Practicing a health care profession with a foreign diploma

If you want to practise a healthcare profession in Belgium with a foreign diploma, you must first apply for recognition of your diploma. You can apply for this for your basic diploma from the different communities in Belgium (Flemish, French or German-speaking Community) (in Dutch). You can only apply for recognition for a specialisation with only one community.

Please note: you cannot apply for recognition for a specialisation if you do not yet have a recognition or visa for your basic diploma. A recognition or equivalence issued by one community applies throughout Belgium.

It covers following professions.

• Doctor: general practitioner or other specialist.
• Dentist: general dentistry, periodontics and orthodontics
• Pharmacist: hospital pharmacist
• Physiotherapist
• Clinical psychologist and remedial educationalist
• Nurse: first the basic title and then the professional titles and competences (specialisations) one can obtain.
• Healthcare professional
• Paramedical profession: pharmaceutical technical assistant (pharmacy assistant), dietician, occupational therapist, speech therapist, audiologist and audiologist, orthoptist and optometrist, podiatrist, medical laboratory technologist, dental hygienist, medical imaging technologist
• Midwife.

Whether you need to apply to NARIC-Vlaanderen or to Departement Zorg depends on

• where you obtained your degree
• What your situation is.

You can easily find out via NARIC-Flanders’ Guidance Tool(opens in new window): answer a few questions and get advice tailored to your situation.

^*You have an EEA nationality in the following cases:

• You have the nationality of one of the 28 member states of the European Union, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein or Switzerland.
• You are also considered an EEA citizen if you have a residence permit for long-term residents for one of these countries or a residence permit as a family member of a European citizen.
• If you are married to or legally cohabiting with a European citizen and established in Belgium, you also qualify as a European citizen.

^**The European Economic Area (EEA) consists of the 28 Member States of the European Union + Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.

• There is a separate procedure for people coming to practise a healthcare profession in Belgium temporarily (a limited number of months, e.g. for an internship) with a foreign diploma.
• You can apply for a temporary visa from the FOD Volksgezondheid (FPS Public Health) at visa@health.fgov.be(opens in your email application). You therefore do not need to apply for recognition.