If you naturalise the previous/current government has announced that it wants to change the Dutch language requirement from level A2 to B1. There are apparently incorrect rumours going around this will be starting 01 July 2025.
Our team, Bianca (language/inburgering teacher), Chloe (specialist law researcher), and Kris (specialist Dutch nationality lawyer), have looked into this rumour.
Bianca confirms that the main change taking effect on the 1st of July is that the KNS part of the exam is changing somewhat, but that the level of the language based components is remaining at A2. We found two articles that allude to a possible A2 to B1 change per 01 July 2025.
This in the Groninger mail’s article and a language school’s article, which seems a hidden advertisement to attract more students. It appears the 01 July date was chosen because ‘some’ laws become effective on this date. If the school had an agenda to get more B1 students we can’t be sure of course. As for the newspaper, they may have based their statement on the mere possibility and very limited research (the school?). This created panic and confusion under expats and migrants who get mixed information.
We at Habsburg Legal Services take these things seriously and thus we read the law, proposed changes, upcoming changes, etc. A lot of time goes into that as not all this information is easily available.
KNM exam is changing
Bianca and the team confirms that as of 01 July 2025 the format of the KNM exam is changing. The themes are systematically ordered and there are no videos anymore. Bianca wrote a small article about this here. She did both tests and it seems to her that the new test is more focusing on the Dutch culture and customs and less on history.
Chloe and Kris reviewed the upcoming changes to the law on this as well. They did not see this change in any (upcoming) changes in the law on the naturalisation-test, or the (current) law on integration 2021 or the government’s manual on nationality law, or the municipalities associations advisories, etc. We can thus be reasonably confident that for now naturalisation remains at A2.
Keep in mind that the government has practical, organisational, issues in changing this from A2 to B1. This requires some reorganisation and we have no news on how far along this is. The government is pretty quiet about this. With the fall of the current government let’s keep it that way.
OUR ADVICE
A2, if you can apply for naturalisation soon (next few months) then A2 is sufficient. You take a very small risk the law would change in the next few months.
B1, if you can apply for naturalisation later, after about September 2025 or January 2026, then you have more of a chance the law could have changed. In which case you ideally go for B1. But, with the political mess and unclear situation A2 may still be possible later. Still, why not go for B1 if you can. No lawyer, newspaper or language school can really foresee the future in this. But we can make (better) educated estimates of what is coming.
B1 Immigration?
Please note, that this information relates to Dutch naturalisation integration requirements. Some people may even be exempted from that. But more importantly, this does not relate to any of the other (immigration) integration requirements. More on that in the video of Kris here.