Since February 2022, more than one million Ukrainians have arrived in Germany. Many have been attending German language courses through the BAMF Integrationskurs system, often in parallel with navigating housing, schooling, employment, and the considerable demands of daily life under temporary protection status. This post is written for Ukrainian learners in Germany who are working towards B1 German and need to understand both the linguistic and the administrative dimensions of what they are preparing for.
Why B1 Matters Beyond the Classroom
For most Ukrainians in Germany, temporary protection under §24 AufenthG has been the legal basis for residence since 2022. This status does not require a language certificate to maintain, but it is temporary and subject to review.
Longer-term residence options — including the Niederlassungserlaubnis (permanent residence permit) — generally require evidence of B1 German. Anyone in Germany who expects to stay beyond temporary protection should treat B1 not as an optional achievement but as a practical legal requirement.
The TELC B1 certificate (or the DTZ certificate from an Integrationskurs) is accepted for most immigration purposes. Holding a recognised B1 certificate gives you documentation that does not depend on any particular employer, school, or local authority's paperwork.
What Ukrainian Speakers Already Have
Ukrainian is an East Slavic language. German is a West Germanic language. These are different branches of Indo-European, which means there is no direct vocabulary overlap and no shared grammar system. That is the honest starting point.
That said, Ukrainian speakers bring specific structural advantages that are genuinely useful when learning German grammar.
Grammatical gender: Ukrainian has three grammatical genders — masculine, feminine, and neuter — just as German does. The assignment of gender is not always predictable in either language, but Ukrainian speakers already understand the concept of noun gender at an intuitive level. For speakers of Turkish, Chinese, or many other languages, this is a significant hurdle. For Ukrainians, it is familiar territory.
Grammatical case: This is the most significant structural overlap. Ukrainian has seven grammatical cases. German has four: Nominativ, Akkusativ, Dativ, and Genitiv. German has fewer cases and less complex declension patterns than Ukrainian. Many Ukrainian learners report that German case logic clicks faster for them than for classmates from non-case languages.
Word order: Ukrainian is generally SVO, as is German in main clauses. German has the V2 rule — the finite verb must always be the second element in a main clause — which requires adjustment when a sentence does not begin with the subject. Subordinate clauses in German send the verb to the end. These are real adjustments, but not unusually difficult ones for Ukrainian speakers.
Latin alphabet: Ukrainian uses the Cyrillic alphabet. Learning the Latin alphabet is necessary, but most Ukrainians who attended school after independence will have some familiarity with Latin characters through English instruction or exposure to European languages.
BAMF Provisions for Ukrainian Learners
From 2022, holders of temporary protection under §24 AufenthG became eligible to attend BAMF Integrationskurse. This meant that many Ukrainian arrivals could access state-funded German language instruction relatively quickly.
The Integrationskurs consists of a language course (up to 700 lessons, reaching B1) and an orientation course covering German law, history, and society. At the end, participants take the DTZ (Deutsch-Test für Zuwanderer). A B1 pass in the DTZ is equivalent to a B1 TELC or Goethe certificate for most immigration purposes.
If you completed an Integrationskurs and passed the DTZ at B1, you already have your language certificate. Keep the original document safely — you may need it for future residence applications.
BAMF publishes Ukrainian-language information at bamf.de, covering eligibility, course registration, and test procedures. Some VHS locations have Ukrainian-speaking staff or advisors who can assist with the registration process.
If You Are Still Working Towards B1
For learners who are not enrolled in an Integrationskurs or who want additional preparation before taking the exam, the TELC B1 exam is available through a wide network of test centres across Germany.
Preparation resources that are particularly relevant:
- Schritte Plus Neu volumes 5 and 6 are the standard Integrationskurs textbooks and cover B1 grammar and vocabulary systematically
- Official sample papers are available free at telc.net — practise with these under timed conditions before your exam date
- DW's Nicos Weg and DW Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten are both free, available online, and provide listening practice in the register used in B1 exams
The oral exam involves describing a picture, discussing a topic, and completing a planning task with a partner. Practise speaking German daily — with a Tandem partner, in conversation groups at the VHS, or in everyday situations — and the oral component becomes significantly more manageable.
The Practical Priority
B1 is not the end of the road. It is the qualification that opens the next set of doors. For Ukrainians in Germany navigating an uncertain legal timeline, holding a recognised B1 certificate is one of the most concrete steps available towards longer-term stability. It is worth treating the exam accordingly: not as a bureaucratic hurdle to scramble over, but as a threshold to cross with genuine preparation.
Try a practice exam on languageprep.io — exam-format questions in the same structure as the real test, so you know where you stand before the exam date.