Recognition of Foreign Professional Qualifications in Health Professions

Germany’s healthcare system lacks skilled workers, and this shortage is expected to grow. To enable doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and midwives with foreign qualifications to work in Germany more quickly, the recognition procedure is to be made simpler and faster. Anyone with a qualification obtained outside the EU will in future be able to take a Kenntnisprüfung directly, instead of first submitting extensive documents and waiting for a complex equivalence assessment. On average, this simplification saves applicants around 3,000 euros in costs, and the authorities in the federal states together save about 3.9 million euros per year.