What Happens If You Fail the Inburgering Exam?

Failing one part of the inburgering exam changes very little on its own. The parts you passed stay passed, you book the failed part again for €50, and nobody fines you for a failed attempt. What matters is your three-year deadline, and the rules around that deadline depend on whether you fall under the 2013 law or the 2021 law.

What you receive

DUO sends a letter with the result of each exam separately, and the result also shows in Mijn Inburgering. For the A2 exams and KNM the result is “geslaagd” or “niet geslaagd” (passed or not passed) with a grade. DUO’s standard is within 8 weeks. Since 31 July 2026, marking Spreken and Schrijven at A2 can take up to 16 weeks.

For B1 or B2 (the Staatsexamen NT2) you see your result in Mijn DUO after about 5 weeks. You pass a part with a score of 500 or more.

You cannot see your marked exam. DUO’s rules say so outright. The only exception is ONA: if you failed its final interview, you can ask DUO for feedback.

First: which law are you under?

Look in Mijn Inburgering for the date your obligation to integrate started. On or after 1 January 2022 means the 2021 law (Wi2021). Before that means the 2013 law (Wi2013). Almost everything below splits on this.

	2013 law	2021 law
Language level	A2 or higher	Set in your PIP: B1 on the B1 route
Exams	Lezen, Luisteren, Schrijven, Spreken, KNM, ONA, plus PVT	On the B1 route: four language exams, KNM, plus PVT and MAP
Retake cost	€50 per exam, ONA €40	€50 per exam; asylum status holders get 2 free attempts per exam
Fine for missing the deadline	Up to €1,250	Up to €1,000 for the language route
Exemption after enough effort (AGI)	Yes: 600 hours of lessons and 3 attempts at every open exam	No
Asylum status holders	No fine; paid fines and loan repayments are being refunded	No fine; the municipality pays

The week after a fail: what to do

1. Check the date your deadline ends in Mijn Inburgering. If it is more than a few months away, you have room. If it is close, read the next section first.
2. Write down which part failed and what you remember about it: questions you ran out of time on, a writing task you misread, a KNM topic you blanked on. Do it now, because it fades fast and DUO will not show you the paper.
3. Take a practice exam for that part before you book. DUO’s own practice exams are on inburgeren.nl. We also have free practice exams by part, no account needed.
4. Book the retake. A2 and KNM in Mijn Inburgering, the Staatsexamen in Mijn DUO. For the Staatsexamen, you cannot book a part while its result is still pending. Places for A2 Spreken and Schrijven have been scarce in 2026, so book early.

There is no attempt limit. The rules are in how many times you can retake the inburgering exam.

Paying for the retake

A retake costs what the first attempt cost: €50 per A2 exam, per KNM, per Staatsexamen part. ONA costs €40 (2013 law only).

• Asylum status holders, 2021 law: the first 2 attempts of each exam are free, unless you take it at a lower level than your PIP says. From the third you pay yourself and cannot borrow from DUO.
• Family migrants and others with a DUO loan: you can pay the exam from the loan. Choose “betalen met lening” in Mijn Inburgering, or in Mijn DUO for the Staatsexamen.
• Everyone else: you pay per exam, by iDEAL or invoice.

If you have a DUO loan, DUO says it is sometimes forgiven, fully or partly. If you do have to repay, you start 6 months after you finish inburgering and get 10 years, with interest (2.29% in 2026). Asylum status holders never repay. DUO is refunding asylum status holders under the 2013 law who already repaid, after a Raad van State ruling, and says it will write to them in autumn 2026.

When the deadline gets close

You have 3 years. If the end is near and you still have parts left, three things can happen.

You get extra time. DUO extends the deadline for illness lasting over 3 months, a birth, a death in the family, homelessness, a Dutch study programme, problems with your school or municipality, and for people who have taken many lessons and made many attempts. A few reasons exist under only one of the two laws. Several, including illness, can only be requested once your deadline started at least 2.5 years ago. Some are automatic: since July 2026, anyone near the end who is still waiting for a Spreken or Schrijven A2 result gets 6 months without asking.

You get a fine, and then more time. Family migrants and others who are not asylum status holders can be fined after the deadline passes: at most €1,000 under the 2021 law, at most €1,250 under the 2013 law. The fine does not end the obligation. You get extra time to finish, from 6 months to 2 years depending on your law and how much you have already passed.

You get an exemption. Under the 2013 law, 600 hours of lessons plus 3 attempts at every open exam can release you from the exams. Serious illness or disability can qualify under both laws.

The full rules, including what counts as proof, are on our pages about the inburgering deadline, extensions and fines and exemptions (ontheffing and vrijstelling).

Your residence permit and naturalisation

The IND usually requires the inburgering diploma before you can apply for a permanent residence permit, an EU long-term resident permit, or a permanent asylum permit. The same goes for naturalisation. So a failed part delays those applications until you pass it. The IND also has its own list of exemptions. One of them, for people who tried hard enough, applies only if you fall under the 2013 law.

Three situations, worked through

Samir (2021 law, family migrant, B1 route) passed Lezen and Luisteren but failed Schrijven and Spreken. His deadline is 14 months away. He keeps both passes, rebooks the two Staatsexamen parts for €50 each, and spends the waiting weeks on writing tasks with model answers and speaking practice. If B1 keeps failing after 600 hours of lessons, the next question is for his municipality: can he switch to A2?

Olena (2013 law) failed KNM for the third time, 5 months before her deadline. She has passed everything else and has 350 hours of lessons. Under the 2013 law, 300 hours plus two attempts at every open exam can get her extra time. She has three attempts at KNM, and ONA done, so she applies with the DUO form. Meanwhile she takes the KNM practice exam to find which topics keep costing her points.

Yonas (2021 law, asylum status holder) failed Spreken twice. Both attempts were paid by the municipality. The third costs him €50 and cannot come from a DUO loan. He will not be fined if he runs over his deadline. He does still need the diploma for a permanent permit later, so he keeps going.

Getting ready for the next attempt

Failing tells you something useful: which part to work on. Spend most of your time there and a little on keeping the rest fresh. Practise in exam conditions, with a timer and the real question formats. Our guide to using DUO’s practice exam to find your gaps shows how to read your own mistakes, and the study plan turns them into a weekly routine.

Writing and speaking are hard to fix alone, because you cannot hear or see your own mistakes. The inburgering.coach app corrects your writing and speaking answers and keeps bringing back the mistakes you repeat. For the exam as a whole, see our English guide to the Dutch integration exam.

Sources

All checked on 23 September 2026. When a personal letter from DUO says something different, the letter wins.

• DUO, Examenreglement inburgering, November 2025 edition: articles 3, 14 and 16.
• DUO, Uitslag examen, and news item Uitslag Spreken A2 en Schrijven A2 duurt langer, 31 July 2026.
• DUO, Staatsexamen Nt2: uitslag and aanmelden; CvTE, Beoordeling.
• DUO, Hoeveel kost inburgeren?, Lenen bij DUO and Lening terugbetalen.
• DUO, Boete, Extra tijd om in te burgeren and Minder of geen examens doen.
• DUO news, Geen boetes en terugbetalen leningen voor asielstatushouders, 6 July 2026.
• Rijksoverheid, Uitspraak Raad van State in zaak boetes en leningen inburgering, 9 July 2025.
• IND, Civic integration for more secure residence permit, last updated 27 August 2026.