Most people preparing for the inburgering think in terms of the language exams and the KNM exam. Then a letter mentions ONA, and suddenly there is a part they have never heard of standing between them and a finished inburgering. In lessons I see the same reaction every time: a mix of confusion and mild panic, because nobody explained it up front. The good news is that ONA is not a language test, it follows a clear structure, and for some people it can be skipped entirely once you know where to look.
This is the long version. It covers what ONA is and why it exists, exactly what goes in the portfolio, how you finish (the final interview versus the 64-hour course), when you can get an exemption, and how ONA differs from MAP under the newer law. Where a number matters, I point you to the official source, because these details are the kind that change quietly.
Quick answer. ONA (Orientation on the Dutch Labour Market) is the labour-market part of the inburgering under the old law (Wet inburgering 2013) and for voluntary integrators. You build a portfolio of eight result cards about working in the Netherlands, then finish with either a final interview (eindgesprek) with DUO or a 64-hour ONA course at an approved school. If you have worked enough in the Netherlands, you may be able to skip ONA with an exemption you apply for yourself. Under the new law (Wet inburgering 2021) there is no ONA: the labour-market part is the MAP, arranged through your municipality instead.
What is ONA, and why does it exist?
ONA stands for Oriëntatie op de Nederlandse Arbeidsmarkt, Orientation on the Dutch Labour Market. It is the part of the inburgering that shows you can find your way on the Dutch job market: how to look for work, how a Dutch application and interview work, which diplomas or skills your target job needs, and what Dutch workplaces expect from you.
The reason it exists is straightforward. The language exams prove you can read, write, listen, and speak Dutch, but they say nothing about whether you can actually get a job here. ONA fills that gap. The idea, and honestly it is a fair one, is that integration is not finished until you can take part in working life, not just order a coffee.
The key thing to understand is that ONA is not a language exam. There is no reading or listening test to pass, and there is no grade for your grammar. Instead it is built around a portfolio of practical assignments you complete and collect. You do work through it in Dutch, though, which is exactly why doing ONA alongside your inburgering language lessons makes it far more manageable than tackling it cold at the end.
ONA or MAP: which one applies to you?
Before anything else, work out which law you fall under, because it decides whether you do ONA at all. This is the single most common point of confusion I see, so it is worth getting right on paper before you start.
- ONA applies if you became obligated to integrate under the older Wet inburgering 2013, and to people who integrate voluntarily. This is the portfolio-plus-interview-or-course route this article describes.
- MAP (Module Arbeidsmarkt en Participatie) is the equivalent under the newer Wet inburgering 2021, which applies to most people who became obligated from 1 January 2022 onwards. It is arranged and funded through your gemeente (municipality), not completed through DUO.
Roughly speaking, the dividing line is when your integration obligation started. If you are not sure, your letters from DUO or your municipality will say, and it is the first thing to confirm. Our overview of the Dutch integration exam and the guide on whether you need A2 or B1 level both help you place yourself under the right law.
ONA vs MAP at a glance
Here is the practical comparison. This is a summary to orient yourself, not a substitute for your own official letters.
| ONA | MAP | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Oriëntatie op de Nederlandse Arbeidsmarkt | Module Arbeidsmarkt en Participatie |
| Which law | Old law (Wet inburgering 2013) and voluntary integrators | New law (Wet inburgering 2021), generally obligated from 1 Jan 2022 |
| Who runs it | DUO (you organise and submit it yourself) | Your gemeente (municipality) arranges and funds it |
| What you do | Portfolio of 8 result cards about finding work | A practical programme of at least 40 hours (activities, workplace visits, participation) |
| How you finish | Final interview with DUO, or a 64-hour ONA course | Municipality confirms you completed the module; no DUO exam |
| Skip it if | You qualify for an ONA exemption (see below) | Rules differ per municipality; check with your case manager |
If you fall under the new law, you can stop worrying about ONA entirely and read about MAP on your municipality's pages instead. Everything from here on applies to the ONA route.
Preparing your portfolio and final interview in Dutch? That is exactly the kind of real, practical Dutch we train. Book a free intake call and we will help you get ready.
The ONA portfolio: the eight result cards
Officially, the ONA portfolio is built from eight result cards (resultaatkaarten). Each card is a small assignment where you research something about working in the Netherlands and write down what you found, sometimes with supporting evidence like a CV or a saved vacancy. Together the eight cards form your portfolio.
The cards follow the natural order of finding a job. The exact wording and set can be updated, so treat this as the shape of the work rather than the final word, and check the current cards on the official DUO inburgeren website. In practice they cover:
- What kind of work do I want? Your interests, and a realistic target profession.
- What can I do? Your skills, experience, and personal qualities.
- Exploring the profession. What the job really involves in the Netherlands.
- Qualifications and diplomas. What you need to do that job here, including diploma recognition if your qualification is foreign.
- Finding vacancies. Where and how Dutch job openings are advertised, and reading them properly.
- Networking. How people actually find work here, which is often not through a formal advertisement.
- Your CV and application letter. Written the Dutch way, which is more concise and direct than many learners expect.
- The job interview and work culture. How a Dutch sollicitatiegesprek runs, and workplace norms around directness, punctuality, and asking questions.
Important detail: DUO does not help you fill in the cards. That is your work (or your school's, if you take a course). DUO provides written guidance on what each card should contain, so read it before you start rather than guessing and redoing them later.
Dutch job-market essentials the cards expect you to know
Several of the result cards assume some background knowledge of how the Dutch labour market actually works. If you are new here, this is the part that feels least familiar, so it is worth knowing the basics before you write the cards. None of this is a legal requirement, it is the practical context the cards are built on.
- The Dutch CV is short and factual. One to two pages, in reverse chronological order, with clear headings for work experience, education, and skills. A photo is optional and increasingly left off, and a long personal life story is not expected. Concise and honest reads as professional here.
- The motivatiebrief (cover letter) is direct. A short, specific letter that says why you want this job and what you bring, without flowery language. Dutch readers value getting to the point.
- Foreign diplomas often need an evaluation. If your qualification is from outside the Netherlands, an assessment of what it is worth here can matter for many jobs. Nuffic evaluates foreign diplomas, and for some regulated roles a separate recognition step applies. Check what your specific target profession requires.
- Where vacancies live. Public and private channels sit side by side: Werk.nl from the UWV, general job boards, LinkedIn, company websites, and uitzendbureaus (temp agencies), which are a very common way into Dutch work.
- Networking is normal, not pushy. A large share of jobs here are filled through contacts and informal approaches rather than formal advertisements, so the networking card is asking about a real habit, not a formality.
Knowing this before you start means your cards describe the real Dutch job market rather than a guess, which is exactly what the final interview is checking.
How you finish ONA: the final interview or the 64-hour course
Once your portfolio is ready, there are two official routes to complete ONA. You pick one.
- The final interview (eindgesprek). You submit your portfolio to DUO, and after a check of roughly six weeks you are invited to an interview of about thirty minutes with two DUO staff, who ask you about your result cards. Pass it and ONA is done. This route has an exam fee, which was €40 at the time of writing, so confirm the current amount when you register.
- The 64-hour course. Instead of the interview, you follow at least 64 hours of an ONA course at an approved integration school. The school reports your hours to DUO digitally, and no final interview is needed. Approved schools are listed on the official school-finder that DUO links from its site.
Which route is better depends on you, and this next part is my opinion as a teacher rather than a rule. If your Dutch is reasonably solid and you are comfortable talking about yourself, the interview route is faster and cheaper. If speaking under pressure worries you, or you want structure and guidance while you build the portfolio, the course route removes the interview entirely and gives you a teacher alongside. Neither is a shortcut around doing the actual work.
How to prepare for the ONA final interview (eindgesprek)
If you choose the interview route, the eindgesprek is the moment that decides ONA, so it is worth understanding exactly what it is and is not. It is a conversation in Dutch, roughly thirty minutes, with two DUO staff, and it is built entirely around the portfolio you submitted. It is not a language grammar test and it is not a job interview with a real employer. The assessors want to see that you did the work yourself and that you genuinely understand how to find and hold a job in the Netherlands.
Because the questions come from your own cards, preparation is mostly about knowing your own material. In lessons, the students who breeze through are the ones who wrote their cards themselves and can talk about them naturally. Expect prompts along the lines of:
- Which profession did you choose, and why does it suit you?
- How would you look for a vacancy in that field, and where?
- What happens in a Dutch job interview, and how would you prepare for one?
- What did you learn about Dutch workplace culture, for example around directness or punctuality?
The best preparation is simple and practical. Reread every card until you can explain it out loud without notes, practise talking through your target profession and job search in Dutch, and make sure nothing in your portfolio is borrowed, because a card you did not write yourself falls apart the moment you are asked about it. You do not need perfect grammar, you need to be clearly understandable and to obviously know your own plan.
Can you get an exemption from ONA?
This is the part worth reading slowly, because it can save you the whole thing. If you have worked enough in the Netherlands, you may qualify for an ONA exemption (vrijstelling) and skip both the portfolio and the interview.
According to DUO's published conditions, the two most common routes are:
- As an employee. In the twelve months before your application, you worked at least six months with a minimum of 48 hours per month. That works out to an average of about twelve hours per calendar week.
- As a self-employed person. You were registered with the Kamer van Koophandel for at least six of the last twelve months, and your business profit in the relevant period met a set minimum (published at €4,575.40 at the time of writing).
Two things to remember, and both are official process rather than advice. The exemption is not automatic: you apply for it yourself through Mijn Inburgering, and DUO decides, normally sending word within about eight weeks. And the exact thresholds change, so check the current figures on the official DUO inburgeren website before you rely on them.
My practical push here: check the exemption before you build the portfolio. I have seen learners grind through all eight cards only to realise their work history already qualified them. Ten minutes of checking can replace weeks of assignments.
MAP in more detail, if you fall under the new law
If your integration obligation started from 1 January 2022, you do the MAP instead of ONA, and it works quite differently, so it is worth a proper look rather than assuming it is just a renamed ONA. The MAP (Module Arbeidsmarkt en Participatie) is arranged and paid for by your gemeente as part of your personal integration plan, the PIP, and it is finished by taking part rather than by submitting a portfolio to DUO.
In practice the MAP is a practical programme of at least forty hours that helps you get to know the Dutch labour market from the inside. Depending on your municipality, that can include activities such as workplace visits, meeting employers, mapping your skills and ambitions, a short work experience placement, and sessions on applying for jobs here. There is no DUO exam and no final interview: your gemeente confirms that you have completed the module.
The important practical point is that the exact content and how it is organised vary from one municipality to another, because the gemeente designs it around local needs and your situation. So if you fall under the new law, the person to ask is your contact at the municipality (often called a klantmanager or your inburgering contactpersoon), not DUO. Confirm what your gemeente expects and how they will register your completion.
Common mistakes with ONA
These are the ones that come up again and again in lessons.
- Leaving ONA until the very end. People pour everything into the language exams and discover ONA with the clock running. It takes real time, so start it in parallel.
- Not checking the exemption first. As above, this is the single biggest avoidable waste of effort.
- Copying answers or using someone else's portfolio. The cards are about your profession and your plan, and the interview exposes borrowed answers immediately.
- Underestimating the interview. It is a conversation in Dutch about your own cards. If you wrote them yourself and understand them, it is calm. If you did not, it is not.
- Confusing ONA with MAP. Working under the wrong assumption about your law wastes time. Confirm which one applies before anything else.
- Writing an over-long CV. Dutch CVs are short and direct. A three-page life story reads as a red flag, not thoroughness.
What if you cannot finish ONA in time?
ONA sits inside your overall inburgering deadline, which is set by DUO, and it is the part people most often leave too late. If you can see that you will not finish in time, the single most important thing is to act early rather than let the deadline pass in silence. Your options are much wider while there is still time left than they are afterwards.
In defined situations DUO can extend your deadline, for example when you have made a genuine effort but circumstances got in the way. If you miss the deadline without a valid reason, there can be consequences under the old law, such as a fine or having to repay your integration loan. It is worth knowing that recent case law has limited those penalties for some people, in particular certain asylum status holders, following rulings in 2025 and early 2026. Whether any of that applies to you depends entirely on your personal situation, so this is not something to assume either way.
The honest, practical takeaway from lessons is simple: treat ONA as something you start alongside your language study, not a box to tick at the very end, and if you are falling behind, contact DUO (and your municipality, if you fall under the new law) before your deadline, not after. Confirm your own deadline, any extension options, and the current rules directly with DUO.
A checklist to complete ONA without stress
If you want a plan, this is the order I would follow.
- Confirm you are under the old law (ONA), not the new law (MAP).
- Check whether you qualify for the work or self-employment exemption before doing anything else.
- If no exemption applies, decide between the interview route and the 64-hour course.
- Work through the eight result cards steadily, keeping your evidence organised as you go.
- Read DUO's guidance for each card before writing it, so you do not have to redo cards.
- If taking the interview route, practise talking through your cards out loud in Dutch.
- Submit, allow roughly six weeks for the portfolio check, and confirm all current fees and dates with DUO.
Since ONA overlaps with real working life, the vocabulary you pick up here also feeds straight into your speaking exam and writing exam. Your CV, your application letter, and your job-interview answers are the same practical Dutch, so none of this effort is wasted. If you want a person to prepare it with, that is what we do on a focused inburgering course.
Frequently asked questions about ONA
What is ONA in the inburgering? ONA (Oriëntatie op de Nederlandse Arbeidsmarkt) is the labour-market part of the inburgering under the old law. It shows you understand how to find and keep work in the Netherlands. It is portfolio-based, not a language exam.
How do you complete ONA? You build a portfolio of eight result cards about the Dutch job market, then finish with either a final interview (eindgesprek) with DUO or a course of at least 64 hours at an approved school. Confirm the current route and fees with DUO.
What is the difference between ONA and MAP? ONA belongs to the old law (Wet inburgering 2013) and voluntary integration, and is run through DUO. MAP (Module Arbeidsmarkt en Participatie) is the equivalent under the new law (Wet inburgering 2021), arranged and funded by your municipality with a practical programme of at least 40 hours. Which applies depends on when your integration obligation started.
Can I get an exemption from ONA? Possibly. If you worked at least six of the last twelve months at a minimum of 48 hours per month, or meet the self-employment conditions, you can apply for an exemption yourself in Mijn Inburgering. DUO decides, usually within about eight weeks. Check the current thresholds before you start the portfolio.
How much does ONA cost? The final-interview route had an exam fee of €40 at the time of writing. The 64-hour course route is charged by the school instead. Always confirm current fees with DUO.
Is ONA a language exam? No. It is about the Dutch labour market, not your Dutch level. But you complete it in Dutch, so preparing it alongside your language lessons makes both the cards and the interview much easier.
Do voluntary integrators do ONA or MAP? People who integrate voluntarily follow the ONA route through DUO, the same portfolio-plus-interview-or-course path described here. MAP applies to people obligated under the new law (Wet inburgering 2021), and is arranged by the municipality. Confirm your own situation with DUO.
What happens at the ONA final interview? It is a conversation of about thirty minutes in Dutch with two DUO staff, based entirely on your portfolio. They ask about your chosen profession, how you would find work, and what you learned about the Dutch job market. It is not a grammar test, but you need to understand and explain your own cards.
How long does ONA take to complete? It varies with how much time you can give it and whether you take the interview or the 64-hour course route. The portfolio of eight cards takes real time to research and write, and the portfolio check before the interview is roughly six weeks, so start ONA in parallel with your language study rather than at the end. Confirm current timelines with DUO.
Is ONA still required in 2026? For people under the old law (Wet inburgering 2013) and for voluntary integrators, yes, ONA is still part of the requirement in 2026. People under the new law do the MAP through their municipality instead. Always confirm which applies to you with DUO and your gemeente.
This article is general guidance, not legal advice. ONA and MAP rules, exemption conditions, fees, and formats can change, and your personal situation may differ. Always confirm the current requirements with DUO and your municipality (gemeente) before you act. If you want help preparing, book a free call and we will point you in the right direction.