Proving your language skills when you apply for Finnish citizenship
- Education and qualificationsAssessment of competenceSecond national language, SwedishSecond national language, FinnishForeign languages
On this page, you can read more about using the YKI-test for your Finnish citizenship application. The Finnish National Agency for Education organises the YKI tests, but the Finnish Immigration Service is responsible for the citizenship applications.
How to use YKI test to prove your language skills
According to the guidelines of the Finnish Immigration Service, applicants for the Finnish citizenship need to prove their language skills in Finnish or Swedish by attaching a language proficiency certificate with their citizenship application. You can get a language proficiency certificate by passing the oral and written parts of the National Certificate of Language Proficiency test (YKI test) at the intermediate (3) skill level or higher.
YKI-test has four components (also known as subtests): speaking, writing, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension. All four components will be taken during the same test day and on the same skill level that you chose in the registration phase for the YKI test.
To meet the requirements for spoken and written language skills, only the following combinations of test components are accepted:
1) speaking and writing
OR
2) listening comprehension and writing
OR
3) reading comprehension and speaking.
Please note that you will only be given the certificate when you take the whole test, including all the four components. However, you can demonstrate the required component combinations for the citizenship application by combining several certificates (Certificates received from 1 January 2012 onwards).