full fee for each attempt.
How to study for the French civic exam
There are two different difficulty levels:
The CSP test, for your first multi-year card, is the easier tier.
The CR list is harder, and applies to both naturalization candidates and anyone applying for the 10-year resident card.
The good news is that there are free, public question banks available on a government website. The Ministry of the Interior publishes the ‘liste officielle des questions de connaissance’ (which is where the 28 straight knowledge questions draw from): roughly 190 questions for the CSP exam and over 200 for the CR exam. The bad news is that the list is truly just a list of questions – no verified answers are provided. But hey, it wouldn’t be a French resource if there wasn’t something we were complaining about. The ministry website also lists a France Fraternité quiz as another free, online study resource.
A second free resource offered by the French state is a 4-day civic training course for those who signed a Contrat d'Intégration Républicaine, or CIR (the integration contract most people sign when they get their first titre de séjour). If you’re eligible, the OFII ('Office français de l'immigration et de l'intégration’) will enroll you.
A third tool worth knowing about is the Livret du Citoyen, the government's official reference booklet. The new edition was released in July 2026: it nearly tripled in length from the 2022 version, from 28 pages to 83, and it's now organized in the same five parts as the exam itself.
The civic exam is entirely in French, and it’s more than your everyday vocabulary. Words like suffrage universel, autorité judiciaire, laïcité, and collectivités territoriales will pop up, so make sure to allot real study time for the vocab, in addition to the concepts, if needed.
When I had to sit the AMF certification (the French finance regulator's exam) for work in 2023, I ran practice tests and hundreds of flashcards on repeat for weeks until I was hitting 100%. Overkill? Perhaps. The method isn’t glamorous, but it’s effective, and the same can work here. By the time you sit the real exam, you should recognize almost every question stem before you finish reading it.
What I'd do with this information
First, let’s not trip over a stool that’s not in our way. Figure out if the exam actually applies to you or not. Reminder: it’s for initial CSP or CR applications, and citizenship applications; passing the civic exam is not required to renew a multi-year residence permit or a previously obtained resident card. There are additional exemptions, like if you are over the age of 65 (detailed here), or if you are applying for a CIR-exempt CSP (list here).
Second, if the rule does indeed apply to you (whether now or in the future), the best thing you can do is just get started studying, as early as you can.
Lastly, on a related note, there’s a new fee structure to have in mind. As of May 1 2026, the stamp duty (i.e. price) on a first-time multi-year card went from €225 to €350, and renewals went from €225 to €250.
Bureaucracy has never been the fun part of moving to Paris – but I’ll help you get it figured out. If you want more of this, I post Paris tips, guides, and stories on Substack, Instagram @thearrivalsociety and TikTok @JaimeInParis. And if you’re still lost on the exam question above, book a call and let's sort it out together.
Bisous,
Jaime