As a Professional from Abroad to Germany

Your path to Germany, step by step.

This guide shows what physicians, dentists and other professionals with a foreign qualification need to do in order to work in Baden-Württemberg. Free of charge, no registration. If you would like support, get in touch.

The five building blocks

1. Recognition

Your qualification is compared with the German one. For physicians and dentists the result is the Approbation (German medical licence).

Physicians · Dentists

2. Language

General German B2 plus the Fachsprachprüfung (medical German language exam) C1 at the medical chamber. Without it, no Approbation.

Language & exams

3. Employer

An employment contract or a concrete offer opens most visa routes. This is where we come in.

Contact

4. Visa

Skilled worker visa, recognition partnership, Opportunity Card, EU Blue Card: which route fits your situation.

Visa & entry

5. Arriving

Housing, registration, bank account, health insurance, tax ID. And what makes Heidelberg, Mannheim and Walldorf special.

Arriving

Checklist

All documents, deadlines and costs on one page to tick off.

To the checklist

Example journeys

Physician from Algeria, dentist from Hungary, data scientist from India: three paths with a timeline.

To the examples

What you should know

Duration: EU/EEA/Switzerland: Approbation usually a few weeks after complete documents. Non-EU countries: the Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart (regional licensing authority) states no fixed deadline and warns of long processing times. Expect many months.
Costs: You pay for translations, certifications, exam fees and the visa yourself. Our placement is free of charge for you; we take no fees from applicants.
WHO Code: For 55 countries with a critical shortage of health personnel, only the Bundesagentur für Arbeit (Federal Employment Agency) may recruit in Germany. If your country is on this list, we cannot place you as a physician or nurse, but we will tell you where to turn.
Berufserlaubnis (temporary professional permit): A provisional permit is valid for a maximum of two years, only under supervision and not as a specialist training post. The goal remains the unlimited Approbation.