🇺🇸 CIPLE A2 Exam Centers in the United States

The United States has exactly one CIPLE A2 center: the Portuguese Embassy in Washington DC, at 2012 Massachusetts Ave NW. It is an embassy rather than a university, unlike most of the CAPLE and LAPE network that runs the exam elsewhere. There is nothing on the west coast, nothing in the south, nothing in New England, and no university center anywhere in the country. For most candidates this is a flight, not a drive, and that changes almost everything about how far ahead you have to plan.

Get alerted the moment a spot opens

We watch every CIPLE A2 center in the United States, around the clock.

You have to plan further ahead than most people do

In most countries, missing a registration window means waiting a few weeks and trying again at a center down the road. In the US it means booking another flight.

So the exam fee ends up being the cheap part. Registration is 95 euros. The flights and a night in DC are not, and you lose those too if the seat goes before you spot it.

Places do come back, but not on a timetable you can book around. Between January and August 2026 we watched 157 sittings go unavailable before their deadline. 140 of them came back, most within about a day. That is worth knowing if you can move quickly. It is less helpful if you have already paid for a plane ticket.

Do not assume Toronto or London will do

CAPLE publishes which exams each centre is running for the current session, and that list is not fixed. As things stand, the Portuguese consulate in Toronto and the embassy in London are not listed for the CIPLE A2, while Washington DC is.

That is not the same as saying they never run it. CAPLE points people at the centre for exactly this reason, and so do we.

Exam levels: as listed by CAPLE and collected on 2026-09-08. Each centre picks which levels it runs each session, so confirm with the center before you plan around it, which is what CAPLE itself advises. Our exam center directory holds the full list.

On the current listing, Mexico is the closest option outside the US, and two of its five centers have it. Portugal has more centers than anywhere else, so if you were going to visit anyway it is worth pricing up.

We cannot tell you the Washington DC dates

Our 2026 exam calendar comes from the University of Lisbon, which is the one CAPLE publishes. It says centers outside Portugal set their own dates within the same months.

We have not been able to confirm whether Washington DC follows those dates, so we are not going to pretend it does. Use the calendar to see roughly how the year runs, then check the embassy's own registration page for the sitting you want.

If this is the last box to tick

Plenty of people get to the CIPLE A2 with everything else already done. The documents are gathered, the file is ready, and this one certificate is holding it up.

If that is you, waiting a few weeks for a more convenient date can cost more than the trip would. It also makes the last registration deadline of the year worth watching, because once it goes there is nothing else until CAPLE publishes the next calendar.

Not sure the exam still applies to you? Portugal's nationality law changed in 2026, and CIPLE is still the language exam. Planning to sit it in the United States? See the 2026 CIPLE exam dates and how to register for CIPLE. If the centers below have nothing bookable, here is what to do when a center shows no dates. Already booked? Read what to expect on exam day and how results and the certificate work.