B1, B2 and which German certificate actually counts

The law names a level, not an exam

This is the part that surprises people who have spent money on the wrong certificate. § 2 of the Aufenthaltsgesetz defines the language levels in five short subsections and does nothing else: einfache Sprachkenntnisse are A1, hinreichende are A2, ausreichende are B1, gute are B2, and someone who beherrscht the language is at C1. Every one of them points at the Common European Framework. None of them points at Goethe, telc, ÖSD or anyone else.

The same holds where you would most expect a rule. § 10 (4) StAG says naturalisation requires that you „die Anforderungen einer Sprachprüfung der Stufe B 1 des Gemeinsamen Europäischen Referenzrahmens erfüllt" — a level, again. § 20a (4) AufenthG says the Chancenkarte points route requires that you prove A1 German or B2 English, without saying who does the proving. And § 30 (1) Nr. 2 AufenthG, the spouse route, does not ask for a certificate at all: it asks that the spouse „sich zumindest auf einfache Art in deutscher Sprache verständigen kann". That is a capability, not a document.

So the question is never „which certificate is recognised in Germany". It is „which certificate does this particular office accept" — and there are three different answers.

The BAMF list is the only official list of names

The Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge publishes overviews of the exams it recognises, because § 17 (2) IntV lets you skip the integration course's own test if you already hold a B1 certificate that „vom Bundesamt anerkannt ist". Those overviews are the closest thing to an authoritative naming of exams that German administration produces.

The B1 list (Stand July 2023) carries seven providers: Goethe-Institut (Goethe-Zertifikat B1, also the Jugendliche version), telc gGmbH (Deutsch A2-B1, telc Deutsch B1, Deutsch B1+ Beruf, Deutsch B1-B2 Beruf, Deutsch B1-B2 Pflege, Deutsch-Test für den Beruf B1), the Kultusministerkonferenz (DSD I and DSD I PRO), the Österreichisches Sprachdiplom (ÖSD Zertifikat B1), the Österreichischer Integrationsfonds (Deutsch-Test für Österreich, Integrationsprüfung), ECL, and g.a.s.t. for the Deutsch-Test für Zuwanderer itself.

The B2 list (same date) keeps all of those that reach B2 and adds the academic route: TestDaF and the digital TestDaF count as B2 only if you reach level 3 in every single skill, the DSH counts at DSH 1 or DSH 2, and the DSD II of the Kultusministerkonferenz is on it. Both lists close with the sentence that costs the most money in practice: „Bescheinigungen über interne Prüfungen universitärer Sprachenzentren und anderer Sprachkursanbieter werden vom BAMF nicht anerkannt." A school that teaches you well and then issues its own B2 paper has issued you nothing an authority will read.

One list is often misread. The C1 overview was refreshed in July 2026, but its own title limits it to registration for a C2 job-related course — it is not a general statement that C1 certificates are recognised for other purposes.

A visa office applies a different test entirely

For the spouse visa the BAMF's own leaflet (Stand 03/2023) sets the criterion: the certificate must rest on „einer standardisierten Sprachprüfung gemäß den Standards der ‚Association of Language Testers in Europe' (ALTE)". ALTE membership, not a German list, is the gate. The leaflet then names specific exams, and this is where you have to be careful — those names are from an older exam generation, and one of them belongs to a company that has since changed its legal form. Treat the ALTE standard as the rule and the names as an illustration.

Two embassy leaflets, checked independently of each other, add a condition that appears in no blog: the ALTE-certified provider must operate a local branch staffed with seconded personnel. In countries where Goethe or telc are present only through licensed partner schools, that is the difference between a certificate that clears the counter and one that does not.

The same leaflets state the consequence plainly: „Der Sprachnachweis ist auf Echtheit und bei konkreten Anhaltspunkten im Einzelfall auch auf seine Plausibilität und seine Aktualität im Hinblick auf das tatsächliche Sprachvermögen des Antragstellers zu überprüfen." Handing over a certificate does not settle the question. And the decision belongs to the mission alone — the BAMF leaflet says so in as many words.

There is a mirror image to that, and it is good news: if the officer can see during your appointment that the simple language skills are there „ohne jeden Zweifel", no particular certificate is required at all.

Where you sit the exam can matter more than which exam

The Bavarian Landesamt für Pflege lists eight accepted B2 proofs for the nursing licence, and inserts one bracket into the middle of them: from 23 June 2022 it no longer accepts telc certificates issued by Serbian and Bosnian telc institutes. The provider is on the list. The level is right. The place of examination is not.

We are not going to speculate about why a single authority drew that line, and it binds only Bavaria. The practical lesson is transferable and it is the reason this section exists: before you book, ask the office that will later read the certificate whether it accepts that provider at that location. For candidates in Kosovo, Bosnia, Serbia and North Macedonia this is not a theoretical risk, and the answer costs one email.

Certificates do not expire, but three clocks run anyway

The Goethe-Institut states on its own FAQ that its certificates from A1 to C2 do not expire, and in the same breath that many institutions and employers expect a certificate no more than two years old. Both halves are true, and the second half is the one that decides cases.

Two of those clocks are written down. § 17 (2) Nr. 4 IntV only lets an outside B1 certificate replace the integration course test if it is „zum Zeitpunkt der Anmeldung beim Träger nicht älter als ein Jahr" — one year, in a federal regulation. The BAMF's C1 overview sets six months: an older certificate means the course provider tests you again before you start the C2 course. The third clock is the informal one, the two-year expectation, and it has no legal basis at all — which is precisely why arguing about it gets you nowhere.

There is a fourth thing worth knowing about the paper itself: § 17 (4) IntV rules out issuing the Zertifikat Integrationskurs electronically. The physical document is the document.

Regulated professions: your state's list is the one that counts

Nursing, medicine and the other regulated professions are licensed by the states, so the accepted certificates are set state by state. Bavaria asks for B2 for the Pflegefachfrau/Pflegefachmann licence and accepts, among others, the Goethe-Zertifikat B2 and Goethe-Zertifikat B2 PRO Pflege, telc Deutsch B2 and telc Deutsch B2 Pflege, the ÖSD B2, ECL, the Deutsch-Test für den Beruf B2 and TestDaF at TDN 3.

Two details from that leaflet are worth carrying into any state. First, Bavaria records that „aktuell ist keine gesonderte Fachsprachenprüfung nötig" for nursing — a separate specialist language exam is widely assumed to be mandatory everywhere, and in this state it currently is not. Second, three groups need no certificate at all: native speakers, people who completed at least ten years of schooling in German, and people who completed a three-year vocational training in German.

Medicine works differently and more strictly, with a specialist language examination on top of general B2. We have set out how the levels interact with the permit itself in the guide on English-speaking jobs.

What we deliberately do not tell you: the price

Exam fees for the same certificate differ between countries and between institutes within a country, and they are revised without announcement. Any single figure we printed here would be wrong for most readers, so we print none — ask the institute where you intend to sit the exam, and ask for the fee for a repeat of a single module, which is usually much lower than a full resit.

One cost is fixed and worth knowing: inside an integration course, § 17 (3) IntV puts the first sitting of the final tests on the Bundesamt, and a second sitting of the language test too if you fail it before your teaching hours are used up.

The honest answer

Sit a Goethe, telc or ÖSD exam at a location the provider runs itself, and confirm with the office that will read the certificate — visa section, BAMF course provider, or state licensing body — that it accepts that combination before you pay. Those three providers are on every list we checked, so the level and the provider are rarely what goes wrong; the place of examination and the age of the paper are.

If you are collecting Chancenkarte points, the arithmetic makes the choice for you: B2 is worth three of the six points you need, B1 is worth two, and A2 is worth one, and they do not stack — going from B1 to B2 buys you one point, and it is the single cheapest point on the table. Working out which route and which level your case actually needs is the part we take on, free for you, since the employer pays our fee.