Who does not have to sit the A2 state language check

To obtain a permanent residence permit or EU long-term resident status in Latvia, you must show that you have learned the state language to at least basic level, second degree — A2. This comes from paragraph 6 of Cabinet Regulation No. 157 of 8 March 2022, and the level is the same for both statuses.

Not everyone has to sit the check, though. The regulation deals with two separate situations that are often mixed up: an exemption, where the check does not have to be sat at all, and a substitute document, where proficiency has already been evidenced and does not have to be evidenced again. The legal basis and the paperwork differ in each case.

Six situations in which the check is not sat

Paragraph 7 of Regulation No. 157 lists the cases in which the state language proficiency check does not have to be sat:

1. Education obtained in Latvian. The person obtained basic, secondary or higher education in Latvian within the formal education system.
2. A minority education programme completed before 1 September 2025, together with a passed grade-9 centralised examination in Latvian. This ground is tied to a fixed date, and with the transition to Latvian-medium schooling it is being phased out — the group of people it can apply to no longer grows.
3. The Latvian baccalaureate examination passed at a European School.
4. A health condition — one of the functional limitations or diagnoses listed in Annex 2 to the regulation. It is evidenced by an opinion from a physical-and-rehabilitation-medicine specialist or a psychiatrist (the Annex 3 form), shown to the employer or to an official of the migration authority.
5. Being under 15.
6. Being 75 or older.

This is the text of the regulation, not a set of guidelines. If your situation is not on the list, the check has to be sat — including when you already use Latvian every day at work.

An adapted sitting is not the same as an exemption

The limitations listed in Annex 2 do not always mean a full exemption. Under paragraph 9, a candidate with such a limitation sits an adapted version of the check. Where that happens, paragraph 48 applies the pass requirement only to the skills actually sat.

For everyone else the general rule stands: the check is passed only if the result in each skill separately — listening, reading, writing and speaking — is at least 60 % of the maximum, that is at least 9 points out of 15 in each part. The points are not pooled: one weak skill means a fail, whatever the other three look like. There is more on this in How many points you need in the A2 check.

Documents that replace the check

Paragraph 13 sets out which documents are accepted instead of a new sitting. This is not an exemption — it is recognition that proficiency has already been established:

• an earlier decision on a state language proficiency check;
• older state language proficiency certificates, whose degrees are mapped onto the current levels using Annex 4;
• a basic education certificate showing the centralised examination in Latvian, under Annex 5;
• a general secondary education certificate with the corresponding entry, under Annex 6.

If you hold one of these, your first step is not to register for the check but to present the document to the authority handling your application.

Naturalisation: recognition runs one way only

There is an asymmetry here worth knowing. Paragraphs 58.² and 69 of the transitional provisions of the Immigration Law state that a state language proficiency check passed in the naturalisation process is also to be recognised as evidence of having learned the state language.

There is no provision the other way round. The naturalisation process runs under different rules, with a different format and different scoring, and an A2 certificate does not substitute for it. If citizenship is your goal, plan for that examination separately.

The most common misunderstanding: the percentage table

A table circulates publicly that maps percentage ranges onto CEFR levels (A1, A2, B1 and so on). That table belongs to the conversion of a centralised school examination result — it is exactly the mechanism Annexes 5 and 6 rely on when a school certificate grade is translated into a proficiency level.

It is not how the adult proficiency check is scored. In the adult check you register for one specific level and you either pass it or you do not; a result is never "converted down" to a lower level. Confusing these two tables is one of the most frequent wrong assumptions people bring to the check.

An exemption has to be evidenced, not asserted

An exemption does not operate by declaration. Each of the paragraph-7 grounds is attached to a document: an education document, a medical opinion on the Annex 3 form, or an identity document from which age follows. The authority, or the employer, assesses the document — not the statement.

So the practical order is simple. First establish whether you hold a document that matches paragraph 7 or paragraph 13; if you do, present it; if you do not, register for the check in the ordinary way. Registration, deadlines and the state fee are covered in Registering and paying for the A2 check, and both the application and the result are handled through the state services portal latvija.gov.lv.

One more distinction that is easy to lose: being exempt from the check and being exempt from the state fee are different things. The fee is not paid by Latvian citizens, Latvian non-citizens and citizens of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland, nor by people holding low-income or needy-person status who produce the relevant document — but none of that, in itself, removes the obligation to sit the check. Separately, and to avoid a frequent confusion: Latvian non-citizen status is itself a permanent status, so for residence purposes non-citizens are under no obligation to sit this check at all.

If none of these cases applies to you

Then the ordinary route remains: registration, four parts, and 60 % in every skill. Where to start is set out in The A2 state language check — what it is, and the recurring questions are collected in the FAQ.

All four parts can be tried on this site for free — the practice papers follow the structure of the official programme, with the same point split and the same 60 % line in each skill, so that you know which skill is still behind before you register.

This article is informational and is not legal advice. Confirm your own deadline, your own legal basis, and which exemption or document applies in your case at the primary source — the current wording of Regulation No. 157 — and with the authority handling your application.