Legislation relating language course attendance and passage of a language test for residence visas and citizenship, respectively, was enacted in Iceland in the early 2000s. Curricular guidelines and the language test were evolved as a result. Research in other countries proposes such structures cause teachers to produce de facto policies aligning with legislative goals. This paper examines whether school administrators and teachers of adult foreigners find the curricular model and examination have influenced their materials and practices. Results of this inquiry propose that the diffuse nature of governance of language schools for adult learners and an ideology backing autonomy permit administrators and teachers to assert more independence from the de jure policy than is found elsewhere.