Nursing and health care professions / social professions - Foreign qualifications

The relevant professional laws stipulate that persons who have applied for a permit to use the professional title must have the knowledge of the German language required for practising the profession. In the interest of patient protection and smooth cooperation with members of all health professions, nurses recruited abroad and members of other health professions must also have sufficient knowledge of German to understand their patients and colleagues without significant queries and to be able to communicate without major effort in such a way that they can perform their professional tasks. This means that in order to exercise these professions, language skills must be at least at level B2 of the European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), C1 for social pedagogues and C2 for speech therapists.

The federal states have agreed on a uniform standard for testing the language skills required to practise a profession in Germany. In future, only language certificates from providers certified by a member institution of the "Association of Language Testers in Europe" (ALTE) will be accepted as proof of the German language skills required to exercise a profession in the care and health professions. This includes language institutes such as telc gGmbH, the Goethe Institute and other certified German-language test providers. These test providers have had their language examinations certified according to CEFR and ALTE. Non-certified providers are free to also be certified as a test centre / language centre for e.g. telc gGmbh or Goethe Institute.

Proof of the required language skills is accepted if a certificate of a specified and successfully taken language test is submitted to the professional recognition authority. The test certificate must not be older than three years.

The Nursing Professions Act (PflBG) came into force on 01.01.2020. Due to a transitional regulation created at the end of 2019 (§ 66a PflBG) and a decree issued in this regard by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration of Baden-Württemberg, the Regional Council of Stuttgart will examine and decide on applications for recognition of nursing training completed abroad until 31.12.2024 according to the previous legal situation - i.e. according to the Nursing Act (KrPflG) and the Geriatric Nursing Act (AltPflG).

This means that adaptation measures (adaptation course or aptitude or knowledge test) are also determined and carried out according to the regulations of these provisions.

Until the expiry of the transitional provision, the certificates of authorisation to hold the professional title shall be issued with the professional title of health care nurse, health and paediatric nurse or geriatric nurse. Since the Nursing Professions Act places the holders of the permit to use these professional titles on an equal footing with those who receive the permit to use the professional title of nursing specialist, this does not result in any disadvantage (§ 64 PflBG).

Exempt from the transitional regulation are EU training courses that are compliant in the sense of EU Directive 2005/36/EC and can therefore be automatically recognised. These are recognised according to the Nursing Professions Act and permission is granted to use the professional title of nursing specialist.

Please refer to the relevant application forms on the homepage of the Regierungspräsidium Abteilung 9 Referat 95.

• Application form filled in with date and signature in the original
• Curriculum vitae with date and signature in original
• Certified copy of passport, identity card or residence permit
• Certified copy of birth certificate + certified translation
• Certified copy of marriage certificate + Certified translation
• Certified copy of the diploma + Certified translation
• Certified copy of transcripts/grades overview + Certified translation
• Certified copy of the professional internship + certified translation
• Certified copy of the professional examination/work licence + certified translation
• Certified copy of the schedule of subjects and hours + Certified translation
• Certified copy of the employer's references for your training occupation in the country of training, stating the period and
• Name of the department + certified translation

The documents must be submitted in the language of the country and a German translation - both as certified copies only.
You can have them certified at official offices (town hall / notary / embassy).

• Personal statement as to whether an application for recognition has already been submitted in Germany
• Credible evidence that you will be working in Baden-Württemberg (confirmation of employment or employment contract from a possible employer)

Please refrain from folders, sleeves and other packaging material.

• Certificate of good conduct from the home country/training country in the original + certified translation
• Certificate of good conduct from Germany, type OB (for submission to an authority), purpose of use: MTRA recognition, receiving authority: Regierungspräsidium Stuttgart, Ref. 95, z.Hd. zuständige/r SB Ruppmannstr. 21, 70565 Stuttgart, Germany
• Original medical certificate from a general practitioner stating that you are suitable for the profession as a health care worker and nurse.
• Proof of German language skills B2 from an ALTE-certified language school (for example Goethe, Telc, ÖSD) in the original

Documents 1-3 must not be older than 3 months.

Here you will find the contact persons for the respective professions:

Health and nursing assistants third countries

Matthias Bode
matthias.bode@rps.bwl.de

Ellen Holzer
ellen.holzer@rps.bwl.de

Sina Schaber
sina.schaber@rps.bwl.de

Nursing Assistant EU
Health care and nursing assistants EU
Health and paediatric nurses

Sarah Vogelwaid
sarah.vogelwaid@rps.bwl.de

Anaesthetic technical assistants
Medical-technical assistants (laboratory)
Medical-technical assistants (radiology)
Medical-technical assistants (functional diagnostics)
Operating theatre assistants
Further training in nursing

Maren Zylfiu
maren.zylfiu@rps.bwl.de

Midwife / maternity nurse
 
Daniela Akçin
daniela.akcin@rps.bwl.de

Geriatric nurses
Geriatric care assistants
Work educators
Home and family carers
Special education assistants
Curative education assistants
Curative education nurses
Curative educators
Youth and home educators
 
Ingrid Holzwarth
ingrid.holzwarth@rps.bwl.de

Social workers
Social pedagogues/social educators

Frau Haller / Frau Tutzauer
sozialarbeit@rps.bwl.de

Dieticians/assistants
Occupational therapists
Speech therapists/logopedists
Masseur and medical bath attendant
Emergency paramedic
Orthoptist/Orthoptist
Pharmaceutical technical assistant
Physiotherapist
Podiatrist

Susanne Scheuermann
susanne.scheuermann@rps.bwl.de