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You want a permanent residence permit

You are applying for a Dutch residence permit for an indefinite period.

The short answer

The same language requirement as naturalisation: the inburgeringsexamen at minimum A2. If you already hold a qualifying diploma, there is no second exam to sit.

Who runs it

The IND decides the permit. The exam is whichever one you already sat, or will sit, for your integration obligation.

What you actually sit

PartLevelFormat
Whatever you already hold, if it is A2 or aboveA2 minimumAn inburgeringsdiploma under either law, or a Staatsexamen NT2 diploma. There is no separate permanent-residence exam and no need to re-sit anything.

Why this applies to you

  • The IND sets the same language floor here as for naturalisation: the civic integration exam at a minimum of level A2.
  • So the practical question is almost never which exam to take. It is whether the diploma you already have clears A2, and for most people who completed their integration it does.
  • The exam is the only part these two routes share. Everything else, how long you must have lived here, what happens to your current nationality, what it costs, differs between them, and those are the IND's rules rather than ours to explain.
  • One case genuinely has no qualifying diploma: finishing the Z-route. It ends in a certificate from the municipality, not an inburgeringsdiploma, because that route has no compulsory central exam.

Money, deadlines and booking

  • If you hold an A2 or higher diploma, this requirement is already met. Do not sit anything again for it.
  • If you are on the B1 route now, you will clear this floor by a level when you finish.
  • If you completed the Z-route, check with the IND before assuming your certificate counts. DUO notes that Z-route participants may sit exams voluntarily, and that is the route to a diploma if you need one.

If you still need to sit an exam

The same diploma serves both permanent residence and naturalisation, so if you already hold one at A2 or above there is nothing further to practice for. If you do not, Kora covers all five parts of the A2 inburgeringsexamen.

Start practicing for A2 →

People in your situation often mix this up with

Where this comes from

Every statement on this page is drawn from official Dutch government sources. We have linked each one so you can check it yourself, and so you can see what we could not verify: where an official source does not publish a figure, we leave it out rather than repeat a number from elsewhere.

Dutch integration rules change. If a source above now says something different from this page, the source is right and we want to know.

Kora is an independent study app. We are not DUO, CvTE or the IND, and we cannot book exams, process applications or make decisions about your case. For anything about your own situation, use the official sources linked above or contact your municipality.