Germany to tighten German exam for migrants due to fraud

In Germany, from November 1, the rules for passing the German language exam for migrants will change. A B1 level certificate will not be issued to participants who fail to perform at least one section of the test. This is reported by the newspaper Bild with reference to the decree of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Germany.

According to the newspaper, the reason for the changes were cases of fraud. Some migrants are alleged to have bought online exam assignments with correct answers and used them in the Listening and Reading section.

High results in this part made it possible to qualify for a successful exam even with a completely unfulfilled written task. Participants were also required to confirm B1 levels during an oral examination.

The new rules should rule out this possibility. Now, to obtain a certificate, it is necessary to successfully pass each section of the exam. The German Ministry of Internal Affairs explained the tightening of requirements by the need to strengthen the protection of tests against fraud.

In 2025, more than 318,000 migrants passed the German language exam. Level B1 reached 55% of participants. A further 32.2% confirmed A2 proficiency, while 12.8% failed to achieve this result.