Country-wide policy
The State Pays for the Slovene Course and for One Attempt at the Exam, and the Entitlement Turns on Holding a Permit Valid for a Year
Article 106 of ZTuj-2 makes Slovenia provide free of charge to non-EU nationals: programmes of Slovene language and of learning about Slovene society, the sitting of the Slovene language examination, programmes of mutual acquaintance with Slovene citizens, and information about integration. The entitlement to one free place on the language and society programme belongs to holders of a permanent residence permit, holders of a temporary permit issued with a validity of at least one year, family members of Slovene or Union citizens residing on a family-member permit regardless of how long they have been here, and people on temporary protection. One free attempt at the examination comes with it. It is not open to people who finished schooling in Slovene here at any level, who are in a Slovene-language programme of regular education, or who already hold a certificate at basic level or above - which is to say, to anyone who has already passed the test it exists to prepare them for. The condition that decides most cases is the one-year validity: a permit issued for less than a year carries no entitlement, and the digital nomad permit under article 51.a(4) is issued for at most one year and may be shorter.
Topics it changes
- Residency through work
- Residency through marriage
- Residency on passive income
- Residency through ancestry
- Becoming a citizen
What it requires
- A permanent residence permit, or a temporary permit issued with a validity of at least one year
- Or a family-member permit held by the family member of a Slovene or Union citizen, with no length condition
- That you have not already been schooled in Slovene here or passed the examination
At a glance
- What is free
- The course, one attempt at the examination, and the information service
Article 106(1), 106(3) and 106(6) of ZTuj-2.
- Who qualifies
- Permanent residents, holders of a permit valid at least a year, family members of Slovene or EU citizens, and people on temporary protection
Article 106(3) of ZTuj-2, which lists the four groups.
- Who does not
- Anyone schooled in Slovene here or already certified at basic level
Article 106(5) of ZTuj-2.
- Why it matters
- Permanent residence needs the A2 certificate
Article 52(1) of ZTuj-2 makes the examination a condition, and article 106 is what pays for preparing for it.
What the law says
«Tujcem, ki niso državljani EU, se z namenom hitrejšega vključevanja v kulturno, gospodarsko in družbeno življenje Republike Slovenije brezplačno zagotavlja: – programe učenja slovenskega jezika in spoznavanja slovenske družbe, pod pogoji, določenimi v tem členu, – opravljanje preizkusa znanja slovenskega jezika, pod pogoji, določenimi v tem členu, – programe medsebojnega poznavanja in razumevanja s slovenskimi državljani, – informiranje v zvezi z njihovim vključevanjem v slovensko družbo.»About this source
The official gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, where an instrument gains force. Every Act, amending Act, government decree, ministerial rulebook and Constitutional Court decision is published here, and so is the uradno prečiščeno besedilo - the official consolidated text, which the National Assembly confirms by resolution under article 153 of its own rules of procedure and which then appears as a numbered item of a numbered issue. Two address shapes serve the same material and both answer an ordinary request without JavaScript. /glasilo-uradni-list-rs/vsebina/{YYYY}-01-{NNNN} is the item, where the number is the SOP identifier the state legal information system also uses, so an identifier found there resolves straight to the gazette text; a human-readable slug may follow the identifier and is optional. /_pdf/{YYYY}/Ur/u{YYYY}{NNN}.pdf is the whole issue as a PDF. From 1 March 2026 the gazette is published through pisrs.si instead, and single items from the new arrangement are served at https://pisrs.si/api/uradni-list/objava/u{YYYY}{NNNN}.pdf as one-item PDFs with a text layer. Readings for this corpus were taken directly rather than through the extraction service, because the item pages are ordinary HTML and the service adds nothing.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: **It issues; it does not maintain.** The gazette prints an instrument as it was published on the day and never updates it, so an amending Act and the Act it amends are two separate items and neither tells you what the law now says. The only current text of an Act is an official consolidation, and those are made when the National Assembly decides to make one: for the Aliens Act that is ZTuj-2-UPB15 of 24 June 2025 and current, but for the Citizenship Act it is ZDRS-UPB2 of 20 March 2007 and ten years behind ZDRS-E, for the Income Tax Act it is ZDoh-2-UPB7 of 28 February 2011, for the Health Care and Health Insurance Act ZZVZZ-UPB3 of 11 July 2006, and for the Act on employment of foreign nationals ZZSDT-UPB4 of 7 June 2021 with two amending Acts after it. **Never cite an official consolidation as the law in force without checking the amending Acts published since it**, and never treat the absence of a later consolidation as evidence that nothing changed. The site also prints, on every item page, that what it shows is archival under article 33 of the Act on the Official Gazette and that issues published after 28 February 2026 are on PISRS: "Prikazana vsebina je v skladu s 33. členom ZoUL arhivska. Izdaje uradnega lista, izdane po 28.2.2026, so dostopne na PISRS". It cannot be cited for anything published after that date.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Do enkratne brezplačne udeležbe v programu učenja slovenskega jezika in spoznavanja slovenske družbe v javnoveljavnem izobraževalnem programu za odrasle, na podlagi katerega se ne pridobi javnoveljavna izobrazba, so upravičeni tujci, ki niso državljani EU in ki: – v Republiki Sloveniji prebivajo na podlagi dovoljenja za stalno prebivanje; – v Republiki Sloveniji prebivajo na podlagi dovoljenja za začasno prebivanje, izdanega z veljavnostjo najmanj enega leta; – so družinski člani slovenskih državljanov ali državljanov EU, ki v Republiki Sloveniji prebivajo na podlagi dovoljenja za prebivanje za družinskega člana, ne glede na dolžino prebivanja in dolžino veljavnosti dovoljenja za začasno prebivanje; – v Republiki Sloveniji prebivajo na podlagi priznane začasne zaščite v skladu z zakonom, ki ureja začasno zaščito razseljenih oseb.»The four groups, and the one-year validity condition that decides which permit holders are in.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The official gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, where an instrument gains force. Every Act, amending Act, government decree, ministerial rulebook and Constitutional Court decision is published here, and so is the uradno prečiščeno besedilo - the official consolidated text, which the National Assembly confirms by resolution under article 153 of its own rules of procedure and which then appears as a numbered item of a numbered issue. Two address shapes serve the same material and both answer an ordinary request without JavaScript. /glasilo-uradni-list-rs/vsebina/{YYYY}-01-{NNNN} is the item, where the number is the SOP identifier the state legal information system also uses, so an identifier found there resolves straight to the gazette text; a human-readable slug may follow the identifier and is optional. /_pdf/{YYYY}/Ur/u{YYYY}{NNN}.pdf is the whole issue as a PDF. From 1 March 2026 the gazette is published through pisrs.si instead, and single items from the new arrangement are served at https://pisrs.si/api/uradni-list/objava/u{YYYY}{NNNN}.pdf as one-item PDFs with a text layer. Readings for this corpus were taken directly rather than through the extraction service, because the item pages are ordinary HTML and the service adds nothing.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: **It issues; it does not maintain.** The gazette prints an instrument as it was published on the day and never updates it, so an amending Act and the Act it amends are two separate items and neither tells you what the law now says. The only current text of an Act is an official consolidation, and those are made when the National Assembly decides to make one: for the Aliens Act that is ZTuj-2-UPB15 of 24 June 2025 and current, but for the Citizenship Act it is ZDRS-UPB2 of 20 March 2007 and ten years behind ZDRS-E, for the Income Tax Act it is ZDoh-2-UPB7 of 28 February 2011, for the Health Care and Health Insurance Act ZZVZZ-UPB3 of 11 July 2006, and for the Act on employment of foreign nationals ZZSDT-UPB4 of 7 June 2021 with two amending Acts after it. **Never cite an official consolidation as the law in force without checking the amending Acts published since it**, and never treat the absence of a later consolidation as evidence that nothing changed. The site also prints, on every item page, that what it shows is archival under article 33 of the Act on the Official Gazette and that issues published after 28 February 2026 are on PISRS: "Prikazana vsebina je v skladu s 33. členom ZoUL arhivska. Izdaje uradnega lista, izdane po 28.2.2026, so dostopne na PISRS". It cannot be cited for anything published after that date.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«Do enkratne brezplačne udeležbe v programih učenja slovenskega jezika in spoznavanja slovenske družbe niso upravičeni tujci, ki so končali šolanje v slovenskem jeziku na katerikoli stopnji v Republiki Sloveniji, so vključeni v redni izobraževalni program v Republiki Sloveniji, ki poteka v slovenskem jeziku, ali so že pridobili potrdilo o uspešno opravljenem izpitu iz znanja slovenskega jezika na vsaj osnovni ravni.»About this source
The official gazette of the Republic of Slovenia, where an instrument gains force. Every Act, amending Act, government decree, ministerial rulebook and Constitutional Court decision is published here, and so is the uradno prečiščeno besedilo - the official consolidated text, which the National Assembly confirms by resolution under article 153 of its own rules of procedure and which then appears as a numbered item of a numbered issue. Two address shapes serve the same material and both answer an ordinary request without JavaScript. /glasilo-uradni-list-rs/vsebina/{YYYY}-01-{NNNN} is the item, where the number is the SOP identifier the state legal information system also uses, so an identifier found there resolves straight to the gazette text; a human-readable slug may follow the identifier and is optional. /_pdf/{YYYY}/Ur/u{YYYY}{NNN}.pdf is the whole issue as a PDF. From 1 March 2026 the gazette is published through pisrs.si instead, and single items from the new arrangement are served at https://pisrs.si/api/uradni-list/objava/u{YYYY}{NNNN}.pdf as one-item PDFs with a text layer. Readings for this corpus were taken directly rather than through the extraction service, because the item pages are ordinary HTML and the service adds nothing.
Standing: Issues the instrument
Cannot be cited for: **It issues; it does not maintain.** The gazette prints an instrument as it was published on the day and never updates it, so an amending Act and the Act it amends are two separate items and neither tells you what the law now says. The only current text of an Act is an official consolidation, and those are made when the National Assembly decides to make one: for the Aliens Act that is ZTuj-2-UPB15 of 24 June 2025 and current, but for the Citizenship Act it is ZDRS-UPB2 of 20 March 2007 and ten years behind ZDRS-E, for the Income Tax Act it is ZDoh-2-UPB7 of 28 February 2011, for the Health Care and Health Insurance Act ZZVZZ-UPB3 of 11 July 2006, and for the Act on employment of foreign nationals ZZSDT-UPB4 of 7 June 2021 with two amending Acts after it. **Never cite an official consolidation as the law in force without checking the amending Acts published since it**, and never treat the absence of a later consolidation as evidence that nothing changed. The site also prints, on every item page, that what it shows is archival under article 33 of the Act on the Official Gazette and that issues published after 28 February 2026 are on PISRS: "Prikazana vsebina je v skladu s 33. členom ZoUL arhivska. Izdaje uradnega lista, izdane po 28.2.2026, so dostopne na PISRS". It cannot be cited for anything published after that date.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Read off article 106 of ZTuj-2 as officially consolidated on 18 June 2025. We did not read the regulation on the scope of the programmes that article 107 and article 108 refer to.
Czechia runs the opposite arrangement: an adaptation and integration course is a duty on the newcomer within a year of the permit, enforced by a fine. Slovenia offers the course rather than requiring it, and attaches the compulsion to permanent residence instead.