Can You Reschedule or Cancel Your Inburgering Exam? The 2026 Rules

Yes, you can move or cancel an inburgering exam, and DUO sets no limit on how often. For the A2 language exams and KNM, the change has to reach DUO at least 7 days before the exam date, and cancelling in that window gets your €50 back. The B1 and B2 exams (the Staatsexamen NT2) run on a different rule: cancel at least 4 weeks ahead.

That 7-day line is new. Until 24 November 2025 it was 14 days, and plenty of pages still say two weeks.

Which exam are you moving?

Everything below turns on one question: who runs the exam you booked? You can see it in your booking confirmation.

Your exam	Run by	Where you booked it	Last moment to move or cancel with a refund
Lezen, Luisteren, Schrijven, Spreken at A2	DUO	Mijn Inburgering (inburgeren.nl)	7 days before the exam
KNM (Kennis van de Nederlandse Maatschappij)	DUO	Mijn Inburgering	7 days before the exam
ONA (only under the 2013 law)	DUO	Mijn Inburgering	Never refunded
Staatsexamen NT2, B1 or B2 (Programma I or II)	DUO with CvTE	Mijn DUO (duo.nl)	4 weeks before the exam

If you started inburgering on or after 1 January 2022 and your plan (PIP) puts you on the B1 route, your language exams are the Staatsexamen NT2. Your KNM exam is still a DUO exam. So one person can have two different deadlines in the same month.

The rules do not change with the law you fall under. DUO’s exam rulebook, the Examenreglement, applies to both the 2013 and the 2021 law. What changes the rules is the exam itself.

How to move an A2 or KNM exam

1. Log in to Mijn Inburgering with your DigiD.
2. Open your exams and choose to change the booking.
3. Pick a new date, time or exam location.

One catch: you can only change a booking online if you also made it online. If you registered with a paper form, send DUO a letter or an email. It has to arrive at least 7 days before the exam date, so do not post it on day 8. The postal address is DUO Servicecentrum Inburgering, Postbus 764, 9700 AT Groningen.

Two more things to know before you pick a new date:

• The new date may be far away. DUO warns that it can take more than 6 weeks before you can sit an exam, and in 2026 there have been too few places for Spreken and Schrijven at A2 level.
• Check when to expect your invitation. DUO’s current registration page says online bookings receive a letter 1 week before the exam. If you registered with a form, it says the letter arrives within 3 weeks after payment. See the source note below about conflicting guidance. If your letter has not arrived within the website’s stated time, contact DUO to check your booking.

What you get back when you cancel

The Examenreglement (the November 2025 edition) treats “cancel” and “remove” as two different acts, and the money follows the difference.

What you do	When	Your €50	A free attempt, if you had one
Cancel the exam	At least 7 days before	Refunded	Kept
Remove the booking	Up to 1 day before	Not refunded	Lost
Do not show up	On the day	Not refunded; the next sitting costs the fee again	Lost, unless DUO grants a free exam
Cancel an ONA exam	Any time	Not refunded	—

Under the 2021 law, asylum status holders get the first 2 attempts of each exam free, provided the exam is not below the level in their personal integration plan (PIP). A higher level is allowed. See DUO’s payment rules. Removing a booking after the cancellation deadline costs you a free attempt.

Too late to change it: sickness and emergencies

Missed the 7-day window because something serious happened? DUO has a route for that, and it is narrower than people hope.

For A2 and KNM exams, send DUO a letter or email within 10 days after the exam date. Say why you could not change the date in time, add proof, and ask for a free exam. DUO judges each request. The rulebook’s wording is “a very special situation”, so a hospital admission with a doctor’s letter is the kind of thing it means, and “I did not feel ready” is not.

A real case: in January 2026, snow stopped people reaching exam locations on five exam days. DUO told everyone affected to report it, and planned a new exam with them for free.

For the Staatsexamen NT2 the window is also 10 days. Email nt2@duo.nl if you were ill or a direct family member died, and send proof. If public transport delays or a traffic jam made you late, email with proof of the delay. In both cases DUO may give you a replacement exam.

The Staatsexamen NT2 (B1 and B2): different rules

• Cancelling: email nt2@duo.nl at least 4 weeks before the exam to get your money back. Cancel later and you pay for the exam.
• Moving: DUO’s Staatsexamen pages describe cancelling, not moving a booking. To sit on a different date, you cancel and register again for the new one.
• Registration opens about 8 weeks before each exam date, in Mijn DUO. You cannot book a part you are already booked for, or a part whose result you are still waiting for.
• Missed it? You can register again from the day after the exam, if places are left.
• Fee: €50 per part, the same as the A2 exams.

Things that also cost you the attempt

• No valid ID. No ID, or a damaged one, means no exam. You have to register and pay again.
• Arriving late. You must be there 30 minutes before the exam starts. At a Staatsexamen, late means you cannot take part.
• Breaking the rules. A phone in the exam room, or a photo of a question, makes the exam invalid. For fraud DUO can also bar you from its exams for three months, and cancel exams you already booked in that period.

Three situations, worked through

Amira has KNM booked for a Thursday and a job interview lands on the same day, 12 days out. She is inside the window. She moves the exam in Mijn Inburgering to a later date and pays nothing extra. Had the interview come up 5 days before, her choices would be: sit the exam, or remove the booking and lose the €50.

Daniel’s plan puts him on the B1 route. He booked Staatsexamen Schrijven and KNM three weeks apart, then realised his writing is not ready. KNM is a DUO exam, so he can move it until 7 days before. Schrijven is a Staatsexamen: he gets a refund only if he emails nt2@duo.nl at least 4 weeks before. Three weeks before is already too late for that refund.

Fatima wakes up with a high fever on exam day. She does not go, and she sees her doctor that day. Within 10 days she emails DUO, explains what happened, attaches the doctor’s note, and asks for a free exam. DUO decides whether she gets one. Without the note, she would probably pay again.

Before you pick the new date

Moving an exam because you are not ready only helps if the extra weeks go to what you actually get wrong. Take DUO’s own practice exam or one of our free practice exams first, and note the questions you miss. We explain how in using DUO’s practice exam to find your gaps. If the problem is writing or speaking, practise it: writing tasks with model answers, and speaking practice that marks your pronunciation. Our app, inburgering.coach, keeps track of the mistakes you repeat and brings them back until they stop.

And if moving the exam puts your three-year deadline at risk, read the inburgering deadline, extensions and fines before you decide. If you have already sat the exam and failed it, the next steps are in how many times you can retake the exam and what happens if you fail. For the exam as a whole, start with our English guide to the Dutch integration exam.

Sources

All checked on 23 September 2026. The rules change: when a letter from DUO says something different, the letter wins.

Invitation timing: the current registration page says within 3 weeks after payment for form registrations; article 3(5) of the exam rulebook says 3 weeks before the exam. The advice above follows the current registration page.

• DUO, Examenreglement inburgering, November 2025 edition: article 3 (payment, changes, refunds), the “Weer examen doen” and ID rules, article 18 (fraud).
• DUO, Aanmelden examen on inburgeren.nl.
• DUO Zakelijk, Aanpassing termijn voor het annuleren of verplaatsen van examens A2, 24 November 2025.
• DUO, Staatsexamen Nt2: aanmelden and examengeld.
• DUO, Hoeveel kost inburgeren?
• DUO news, Geen examen doen vanwege het weer, 5 January 2026, and Mogelijk extra tijd voor examen Spreken en Schrijven A2, 18 May 2026.