If you’re applying for Portuguese citizenship or permanent residency, you almost certainly need to prove you speak Portuguese at A2 level. For most people, that means sitting an exam called the CIPLE.
Thankfully, there are several courses that cover it in depth. Liz Sharma’s Portuguese Pro even includes a mock A2 exam, which her team corrects. If you’re feeling uncertain about where to start, her free training is a good first step.
Practice Portuguese has more European Portuguese audio than anywhere else I know, and listening is the part most people find hardest. I’d sign up for it on top of whatever other course you choose, or at least for a few months, just to work through the audio.
As well as listening, you’ll need to practice reading, writing and speaking. I cover which courses are good for each in the course comparison below ↓.
At a glance
The A2 in brief
✔ Level: A2 (upper-beginner)
✔ Exam: the CIPLE, €95 at CAPLE in 2026
✔ Pass mark: 55% overall
✔ Hardest part: listening
✔ CPLP citizens: exempt
✖ Can’t be taken online
Where Do You Want to Start?
📖
I want all the details
The full guide: who needs A2, the exam section by section, booking, and exemptions.
🎓
I know what I’m doing
Just show me the best courses, and which part of the exam each one covers.
📝
I’m nearly ready
Just show me the past papers and mock exams to practice with.
The short version
The Courses That Get You to A2
Most European Portuguese courses cover “beginner” Portuguese, which usually means A1 and A2. That isn’t quite the same as preparing you for the CIPLE.
The exam tests four skills: reading and writing together (45% of the mark), listening (30%), and speaking (25%). A course can be excellent and still leave you exposed on one of them, which is why I’d pair a main course with Practice Portuguese, and add a tutor for speaking.
What I’d do
Pick a main course. If that course isn’t Practice Portuguese, grab this for the audio, and add a tutor for speaking. That’s the shape of it, whichever main course you choose.
Compare
How the Courses Compare
Some links on this page are affiliate links. If you sign up through them, I earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
| Course | What it is | Key points | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portuguese Pro Talk the Streets | Coached video course, A1–A2 | Corrected mock A2 exam · live pronunciation workshops · weekly corrected writing · premium price | Free training |
| Mia Esmeriz Academy | Classroom-style video course, A1–C1 | Strong on grammar · one-off payment, lifetime access · 15% off with 15PORTUGALIST | Get the course |
| Practice Portuguese Add to any course | App and website, A1–B2 | ~700 audio dialogues · strong on listening and grammar · €12.75/month for Portugalist readers | Get the course |
| The Journey Portuguese with Carla | Story-based video course, roughly A1–B2 | Strong on listening and grammar · no speaking practice · €29/month or €349/year | Get the course |
| Michel Thomas | Audio course | Builds sentences fast · no reading or writing · ~$152 | Get the course |
Which Parts of the Exam Each Course Covers
| Course | Listening | Speaking | Reading | Writing | Grammar | Mock A2 exam | Levels |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Portuguese Pro | Good | Strong: live correction | Good | Strong: corrected weekly | Good | ✔ Corrected | A1–A2 |
| Mia Esmeriz Academy | Light (lots on her YouTube) | Light: pronunciation course only | Good | Light | Strong | — | A1–C1 |
| Practice Portuguese | Strong | Light | Good | Light | Strong | — | A1–B2 (+ some C1) |
| The Journey | Strong | — | Light | — | Strong | — | Roughly A1–B2 |
| Michel Thomas | Light | Good: sentence building | — | — | Good | — | Foundation + Intermediate |
No row is strong across the board. That’s the case for combining two or three things rather than hunting for the perfect course.
A Closer Look
🎤
Portuguese Pro
Built around getting you to A2 and through the CIPLE, with a corrected mock exam and live speaking feedback.
📚
Mia Esmeriz Academy
One teacher from your first lesson to C1, strong on grammar, with a one-off price.
🎧
Practice Portuguese
The audio companion I’d add to any course, for the section most people fail.
The detail
A Closer Look at Each Course
Portuguese Pro (Talk the Streets)
Liz Sharma is a British linguist who learned Portuguese as a foreigner, so she knows exactly where English speakers get stuck. Portuguese Pro is built around getting you to A2 and through the CIPLE.
It starts with eight lessons on pronunciation before it gets anywhere near grammar. That sounds backwards until you remember that European Portuguese swallows half its vowels.
What it gives you for the exam:
- A full mock A2 exam covering all four components, which the team corrects, plus a walk-through of the official sample paper.
- Live pronunciation workshops twice a week. You send in a recording beforehand, and the team corrects your specific mistakes on the call.
- Weekly writing challenges that someone actually corrects. Almost every self-study course is missing this, and writing shares 45% of the mark with reading.
- A final 10-minute recorded conversation with a native speaker, scored and returned with feedback.
Portuguese Pro
For the exam
✔ Corrected mock A2 exam
✔ Live pronunciation feedback
✔ Corrected writing every week
✔ Builds exam confidence
✖ Stops at A2
✖ Premium price, not listed publicly
Where it’s good for the exam is confidence. Liz is very good at getting people to sit the CIPLE believing they can pass it, rather than hoping they might.
The downsides: it stops at A2, and it’s priced as a premium course. The price isn’t listed publicly; it’s shared at the end of her free training, you apply, and enrollment opens in windows. The free training is worth an hour on its own and will tell you whether her style suits you.
Not sure yet? Start with Liz’s free training
It’ll tell you whether her teaching style suits you before you spend anything.
Read my full Portuguese Pro review →
Mia Esmeriz Academy
Mia is from Porto, has a master’s in teaching Portuguese as a second language, and her course is the closest thing online to a proper Portuguese class. Strong on grammar, classroom-style, with her personality keeping the long lectures from dragging.
The big advantage is that it doesn’t stop at A2. Most courses leave you stranded at A2 or early B1. Mia’s goes all the way to C1, so you can stay with one teacher from the first lesson to fluency.
For the exam specifically, you’ll need to add things. There’s no mock paper, not much listening inside the course (her YouTube channel fills a lot of that gap), and nobody to speak to. That’s what Practice Portuguese and a tutor are for.
Mia Esmeriz Academy
Pricing
✔ A1–A2 bundle: $399
✔ All-In-One to C1: $999
✔ One-off payment, lifetime access
✔ 15% off either with 15PORTUGALIST
✖ No mock exam
✖ No speaking practice
💡
Should you wait for a discount?
The A1–A2 bundle is $399, and the All-In-One bundle that takes you to C1 is $999. Both are one-off payments with lifetime access, and the code 15PORTUGALIST gets you 15% off either. There are often bigger discounts around Black Friday, and you can usually stack the coupon code on top.
I wouldn’t wait for one if the exam is on your horizon, though. Getting started matters more than saving a few dollars.
See Mia’s course · Read my full Mia Esmeriz Academy review →
Practice Portuguese: Add It to Whatever You Choose
If I could keep only one tool for learning European Portuguese, it would be this one. I first used it in 2012, when it was mostly a podcast, and I still use it now.
The reason it matters for the CIPLE is the “Shorties”: around 700 short dialogues between native speakers, with transcripts, every word clickable and playable slowly. Several map almost exactly onto exam tasks. There’s one where a man takes his car to a mechanic, and one describing a living room using furniture and prepositions of place. Those are the listening traps and the speaking tasks you’ll meet on the day.
It’s thin on speaking and writing, so it isn’t a complete exam course on its own. Alongside another course, it’s the easiest €12.75 a month you’ll spend.
Practice Portuguese
For the exam
✔ ~700 native-speaker dialogues
✔ Listening from A1 to B2
✔ Strong grammar units
✔ €12.75/month for Portugalist readers
✖ Thin on speaking
✖ Thin on writing
💡
One tip
Don’t limit yourself to A2 audio. The Shorties go up to B2, and practicing at B1 makes the exam recordings feel slower by comparison.
Get Practice Portuguese · Read my full Practice Portuguese review →
The Others
🎬
The Journey
Portuguese with Carla teaches through a video story about Carla hunting for a letter from her father. Because you’re watching and listening to so much video on top of the lessons, it’s strong on listening, and the lessons are strong on grammar.
It’s good if you hate “studying.” There’s no speaking practice or mock exam, so add a tutor.
🎙️
Michel Thomas
The audio course I’d use for any language. It’s great for getting you to speak and, more importantly, to construct sentences yourself instead of memorizing them.
If the speaking section worries you, it helps. You’ll still need real conversation practice on top, and it won’t teach you to read or write.
🏃
Pimsleur
Doesn’t reach A2 and is mostly tourist Portuguese. Fine on a treadmill, not an exam course.
For every course I’ve looked at, including the university and Camões Institute options, see my full guide to European Portuguese courses →
Speaking
Add a Tutor for Speaking
Every self-study course has the same blind spot: nobody tells you when you’re wrong. You can spend a year quietly reinforcing mistakes.
My rule
Get a tutor on iTalki at least once a month, and more often in the run-up to the exam.
They can correct your pronunciation, give you real conversational practice, and set you the exam’s writing formats (an email, a text message, a postcard, a short complaint). Some tutors specialize in CIPLE preparation, so it’s worth searching for that specifically.
I’ve found good tutors for around €15 to €20 an hour. Once every few weeks, that isn’t a huge cost next to what you’re applying for.
There are also free ways to get your written Portuguese corrected →
💬
One reader put it better than I can
“Despite living in Portugal for several years, studying some Portuguese, and knowing some Spanish, you can’t just wing the A2 exam. I scraped by, but I would highly recommend people get a teacher.” — Portugalist reader
Practice
Past Papers and Mock Exams
Past papers are surprisingly hard to find. These are the options:
The official sample
CAPLE publishes one full sample CIPLE (reading and writing, listening with the audio file, and the answer key) on its CIPLE page. Do this first.
Liz Sharma’s mock exam
A full A2 mock covering all four components is part of Portuguese Pro, and the team corrects it. It’s the only mock I know of where someone marks your speaking and writing.
Exam practice with a tutor
Some iTalki tutors specialize in the CIPLE and will run you through timed practice, especially for speaking and writing.
The Lidel book
Lidel sells a book of past papers, but it has only one paper per level.
⚠️
The official sample is easier than the real thing
People who’ve sat the exam often say the official sample feels easier than the real thing, particularly the listening. Treat it as a floor, not a ceiling.
Textbooks
If you like working on paper, a textbook helps most with the reading and writing section. A few A1–A2 picks:
📘
Get Started in Portuguese
Teach Yourself. Structured and beginner-friendly.
🛂
Passaporte para Português
Teaches before it tests, and goes through to B1.
🔎
Português em Foco 1
A traditional A1–A2 coursebook with audio.
🛒
Dialogar em Português
Everyday situations such as shopping, transport and eating out.
More in my guide to European Portuguese textbooks →
Who needs it
Do You Actually Need A2 Portuguese?
Short answer
Probably, yes. A2 is the minimum level Portugal accepts as proof that you know the Portuguese language.
That’s one of the conditions for naturalization under the Nationality Regulation (Article 25 sets out how you can prove it). The people I hear from most often needing it are:
🛂
Citizenship by residency
Since May 2026 that’s after 10 years of legal residence for most nationalities, and 7 for EU and CPLP citizens.*
🏠
Permanent residency
Non-EU residents applying after five years. That rule didn’t change in 2026.
💰
Golden Visa holders
Once they apply for permanent residency or citizenship. You don’t need A2 to get or renew the Golden Visa itself.
👵
A Portuguese grandparent
A2 is one of the ways to show an effective connection to Portugal. If it’s your parent who is Portuguese, you don’t need it.
💍
Spouses and partners
Of Portuguese citizens, in some cases. It isn’t always asked for, but it’s one of the more reliable ways to show a tie to the country.
🇧🇷
CPLP citizens
*From Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde and the other Portuguese-speaking countries: you don’t need to prove your Portuguese at all.
💡
A note for Golden Visa holders
You’re only required to spend an average of seven days a year in Portugal, which is great for flexibility and terrible for your Portuguese. You won’t pick much up in a week, so you’ll definitely need a proper course. Start early, because nothing about living elsewhere is going to do the work for you.
There’s Also a New Requirement on Top of A2
⚠️
The 2026 culture and civic requirement
The 2026 nationality law (Lei Orgânica n.º 1/2026) added knowledge of Portuguese culture, history, and civic rights and duties, plus a declaration of adherence to democratic principles. As of this writing, how that will be tested hasn’t been defined. It doesn’t replace the A2. It sits beside it.
Difficulty
How Hard Is A2, and How Long Does It Take?
Short answer
Upper-beginner. I’ve seen people get there in a few months with a lot of work, but most take around a year or more.
A2 is one level above survival. You’re expected to introduce yourself, ask and answer simple questions, handle a shop or an appointment, and write a short message. The official description expects you to pause, reformulate and make basic mistakes.
How long it takes depends almost entirely on you. When I interviewed Joel Rendall of Practice Portuguese, he put it at anywhere from a few months to a few years, depending on the hours, the material and the motivation.
The Two Mistakes I See Most
From what readers tell me, the people who struggle usually made one of two mistakes:
🌍
Keep some perspective
France has asked for B2 for citizenship since January 2026, two full levels higher. Germany and the UK ask for B1. Portugal’s A2 is one of the gentler language requirements in Europe.
The exam
The Exam, Section by Section
The CIPLE (Certificado Inicial de Português Língua Estrangeira) is run by CAPLE at the University of Lisbon. It takes about two hours, with a 15-minute break, all on the same day.
To pass
55% overall, and at least 25% in each component. Fall below that in any one section and you fail, even with a good total.
| Component | Time | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reading and writing | 1 hour 15 minutes | 45% |
| Listening | 30 minutes | 30% |
| Speaking | About 15 minutes | 25% |
Source: CAPLE’s CIPLE page.
The Three Parts
📖
1. Reading and writing (45%)
The reading is short, practical texts (ads, signs, menus, messages, announcements) followed by mostly multiple-choice questions.
The writing is two short texts, usually a quick note or message and a slightly longer email or postcard. Know the formats: an email, a text message, a postcard, a short complaint.
🎧
2. Listening (30%)
Short recordings, each played twice, followed by multiple-choice questions. This is the section people fear, and they’re right to.
🗣️
3. Speaking (25%)
Usually done in pairs: one examiner, two candidates. The examiner is typically friendly and eases you in with questions about yourself: where you’re from, what you do, your daily routine.
Writing: Three Rules
Speaking: Two Tasks Come Up Again and Again
Describing a room
You’ll need furniture words and prepositions of place (“the sofa is next to the window”). You’ll learn the word for bedside table (mesa de cabeceira), which you will then never say out loud again until the exam.
Talking about jobs
You might be shown a firefighter, a police officer, a teacher and a nurse, and asked what each one does and whether you’d like to do it.
Drill both in advance. Because you’re in a pair, you won’t be talking the whole time, and there may be some role-play with the other candidate.
The hard part
The Listening Section: Why It Catches People Out
Almost everyone who’s sat the CIPLE says the same thing: the listening is the hardest part. Even people who’ve lived here for years and use Portuguese daily can stumble on it.
Why It’s Hard
⚡
It’s fast
Fast, natural Portuguese, not the slow studio recordings most courses use.
📼
The sound quality is bad
It sounds like it’s being played off a cassette tape, and it may well be deliberately bad.
☕
There’s background noise
Often meant to sound like a café, a street or a radio.
🔁
You hear each clip twice
And that’s it.
🪤
The questions are designed to catch you
See the traps below.
⚠️
The traps
Examiners plant words you’ll hear in the audio inside the wrong answers. Hearing a word isn’t enough; you have to understand what was said about it. They also use false friends. Oficina looks like “office” but means a mechanic’s workshop. The Portuguese for office is escritório, or secretaria for a school or public office. Both can appear as options.
What Works
✓ Do
- Read the questions and every option before the audio starts, so you know what you’re listening for.
- Listen for keywords you know.
- Jot down keywords as you listen.
- Listen properly the second time. You’ll often catch a new detail.
- Aim for 55%. Bank the questions you can get.
✗ Don’t
- Try to catch every word.
- Dwell on something you missed. Let it go: trying to understand everything is how your brain shuts off.
- Aim for perfection.
Practice with messier audio than the exam. Practice Portuguese’s B1 Shorties, Portuguese podcasts, and Portuguese TV with Portuguese subtitles all help. Clean studio recordings alone won’t prepare you for a muffled clip with a café in the background.
On the day
What Exam Day Is Actually Like
This is the part the official pages leave out.
Checklist
What to bring
✔ The same photo ID you registered with (the number has to match)
✔ Pens, a pencil, an eraser and a sharpener, plus a spare pen
✔ Water and a snack
✖ Your phone: switched off and kept in your bag
It runs like a formal exam, because it is one.
Booking
Booking the Exam: Dates, Cost, and Where to Sit It
| What to know | |
|---|---|
| Cost | CAPLE charges €95 to register for the CIPLE in 2026. Centers abroad set their own fees, so check yours. |
| Dates in Portugal | CIPLE sessions run most months. |
| Dates abroad | Centers usually offer only the international sessions in May, July and November, so if you’re sitting it abroad you get three chances a year. |
| Results | Allow roughly six to seven weeks for results and a little longer for the certificate itself. That can add two months to a citizenship or residency application, which is another reason to sit it as soon as you’re ready. |
Where You Can Sit It
🇵🇹
In Portugal
There are exam centers in Lisbon, Porto, Coimbra, Braga, Aveiro, Faro, Vilamoura, Setúbal, Sintra, Leiria, Évora, Viseu, Guarda, Bragança, Chaves and Guimarães, plus Funchal in Madeira and Ponta Delgada in the Azores. Most are at universities and polytechnics.
🌎
You don’t have to sit it in Portugal
There are around 100 centers in more than 35 countries, including the US, the UK and Canada.
[JAMES: add the US, UK and Canadian centers you’re confident of. A third-party tracker lists only Washington DC for the US and Toronto for Canada, and your old page listed Boston, Newark, Washington DC and Berkeley. I couldn’t verify either list against CAPLE.]
🇪🇸
If you can’t get a seat
Some people travel to sit it somewhere with less demand. Spain has centers in Madrid, Barcelona, Seville, Valencia and several other cities, and France has them in Paris and Toulouse.
For the full step-by-step, including how to register and where people get caught out, see how to book the Portuguese exam →
The alternative
The 150-Hour Course Alternative (PLA)
There’s a way to meet the A2 requirement without sitting the exam: a Português Língua de Acolhimento (PLA) course, “Portuguese as a host language.” It’s a government-regulated course covering A1 and A2 in up to 150 hours.
The catch
You have to live in Portugal.
PLA courses are for immigrants who are resident here, so you generally need a valid visa or residence permit to enroll. If you’re applying for citizenship from abroad, through a grandparent or a spouse for example, the CIPLE is your route.
Is It the Better Option?
✓ In its favor
- You’re assessed continuously, with no final exam.
- At the end you get an A2 certificate that’s accepted for citizenship and permanent residency.
- If your goal is only the certificate and exams make you anxious, it makes sense.
✗ Against it
- The quality of PLA courses varies a lot, as it does with in-person classes generally.
- Some people find them pretty dull.
- That’s 150 hours of your life. You could spend the same 150 hours on a course you actually enjoy and then sit the exam.
Not necessarily, then. It’s up to you how you spend that time. If your goal is to actually learn Portuguese, the most engaging resources (usually the online courses above, or a language school people rave about) will get you further.
⚠️
Check the provider is accredited
Several schools run PLA courses, some fully online. Before you sign up, check that the provider is properly accredited, because only certificates from qualifying institutions count.
Exemptions
Can You Get an Exemption?
Short answer
Some people can. For most, though, the exam is adapted rather than waived.
Next steps
After A2: Where to Go Next
A2 is the finish line for the paperwork. It isn’t the finish line for living here.
At A2 you can handle a shop, a doctor’s appointment and a delivery. You can’t comfortably follow a group of Portuguese friends talking over dinner or sort out a dispute with a landlord. For that you’re realistically looking at B2. So if you’re planning to stay, think of it as a ladder:
A2
This page. The citizenship and permanent-residency minimum.
💡
One practical trick
A2 has the most demand and the fewest seats, because it’s the citizenship minimum. B1 dates are easier to get. If you’re already close to B1 by the time you apply, some people sit the B1 instead, and a B1 certificate counts for citizenship just as well.
Not sure how to approach the whole thing? Start with my guide on how to learn European Portuguese →
The bottom line
What I’d Do
A lot of people find the CIPLE daunting. It helps to remember what it actually is: A2 is upper-beginner. I’ve seen people get there in a few months with plenty of work, though most take around a year or more. The pass mark is only 55%, you’re allowed to make mistakes, and you don’t need flawless grammar. You need to be understood.
It’s very doable.
Pick a main course
Portuguese Pro or Mia Esmeriz, whichever suits how you learn.
Add Practice Portuguese
For the listening, which is where people fail.
Get a tutor
To correct your speaking, at least once a month.
Book the date
Before you feel ready, so the calendar isn’t the thing that holds up your passport.
If you’re still not sure where to begin, Liz Sharma’s free training is a good place to start.
Common questions
Frequently Asked Questions
For most applicants, yes. You need to show at least A2 Portuguese, usually with a CIPLE certificate or a PLA course certificate. CPLP citizens don’t need to, and neither do people with a Portuguese parent.
A2, which is upper-beginner. Any higher certificate (B1, B2, C1 or C2) also counts, so you don’t need to sit the A2 as well.
Not to get or renew the Golden Visa. You do need A2 when you apply for permanent residency or citizenship.
No. You only need the A2.
No. A CIPLE certificate you earned years ago still counts.
No. The CIPLE is sat in person at an approved center. Some PLA courses are taught online, but those are for residents of Portugal.
For citizenship by naturalization, the 2026 law added knowledge of Portuguese culture, history and civic rights and duties, alongside A2. How it will be assessed hadn’t been set when this page was updated.
It’s been discussed over the years, and in 2026 the government went the other way and added the civic requirement. I’d prepare for the exam.
If they attend a Portuguese school, a declaration from the school may be enough.
Thinking about Moving to Portugal?