Recognition shall become faster

For doctors, dentists, pharmacists, and midwives from third countries, the recognition process is set to become faster, more standardized, and more digital: The German Bundestag passed the corresponding law to accelerate the recognition procedures for foreign professional qualifications in healthcare professions on March 26. Following approval by the Bundesrat, the new regulations are scheduled to come into force on November 1.

The most important new regulations at a glance

• Direct knowledge test will become the standard procedure for the recognition of doctors, dentists, and pharmacists who acquired their professional qualifications in a third country. Document-based equivalence assessment will then only be an option. 
• Particularly for the medical field, it is clarified that the knowledge test is a professional licensing examination: The knowledge test should not focus on any deficiencies, but rather establish the same standards for everyone.
• In the future, the federal states will have the option of assessing the language skills of applicants from third countries even before they receive their professional qualification. 
• Midwives from third countries will have a choice: In the future, they can waive the document-based equivalence assessment and directly complete a knowledge test or an adaptation course.
• Electronic transmission (e.g., data exchange between authorities) and electronic form (e.g., waiving the requirement for approval) should be permissible as alternatives to written transmission and form.
• New regulations are intended to enable the states to clarify and review existing procedures for granting a license to practice a profession.
• In exceptional cases, doctors and dentists may in future be granted a license to practice medicine indefinitely.

Further points concern the possibility of a partial professional license for doctors, dentists and pharmacists from the EU/EEA/Switzerland, as well as further simplifications for anesthesia and operating room technicians (ATA/OTA) and midwives.

More information

BMG Press release dated March 26, 2026