Applying for recognition based on a diploma obtained outside the European Economic Area (EEA)

Are you an EU national or equivalent, and has your diploma been recognized as equivalent (academic equivalence) in one of the EEA countries, and have you already worked in that EEA country for at least three years? Then you should apply for recognition of your profession with the Department of Care. If this is not the case, then you must follow the procedure below to apply for recognition at the Department of Care.

Step 1: Apply for the equivalence of your diploma

To practice your healthcare profession in Belgium, you first need to obtain the equivalence of your diploma from NARIC, the National Academic Recognition Information Centre.
Apply for the equivalence of your diploma.
 

Step 2: Apply for your professional recognition and/or visa

For certain professions, after obtaining the equivalence of your diploma from NARIC, you first need to apply directly for the visa from the Federal Public Service Health:

• clinical special needs educationalist
• clinical psychologist
• dentist
• midwife
• nurse
• pharmacist
• physician

After obtaining the visa for the relevant basic diploma from the FPS Health you can apply for recognition with the Department of Care for the following professional titles or specialisations:

• clinical special needs educationalistdoc file249.5kb
• clinical psychologistdoc file249.5kb
• dental specialistdoc file248.3kb (general dentist, orthodontist, periodontologist)
• general practitionerdoc file248.2kb
• hospital pharmacistdoc file246.5kb
• medical specialistdoc file248.2kb
• special professional competences or special professional titles for nursesdoc file174.5kb
• specialist nursedoc file173.2kb

For the following professional titles, you can apply directly for recognition with the Department of Care with your NARIC equivalence certificate:

• healthcare assistantdoc file173.4kb
• paramedical professionsdoc file173.5kb 
  (audiologists and hearing aid specialists, dietitians, occupational therapists, pharmaceutical technical assistants for community pharmacies, pharmaceutical technical assistants for hospital pharmacies, speech and language therapists, medical laboratory technologists, dental hygienists, optometrists, orthopaedic technologists, orthoptists, podiatrists, medical imaging technologists, non-emergency patient transport ambulance staff)
• physiotherapistdoc file173.4kb

For special professional competences for physiotherapists, a specific procedure applies:

Before applying for recognition of these competences with the Department of Care, you must follow the following steps:

• obtain NARIC equivalence for the basic diploma of physiotherapist
• obtain with the Department of Care recognition as a physiotherapist
• obtain the corresponding visa from the FPS Health.

Only after completing these steps you can apply for recognition of special professional competences for physiotherapists.

The Healthcare Professions team communicates with you digitally. This means that all documents are sent to your eBox. When a new message is available in your eBox, you will receive an email notification.

You can activate your eBox via Mijn Burgerprofiel.