What level of Latvian do you need: A2, B1 or C1

Published on 20 August 2026.

The short answer: a permanent residence permit and EU long-term resident status require level A2, most professions require between B1 and C1, and citizenship involves a completely separate examination that has nothing to do with language levels.

Below we explain where these requirements come from, how to find the level set for your own profession, and who is exempt from the examination altogether.

If you have lived in Latvia for a while, you will have heard people talk about language "categories". That word survives from the system in force until 2009, when proficiency was divided into three stages with two categories each.

The current rules are Cabinet Regulation No. 157 of 8 March 2022, with the version in force since 16 September 2025. They set out six levels grouped into three stages:

In plain terms:

For most people who come to us, this is the reason they are reading at all, so we will start here.

The regulation states it directly: a person may apply for EU long-term resident status or a permanent residence permit if they have acquired the state language at least at the second grade of the basic level, that is, A2.

This is also where the most common and most expensive mistake happens: people prepare for B1 "just in case" when A2 is what the law asks for. If the goal is the document, an extra level means extra months and extra money.

How long the road to A2 takes from zero is covered separately in our article on how long it takes to learn Latvian to A2.

There is no single answer here. The level is assigned not by job title but by occupation code in the national classifier, and it is set out in the annex to Regulation No. 157.

The logic is straightforward: the more public communication and responsibility for other people's decisions a job involves, the higher the requirement. Some reference points from the annex:

One important caveat: the same job title can map to different classifier codes and therefore to different levels. An accountant and a financial specialist are not the same line in the annex. The only reliable way to find your requirement is to look up your own occupation code in the annex to Regulation No. 157 on likumi.lv.

If an employer quotes you a level, it is entirely reasonable to ask which line of the annex it comes from. That question saves both the fee and months of preparing for the wrong level.

Another expensive misunderstanding. The state language proficiency examination and the naturalisation examination are two different tests run by two different institutions.

The proficiency examination is run by the State Education Development Agency (VIAA). The examinations required by the Citizenship Law are run by the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (PMLP), and there are two of them: one on the Latvian language, and one on the Constitution, the text of the national anthem, and the history and culture of Latvia.

The naturalisation language test assesses four skills: listening, reading, writing and speaking. The oral part includes ten interview questions, a discussion of situations, and describing images. It does not award a language level; it is an admission requirement for citizenship and nothing more.

It also has its own rules: the language proficiency test and the knowledge test may be taken no more than three times during the review of one naturalisation application, with at least three months between language attempts and at least one month between knowledge attempts. Only the part you failed has to be retaken.

What exactly is tested, what the pass mark is and who is exempt is covered in detail in our article on what level of Latvian you need for citizenship. The point to remember is simple: a language level certificate does not replace the naturalisation examination, and the naturalisation examination does not give you a level.

Regulation No. 157 exempts several groups from the proficiency examination:

If you fall into one of these groups, there is nothing to pay and nothing to prepare for. A supporting document is enough.

The state fee for the examination is 52 euro. It is paid per attempt and in a number of cases is not refunded, so it is worth arriving prepared rather than going to see what it looks like.

The examination is administered by VIAA through the State Examinations Information System. If a person already holds a language proficiency assessment and sits the examination again, the chronologically latest decision is the one in force. In other words, sitting a lower level will overwrite the previous result, which is worth keeping in mind.

How to register, what documents you need and how the day itself runs is described in our guide to registering for the state language examination.

If the requirement is fixed by your profession or by a document, there is no choice to make. But people often decide for themselves, and then it comes down to one question: what task is this certificate solving? The answer sets the level.

If there is one task and it is formal, sit exactly the level it specifies. A higher level is usually not needed to satisfy a formal requirement, and every attempt costs 52 euro and several months of preparation.

If there are two tasks and the second one is already visible, then the task is really a different one, and the level should be calculated from the further of the two. If citizenship, a career change or a role with a higher requirement is coming in a year or two, it is more sensible to build the language up to that bar once than to return to preparation from the middle a year later.

Separately, on what lies outside formal requirements: a higher level of Latvian may well help you when job hunting or negotiating with an employer, but that is a matter of your own situation rather than of the rules. An employer cannot require you to sit a higher level than the annex specifies.

And in either case, plan for a margin rather than the minimum. The examination assesses four skills, and a strong skill does not compensate for a weak one. Someone who speaks fluently but cannot write fails B1 just as surely as a quiet grammar expert.

Why that happens, and how many points you need in each part, is covered separately in our article on how the A2 Latvian exam works.

If you need structured preparation, Latvian Easy offers Latvian courses for adults at different levels.

Rules change: the version of Regulation No. 157 currently in force took effect on 16 September 2025. Check the current version before paying the fee.

Official documents no longer use "categories"; there are six levels from A1 to C2. A permanent residence permit and EU long-term resident status require A2. For work, the level is set by the annex to Regulation No. 157 according to your occupation code, and it usually falls between B1 and C1. Citizenship is tested separately by PMLP, and a language level certificate does not replace it. The fee is 52 euro per attempt, the most recent result is the one that counts, and some people are exempt from the examination altogether.