A student who moved to Northern Ireland from Romania two years ago said picking up his GCSEs was a "proud moment".
James Read, 16, was one of 31,000 students in NI who received their GCSE results on Thursday.
James, who hopes to go to Belfast Metropolitan College, said there had been "sleepless nights, ups and downs and struggles," in the past few years.
There has been a fall in the number of top GCSE grades awarded in Northern Ireland compared to 2022.
However, as with last week's A-level results, that was widely expected as grades gradually return to pre-pandemic standards.
Grades A* and A were awarded to about 34.5% of GCSE entries in 2023 compared to about 37% in 2022.
In 2019, the last year before exams were cancelled due to pandemic restrictions, under a third of all GCSEs in Northern Ireland were awarded A* or A.
