To start with, the Law of Ukraine “On Citizenship of Ukraine” provides a number of conditions for Ukrainian citizenship applicants, including knowledge of the state language. A foreigner must confirm with a document his or her level of knowledge of the Ukrainian language.
Previously, such a document was a language certificate issued by educational institutions or relevant local executive bodies or local governments (for example, in Lviv such certificates could be obtained after an interview at the Department of Humanitarian Policy of the Lviv City Council). However, after adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On establishing the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language”, foreigners now need to pass a language exam to apply for citizenship. Accordingly, the main document that will confirm knowledge of a foreigner’s language is a state language certificate.
A special National Commission on State Language Standards was established in order to approve Ukrainian language standards, as well as to organize and conduct language exams.This Commission develops the requirements for language proficiency levels, develops the tasks and determines the examination procedure.
How to pass the language exam?
The Ukrainian language exam consists of an oral and a written part, that are conducted with a computer. The examination procedure for foreigners intending to obtain Ukrainian citizenship and for those who must use the Ukrainian language while executing their official duties is the same and is as follows:
1) the applicant must arrive in the designated place of the examination;
2) the next step – registration on the official website of the Commission through a personal account;
3) passing of the exam;
4) evaluation of results and decision-making based on the results of the exam.
It is important to note that the exam itself takes the form of anonymous testing, and therefore the applicant is prohibited from making any notes that could identify a particular person. As a general rule, the exam for foreigners intending to obtain Ukrainian citizenship is paid. Preliminarily, the amount of payment for such an exam is 492 UAH.
The written part of the exam consists of test tasks and writing a text on a predetermined topic. It is assumed that the test tasks are checked automatically, and the written text is checked by the examiner. The oral part consists of the applicant’s monologue and his dialogue with the examiner on a certain topic. The oral part of the exam is conducted with using video and audio recording.
After evaluating the results of the exam, the Commission decides whether to provide or not a state language certificate. The results of the exam must be informed to the applicant via his account no later than 15 calendar days after passing the exam. In case of positive passing the exam, the foreigner receives a state certificate, which is valid indefinitely.
If due to some reason the applicant has not passed the exam, it can be repeated many times, but not more often than once every four months. A foreigner also has the right to appeal the results of the exam.
The requirement to confirm the level of knowledge of the Ukrainian language does not apply to:
– foreigners who have outstanding merits before Ukraine (in particular, who serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine and are awarded a state award)
– persons whose citizenship has a state interest for Ukraine.
However, such foreigners are obliged to learn the language within one year from the day of acquiring a citizenship.
Pay attention that as of May 2021, the Commission is testing the tasks for the Ukrainian language exam. The examination will begin on July 16, 2021 in accordance with the provisions of the Law of Ukraine ” On establishing the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language”.
