What If You Fail the Einbürgerungstest? Retakes, Costs, and Next Steps
Failing the German citizenship test is not the end of the road. Here is how retakes work, what each attempt costs, and how to pass the next time.
Failing the Einbürgerungstest feels like a setback, but it is a recoverable one. The test is designed so that a failed attempt does not block your path to citizenship. It simply means you sit it again. Here is exactly what happens and how to make the next attempt the last one.
You can retake it
If you do not reach 17 correct answers out of 33, you do not pass that attempt, but you are allowed to retake the test. There is no fixed limit on the number of attempts, so a single failure does not end your application. You register again at a test centre and sit the test on a new date.
What a retake costs and involves
Each attempt costs 25 euros, including every retake. You book the next available date at a licensed test centre, the same way you booked the first one. You only repeat the test itself. The rest of your naturalisation process, such as your language certificate and your gathered documents, is unaffected by a failed test. There is no penalty beyond the fee and the time spent waiting for the next date.
Why people fail the first time
Most people who fail did not fail because the material is hard. They failed because they underestimated it. The questions are straightforward once you know them, but there are a lot of them, and a few areas catch people out. The state-specific questions are a common weak point, since applicants often focus on the 300 general questions and skim the ten that relate to their own federal state. Reading the questions once is also not the same as being able to answer them under time pressure.
How to pass the next time
The most reliable fix is active practice rather than passive reading. Work through the questions, answer them yourself, and check what you got wrong instead of just rereading the list. Pay particular attention to the topics you missed the first time and to the state-specific questions for your federal state. Sitting full mock exams in the real 33-question format helps you get used to the timing and shows you whether you are reliably clearing 17 correct before you pay for another attempt.
Keep the result once you pass
Once you pass, the certificate does not expire, so a single clean pass is all you ever need. There is no benefit to a higher score, only to passing, so the goal is simply to clear the threshold with confidence.
Prepare so the retake is the last one
The fastest way past a failed attempt is targeted preparation. PassCitizen has the full official question catalogue, sorted by topic and with the state-specific questions for your federal state, plus mock exams that match the real format. Practising actively this way is the difference between guessing and knowing. It is free and needs no account.
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