The German integration course explained: who can join, what it costs, what changed in 2026

What the integration course is

The integration course (Integrationskurs) is run on behalf of the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, the BAMF, by approved local providers such as adult education centers and language schools. The BAMF has offered it since 2005. Its rules are set by the Residence Act and by a separate regulation, the Integration Course Ordinance (Integrationskursverordnung, IntV), which you can read in full on gesetze-im-internet.de.

Under § 10 of the ordinance, the general course has 700 lessons and is taught in German. It has two parts. The language course takes 600 lessons and is split into a basic course and an advanced course, each made of three sections of 100 lessons at rising levels. The orientation course follows with 100 lessons on law, history and culture: rights and duties in Germany, ways of living together, and values such as religious freedom, tolerance and equality between women and men.

Before you start, the provider gives you a placement test, paid for by the BAMF, so that you join the right section. You may skip or repeat sections with the provider's agreement. The language lessons follow everyday and working life: work and training, childcare, shopping, health, housing and the media, plus the practical German of letters, emails, forms, phone calls and job applications.

The intensive course is for fast learners: you can only join it if the placement test suggests you will pass the language test within 400 lessons. The special courses go the other way. The literacy course (Alphabetisierungskurs) is for people who cannot read or write well enough, the second-script course (Zweitschriftlernerkurs) for people who read and write in another alphabet but not yet in Latin script, and the support course (Förderkurs) for people with particular learning needs.

Courses are normally full-time, with part-time courses for exceptions such as people in work, sometimes in the afternoon or evening. A class can have up to 25 participants, ideally with different first languages, and the ordinance also allows integration courses to run online where the BAMF approves the format. The BAMF funds a maximum of 1,200 lessons; after that you can continue or repeat sections at your own expense.

Who is entitled, who is obliged, who may apply

German law sorts participants into three groups, and which group you are in decides almost everything: whether you get a place, whether you must attend and who applies for you.

Entitled: non-EU residents with a permit since 2005

You have a legal right to a course if you received your first residence permit after 1 January 2005, live in Germany permanently and are here for work, family reunification, humanitarian reasons or as a long-term resident under § 38a of the Residence Act. Your stay counts as permanent if your permit was issued for more than one year, or if you have held a residence permit for over 18 months. Holders of certain settlement permits under § 23 also qualify. The right does not apply to children and young people still in school in Germany, to people with clearly little need for integration, or to people who already speak enough German, although they may still take the orientation course on its own.

Obliged: when the foreigners authority says so

If you received your permit after 1 January 2005 and cannot communicate in simple German, the foreigners authority (Ausländerbehörde) notes the obligation to attend when it issues your residence title. The job center can also oblige people who receive basic income support (Grundsicherungsgeld). You cannot be obliged if you are in training or education in Germany, if attending is permanently impossible or unreasonable, for example because you care for a family member, or if you work and cannot fit even a part-time course around your job.

Admitted voluntarily: EU citizens, Germans and others

EU citizens and German citizens have no legal entitlement. The BAMF can admit them on application if they do not yet speak enough German, have a particular need for integration and there are free places. The same route under § 44 (4) of the Residence Act applies to other groups without an entitlement. This is the route that was frozen in 2026, and it is the one most English-speaking expats from the EU, and their families, depend on.

What changed in 2026

At the start of 2026, the BAMF suspended admissions of voluntary participants under § 44 (4) of the Residence Act. According to the EU Agency for Asylum, a circular to course providers dated 9 February 2026 halted new admissions for the current financial year for asylum applicants, people with a tolerated stay, people displaced from Ukraine and EU citizens, unless they paid for the course themselves. Participations already approved stayed valid, and people with an entitlement or an obligation kept their route into the courses.

In its information letter dated August 2026, the BAMF announced that the suspension would end within the limits of the available places and that from 1 August 2026 it would again admit certain groups on application. It also stated the new principle plainly: admissions depend on the places that the available budget allows, and priority now goes to people who should become available to the job market again.

The government amended § 5 (4) of the Integration Course Ordinance to set two priority groups. The first is foreigners with a residence permit under § 24 of the Residence Act, the status for temporary protection. The second is German citizens and other EU citizens who do not have enough German to take up work or training, together with the family members of both groups.

Within the second group, the BAMF names three kinds of applicants it treats as returning to the job market: people entitled to unemployment benefit (Arbeitslosengeld) under § 136 of Book III of the Social Code, employed people on a low income who are exempt from the course fee, and people who have worked in Germany without building up a claim to unemployment benefit. The two priority groups are admitted in equal shares, applications are handled in the order they arrive, and incomplete applications are rejected rather than put on hold.

What this means in practice: if you are an EU citizen in Germany who works on a modest salary, has lost a job or is looking for one, you have a fair chance of a place. If you are a well-paid EU professional who simply wants to learn German, the law still allows the BAMF to admit you, but the priority rules and the budget work against you. Check the BAMF's current information page before you plan around a funded place, because these rules have changed twice in one year.

What it costs and who pays nothing

Unless you are exempt, you pay a contribution of 2.29 euros per lesson, or 2.20 euros if you registered before 1 August 2022. The general course therefore costs you 1,603 euros, and a special course of 1,000 lessons 2,290 euros. You do not pay it all at once: the fee is due at the start of each section of 100 lessons, so 229 euros at a time. If you drop out or miss lessons, you still owe the fee for the whole section.

Many participants pay nothing. Under § 9 of the ordinance, the BAMF exempts you on application if you receive basic income support, unemployment benefit or social assistance, or if paying would be an unreasonable hardship. People in work are exempt if their gross earnings do not exceed 33 percent of the annual contribution ceiling of the statutory pension insurance, a limit that rises by 10 percent with one child and by 20 percent with two or more. The BAMF prints the current amounts, which change every year, on the exemption form.

If you are exempt and the walk to your course is at least 5 kilometers, you can also apply for a travel cost subsidy. And if you pay the fee and pass, you can get half of it back: the BAMF refunds 50 percent to participants who complete the course successfully within two years of receiving their eligibility certificate, or within three years for special target-group courses. The refund rule is still in § 9 (6) of the ordinance and the BAMF still offers the refund application. On the general course that is 801.50 euros, a real reward for finishing on time.

One more deadline matters. Your eligibility lapses if, for reasons you are responsible for, you do not start the course within one year of registering, or you interrupt it for more than a year. It can be reactivated only if you show good reasons.

The final tests and the certificate

The course ends with two tests, both paid for by the BAMF for the first attempt. If you fail the language test before using up all your lessons, the BAMF also pays for a second attempt.

Deutsch-Test für Zuwanderer (DTZ)

The DTZ is a scaled test: one exam that measures you at A2 or B1, rather than a pass-or-fail exam at a single level. The written part takes 100 minutes and covers listening, reading and writing a short letter; the oral part takes about 15 minutes. To be placed at B1 or A2 overall, you need that level in speaking and in at least one of the two other parts. Below A2 you receive only a notice of your result, not a certificate.

Leben in Deutschland

The orientation course ends with the Leben in Deutschland test: 33 multiple-choice questions with four options each, in 60 minutes, on the topics of the orientation course. You pass with 15 correct answers. With at least 17, the result also counts as proof of the knowledge of the legal and social order that German citizenship requires under § 10 of the Nationality Act.

Zertifikat Integrationskurs

If you reach B1 in the DTZ and pass Leben in Deutschland, the BAMF issues the Zertifikat Integrationskurs. Under § 17 of the ordinance this is what counts as successful completion of the course, and it proves the B1 German and the basic knowledge of the legal and social order that you need for a permanent settlement permit (Niederlassungserlaubnis). If you already hold another recognized standardized B1 certificate, you can present it when you register, provided it is not more than a year old.

After the integration course: job-related German

B1 gets you through daily life, but many jobs ask for more. For this the BAMF runs the job-related language courses (Berufssprachkurse), which build on the integration course and are open to non-EU citizens, EU citizens and Germans with a migrant background. Their legal basis is a separate ordinance on job-related German language support (DeuFöV).

The basic courses end with a certificate exam at A2, B1, B2, C1 or C2. The A2 and B1 courses are only for people who did not reach B1 despite taking an integration course. Special courses cover, among others, people going through recognition as doctors or nurses, technical and commercial German, and German for a specific workplace. Normally you need a completed integration course or B1, and you must be registered as a job seeker, receive benefits, be looking for or doing vocational training, be going through recognition of a qualification, or be employed with German that is not yet good enough for work.

Job seekers get the eligibility certificate from the employment agency or job center, others from the BAMF. Employees pay nothing if their gross earnings stay under the same 33 percent threshold, raised by 10 percent each for the first and second child; above it they pay 2.56 euros per teaching unit, so 1,024 euros for a 400-unit course, which an employer may cover. Pass the exam and you can claim half the fee back.

The integration course or another way to learn?

For many newcomers the integration course is the best deal in German education. It is inexpensive or free, the curriculum is set nationally, the orientation course explains how the country works, and the certificate is exactly the proof the immigration authorities ask for. If you are entitled or obliged, take it seriously and aim for B1 within the refund deadline.

It is not built for everyone, though. Courses are mostly full-time, groups can be large, places for voluntary participants now depend on the budget, and the course aims at B1 and stops there. If you work full-time, if you are an EU citizen outside the priority groups, or if your job needs B2 or C1, it often makes sense to look at other options alongside it or instead of it.

Private evening and weekend courses at language schools let you pick the schedule and the level, often in smaller groups, but you pay the full price yourself. Live online classes with a teacher remove the commute and fit more easily around a working day, and some prepare for the same Goethe, telc or ÖSD certificates the authorities accept. Self-study apps are useful for vocabulary but rarely make you speak. At Alimun, for example, you take a level test and then join live online German classes with a teacher in a small group, which suits people who want to keep progressing after B1 or cannot attend daytime classes.

There is no wrong combination. Some people finish the integration course and then move on to a job-related course; others learn privately while they wait for a place, or study for a Goethe or telc B1 if they need a certificate sooner. Whatever you choose, check your own case with the BAMF or your foreigners authority, because entitlement, fees and admissions are set by the rules in force on the day you apply.

Questions people ask

Sources: BAMF: integration courses, content and structure, BAMF: integration course for EU citizens (admission, fee, exemptions), BAMF: residence titles from 2005 (entitlement, obligation, refund), BAMF: information letter on readmission under § 44 (4) Residence Act, August 2026, BAMF: final tests and Zertifikat Integrationskurs, Integration Course Ordinance (IntV) on gesetze-im-internet.de, BAMF: job-related language courses, EUAA: BAMF circular halting admissions to integration courses (2026).