The Inburgering Deadline: Extensions, Fines and What Happens When You Run Out of Time

You have 3 years to finish inburgering, counted from the date in your DUO letter. If you cannot make it, DUO can extend the deadline for set reasons, several of which you can only ask for in the last 6 months. Miss it without an extension and a family migrant can be fined up to €1,000 (2021 law) or €1,250 (2013 law), then gets more time to finish. Asylum status holders are not fined.

Which law, and when does your clock start?

The date your obligation started decides your law. On or after 1 January 2022: the Wet inburgering 2021. Before that: the Wet inburgering 2013. Mijn Inburgering shows the date.

• 2021 law: DUO first sends a letter saying you must integrate, once you have a BSN, a residence permit and a registration with your municipality. The municipality then holds an intake and draws up your PIP, the personal plan that sets your route and exams. After the PIP is set, a second DUO letter gives the date your 3 years start.
• 2013 law: the DUO letter itself states the date you must integrate from.

Either way the letter can take up to 8 weeks after everything is in place. If more time passes, contact DUO.

The extensions that exist

Both laws allow extra time for:

• Illness of more than 3 months, while under a doctor’s treatment, that stopped you integrating. It can also apply if caring for a sick partner, child, stepchild, child-in-law, parent or parent-in-law stopped you integrating. See DUO’s illness conditions.
• A birth or a death in the family.
• Homelessness, or living in a women’s shelter (blijf-van-mijn-lijfhuis).
• A literacy course you had to take first.
• A Dutch study programme.
• Many lesson hours and exam attempts (conditions below).
• A special personal situation of at least 3 months in a row that fits none of the above (called BIO).

The 2021 law also allows extensions for problems with your municipality or school, under specific conditions. The municipality-delay rule is for asylum status holders. It also allows extra time when several shorter problems together blocked you for 3 months in a row.

DUO adds one limit to all of this: you get extra time only once per period. Two reasons covering the same months do not add up.

When you can apply

For illness, BIO, several problems combined, and many hours and attempts, one condition repeats: your deadline must have started at least 2.5 years ago. In practice that means you apply in the last 6 months. DUO decides within 8 weeks. Proof it asks for with illness: your medical file (free from your GP), a stamped medicines list from the pharmacy, and a letter from any specialist. Send copies, never originals.

Many hours and attempts: the rules differ by law

	2013 law	2021 law
Lesson hours	At least 300 hours attended in person at a qualifying school (see below).	Family migrants: 450 hours of language lessons plus KNM course hours at a Blik op Werk school. Asylum status holders: all language lessons in the PIP and all KNM course hours.
Exams	Every other exam you have not passed taken at least twice, and ONA at least once (an approved portfolio and final interview)	B1 route, including learners who switched to A2; at least 2 of the 4 language exams passed at PIP level or higher, plus KNM; PVT and MAP finished
How you get it	Apply with the DUO form	Automatic, 6 months

For the 2013 law, qualifying hours come from an integration course at a Blik op Werk school, special secondary education with an employment or day-activity profile, practical education, or an international transition class (ISK). For the last three, the hours must be from the 2 years before your application. Online hours do not count. Check DUO’s full conditions before applying.

Extensions DUO grants on its own

Two in 2026 came without an application:

• Waiting on a result. Since 31 July 2026, marking A2 Spreken and Schrijven takes up to 16 weeks. If your deadline is close and you are waiting on one of those results, DUO extends it by 6 months and sends a letter.
• Too few exam places. In May 2026 DUO said there were too few places for A2 Spreken and Schrijven. People near their deadline with only those exams left get a letter saying how much extra time they get. No letter means no extension.

If the deadline passes: the fine

This applies to family migrants and other migrants who are not asylum status holders.

2021 law. Two months before your deadline DUO writes to you with the details it has on record. After the deadline you get a “Vooraankondiging termijnoverschrijding”, a notice that you may be fined and how much. It is not yet a decision, and the amount can change. If DUO is missing lesson hours from your school, send them now: the fine depends on them.

2021 law fine	Amount
Learning route not finished	At most €1,000, based on your route, your lesson hours at an approved school, how often you tried, and how many parts you passed
PVT not finished	€340
MAP not finished	€340

2013 law. You get the same kind of notice, then a letter with the amount and how to pay. The fine for not getting the diploma is at most €1,250, calculated from your lesson hours, attempts and passed parts. Finishing PVT late costs €340, and after that you can no longer borrow from DUO.

Then you get more time

A fine does not release you. You still have to finish.

Your situation after the fine	Extra time
2013 law	2 years
2021 law, B1 route or education route, no exams passed	2 years
2021 law, 1 exam passed	1.5 years
2021 law, 2 exams passed	1 year
2021 law, 3 or 4 exams passed	6 months
2021 law, only PVT or only MAP late	6 months
2021 law, both PVT and MAP late	1 year

The self-reliance route (Z-route) under the 2021 law counts lesson hours instead: from 2 years (200 hours or fewer) down to 6 months (600 to 800 hours). With several fines, the longest extra time applies. They are not added up.

Asylum status holders: no fines

DUO stopped fining asylum status holders and reclaiming their loans in February 2025, after the EU Court of Justice ruled on the Dutch system under the 2013 law. The Raad van State followed in July 2025. DUO’s pages now say plainly that asylum status holders are never fined.

• 2013 law: fines already paid and loan money already repaid are being returned, and open amounts are dropped. DUO says it will write to everyone affected in autumn 2026. You do not need to do anything.
• 2021 law: there was never a loan (the municipality pays), so there is nothing to refund, and DUO does not fine.

If you are still obliged to integrate, you must keep going. The rules for permanent residence and naturalisation are separate: you usually need to meet an integration requirement, but an accepted exemption or dispensation can mean you do not need the diploma. Check the IND’s residence exemptions or naturalisation exemptions. An exemption from your integration obligation is not automatically enough for citizenship; DUO says to have your municipality check it.

Three situations, worked through

Maria (2021 law, family migrant) has 5 months left and two language exams to go. She was ill for 4 months last year and saw a specialist. Her deadline started more than 2.5 years ago, so she can apply for extra time now, with her medical file and the specialist’s letter. DUO answers within 8 weeks.

Ahmed (2013 law, family migrant) missed his deadline with only Spreken left. He gets the notice, and a fine of at most €1,250. The amount depends on his lesson hours and attempts, so he makes sure his school has reported his hours to DUO. After the fine he has 2 years to pass Spreken, and he spends them on speaking practice before booking again.

Nour (2021 law, asylum status holder) is 3 months from her deadline and waiting for her Schrijven result. She will not be fined. And because she is waiting on an A2 Schrijven result near her deadline, DUO extends it by 6 months without her asking.

Use the time you have

An extension buys months. What you do with them decides whether you need another. The fastest route is to find the exact part and question types you keep losing points on. Start with our free practice exams or the KNM practice exam, then drill those weak spots. The inburgering.coach app is built to keep bringing your repeat mistakes back until they stop.

Related: how to reschedule or cancel an exam, how many times you can retake, what happens if you fail, exemptions (ontheffing and vrijstelling), and our English guide to the Dutch integration exam.

Sources

All checked on 24 September 2026. When a personal letter from DUO says something different, the letter wins.

• DUO, U gaat inburgeren: in het kort (3 years, letters, PIP).
• DUO, Boete (fines and extra time after a fine, both laws). The fine formulas: Regeling inburgering 2021, annex 6a, and for the 2013 law the Beleidsregel boetevaststelling inburgering, article 3.
• DUO, Extra tijd om in te burgeren, with the pages on illness, many hours and attempts and other reasons (BIO).
• DUO news, Mogelijk extra tijd voor examen Spreken en Schrijven A2 (18 May 2026), Geen boetes en terugbetalen leningen voor asielstatushouders (6 July 2026) and Uitslag Spreken A2 en Schrijven A2 duurt langer (31 July 2026).
• Rijksoverheid, Uitspraak Raad van State in zaak boetes en leningen inburgering, 9 July 2025.
• IND, Civic integration for more secure residence permit (which law applies from 1 January 2022).