CIPLE Exam Dates 2026

The CIPLE (Certificado Inicial de Português Língua Estrangeira) is the A2-level Portuguese language exam commonly used for Portuguese citizenship applications.

The exam is organised by CAPLE (Centro de Avaliação de Português Língua Estrangeira) at the University of Lisbon, which publishes a calendar of exam dates each year.

The table below shows the 2026 exam dates and registration periods for the University of Lisbon's CAPLE centre. Most exam centres in Portugal follow the same schedule, although centres outside Portugal may have different dates and registration periods, as explained below.

Keep in mind: places at each exam centre are limited. The University of Lisbon centre, for example, has 175 places per session. Registration is only open during the dates shown and does not remain open until the exam date.

Popular centres can fill up quickly, sometimes before the official registration deadline. If you want to take the CIPLE on a specific date, it's best to register as soon as the registration window opens.

The 2026 CIPLE calendar

Registration opens at 15h00 Lisbon time on the day shown. Sittings that have already happened are greyed, and the next one you can still register for is marked. The last 2026 close in the table is 20 Oct 2026.

Not every centre offers every date

The table above shows the University of Lisbon's own 2026 exam calendar. Centres outside Portugal usually offer CIPLE exams in May, July, and November, but each centre sets its own exact exam dates. These can be several days different from the Lisbon dates.

For example, the University of Valencia held its 2026 exams on 12th to 14th of May and 3rd to 5th of November, while the Lisbon centre held its exams on 16th of May and 7th of November.

Registration deadlines are often the same across centres, even when the exam dates are different. However, available places and exam fees can vary between centres, so treat this page as a guide rather than the final word, as information can differ.

Once you have chosen a test centre, check the official CAPLE website to confirm the exact exam date, registration period, and any other requirements so that you can plan around it.

How the registration window works, and when each deadline falls

Each sitting follows the same rhythm:

• Registration opens several weeks before the exam, at 15h00 Lisbon time. The lead time varies by session, from about four weeks to ten.
• It closes roughly two weeks before the exam, or earlier if the centre fills first.
• Payment is due within 24 hours of registering, or the place is released.

That short gap between opening and closing, plus limited places at each centre, is why so many people miss a sitting. You do not need to refresh the CAPLE site every day for months. Sign up by clicking the button below to get live notifications of exam places becoming available. Alerts reach you on Telegram the moment a place opens at any of the centres we monitor, for $3.99 per month, cancel anytime.

Ready to register? Our step-by-step guide to registering for CIPLE walks through the form, the ID rules, and the payment.

If you would rather see what the alerts cover before signing up, here is how CIPLE exam alerts work.

What happens when a centre fills up

We check CAPLE's centre listings every hour and keep the history, which gives an unusual view of how availability actually behaves. Here is what seven months of it looks like: 209 CIPLE sittings, across 92 centres in 34 countries, between January and August 2026.

A centre showing nothing is usually not the end of it. 157 of those sittings became unavailable at some point before their deadline. 140 of them, just under nine in ten, came back at least once. Places returned 500 times in total across 72 different centres. One sitting in Buenos Aires came back on twenty separate occasions.

When places come back, it is usually quick. Half the gaps we recorded lasted under 25 hours, and nine in ten were under three days. Some were far longer. A sitting at Cáceres in Spain reappeared after 74 days, eleven days before its deadline, and one at Viseu came back on the deadline day itself after three days away.

The deadline, though, is real. We have never seen a sitting bookable after its registration deadline had passed, and CAPLE has never moved one of those dates. Plenty about CIPLE availability is unpredictable. That date is not.

So if the centre you want shows nothing, it is worth checking again right up to the deadline, and worth treating the deadline itself as final.

How we know. "Available" here means CAPLE's own listing offered that centre and sitting at the moment we checked, and since we check hourly rather than continuously, 500 is a floor rather than a full count. What else we can and cannot tell from outside is set out in full alongside the rest of the method on no dates showing at your centre.

Before you rely on these dates

CAPLE can adjust its calendar, and international centres set their own logistics. These dates were checked against the official University of Lisbon exam calendar in July 2026. Always confirm the specific date and deadline for your centre on the official CAPLE website, caple.letras.ulisboa.pt, before registering.