How it works Specialties Pricing Check my route
🇪🇺 EU & EEA diplomas — Directive 2005/36/EC

A medical career in the Netherlands, on the EU recognition route

Qualifications earned in the EU are recognised in the Netherlands under a simplified procedure — in most cases without re-sitting medical examinations. We take you from document audit through BIG registration to the point where you can apply as a Dutch-registered doctor.

Assess my route — free How the process works
  • 27 EU & EEA countries
  • No re-examination in most cases
  • Fixed, published prices

We do not work on a percentage of your salary and we do not place candidates with employers.

Who this is for

Two procedures exist. Starting on the wrong one costs months

This site

EU / EEA qualification

  • General practitioners and specialists holding an EU/EEA medical diploma
  • Dentists, nurses and midwives with an EU/EEA qualification
  • Doctors completing or having completed residency in an EU country
  • EU citizens, and non-EU nationals with an EU residence status
Different route

Qualification from outside the EU

If you graduated in Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, India or any other non-EU country, the Directive does not apply. Your path runs through full recognition and the BIG-toets examinations — a longer procedure with different preparation.

Go to MentoraMedic.nl for non-EU diplomas →

The route

Four steps to working in the Netherlands

01

Document audit

We verify your diploma and transcript against the recognition grounds that actually apply to you — automatic recognition, acquired rights, or the general system.

02

Registration route

We identify the right authority — CIBG for the BIG register, RGS for medical specialists — and build your certificate checklist with issuing bodies and lead times.

03

Medical Dutch

We take you to working proficiency, focused on clinical terminology and consultation skills rather than general language coursework.

04

Applying

We prepare your CV in Dutch format and coach you through interviews, so that you approach Dutch employers on equal terms. You apply yourself — we do not act as a recruitment agency.

Free assessment

Five questions, then a real verdict

You get your recognition route, the likely bottleneck and a realistic timeline — not a callback promise.

27 countries

EU member states covered by Directive 2005/36/EC, plus the EEA and Switzerland

€X–€Y,000

Gross monthly salary range for doctors, depending on specialty and seniority

8–24 months

From start to first working day. The variable is language, not paperwork

36–40 hours

Standard working week, with overtime and unsocial hours compensated by collective agreement

What we do

Consulting with defined deliverables

Fixed prices. No percentage of your salary, no payment contingent on getting hired.

Document audit and legal route

We establish which recognition ground applies to you, check your diploma against CIBG and RGS requirements, and identify missing documents before you file rather than after.

Registration support

Certificate of Good Standing, conformity certificates, legalisation, translations, filing and correspondence with the authorities — handled end to end.

Medical Dutch

Structured progression to working clinical proficiency: patient history taking, handover, documentation. For most EU-qualified doctors this is the only real barrier.

Application preparation

A CV in Dutch format, a motivation letter written the way Dutch employers expect, and interview practice. You apply to employers yourself.

Soft landing

Guidance on the expat tax facility, family relocation, housing and registration with a municipality.

What we do not do

We are not a recruitment agency and we do not place candidates with employers. We do not guarantee employment, we take no share of your salary, and we charge no success fees.

You pay for preparation, not for a job. Every service here has a fixed price you see before you commit, and each one stands on its own. Nothing you pay us depends on whether you are hired, and we have no financial interest in where you end up working.

Pricing

Published, fixed and paid once

Each service is priced on its own. Nothing is bundled, and nothing you pay depends on the outcome of your applications.

Route audit

€250 one-off

€99 for nurses

  • Written assessment of your recognition ground
  • Personal document checklist with issuing bodies and lead times
  • Month-by-month route map
  • 60-minute call
  • Refunded in full if no recognition route is available to you

Registration support

Fixed fee quoted after audit

Scope depends on your route

  • Full document collection and legalisation
  • Translations coordinated and checked
  • Filing with CIBG and, where relevant, RGS
  • All correspondence with the authorities
  • Priced separately from the audit

Medical Dutch

From €X / month

Group and individual formats

  • Clinical terminology and consultation skills
  • Progress assessment against working requirements
  • Can run in parallel with document collection
  • Frequently funded by the employer in shortage specialties
The market

Specialties in demand

Salary figures are gross monthly, based on the applicable collective labour agreement (CAO). Last reviewed: .

Specialist ouderengeneeskundeElderly care physician

Critical shortage

A specialty that exists as a separate discipline only in the Netherlands — domestic training cannot keep pace with an ageing population. One of the few fields where employers routinely fund a candidate's language training and wait a year for them.

Salary
€X,XXX–€Y,XXX gross / month (CAO VVT)
Rhythm
Daytime work in long-term care, few night shifts
Entry
No direct equivalent abroad — usually via basisarts registration and Dutch training, often employer-funded. Individual assessment needed.

PsychiaterPsychiatrist

Critical shortage

Waiting lists in Dutch mental health care are a matter of public debate; the shortage is equally acute in hospitals and in outpatient GGZ services.

Salary
€X,XXX–€Y,XXX gross / month (CAO GGZ)
Rhythm
Largely outpatient with predictable hours; part-time contracts are common
Entry
Listed for automatic recognition. Highest language threshold of any specialty — the work is entirely built on nuance of speech.

HuisartsGeneral practitioner

High demand

The shortage is felt most outside the Randstad: in the northern and eastern provinces practices close faster than new ones open, and regions compete for doctors with terms you will not find in Amsterdam.

Salary
€X,XXX–€Y,XXX gross / month employed; practice ownership pays more against a different liability profile (LHV / NZa)
Rhythm
Scheduled consultations, out-of-hours duty via the huisartsenpost rota
Entry
Listed for automatic recognition. Language load is the highest of any specialty — conversation is the entire instrument.

VerpleegkundigeNurse

Critical shortage

The largest workforce shortage in Dutch healthcare, across every region and every type of institution.

Salary
€X,XXX–€Y,XXX gross / month, depending on qualification level and shift allowances (CAO Ziekenhuizen / VVT)
Rhythm
Shift-based; evening, night and weekend allowances are fixed by collective agreement
Entry
The Dutch system distinguishes qualification levels (mbo / hbo), and your level determines both role and pay. It cannot be read off your diploma title — the curriculum is compared.
The country

Why doctors choose the Netherlands

Hours that end

Shifts are defined, overtime is compensated by collective agreement, and physician burnout is treated as an institutional problem rather than a personal failing.

Autonomy and flat hierarchy

Clinical decisions sit with the treating physician. Consultation with patients is a conversation between adults, and disagreeing with a senior colleague is normal practice.

Financial stability

Salaries are set by transparent collective agreements, pension and social protection are substantial, and an expat tax facility applies to qualifying incoming employees.

A modern system

Fully digitised records, strong primary care gatekeeping and an explicit commitment to evidence-based practice and guideline-driven medicine.

FAQ

Questions doctors actually ask

In most cases, no. Qualifications listed in Directive 2005/36/EC benefit from automatic recognition, and the content of your training is not re-assessed. The exceptions are specialties outside the list, unfinished residencies, and diplomas issued before your country joined the EU. Those follow the general system, where compensation measures may apply.
Not automatically. The Directive is primarily addressed to nationals of EU/EEA states, and the diploma alone does not confer a right to simplified recognition. Separate grounds do exist — EU long-term resident status, family member of an EU national, recognition under the general system. Which one applies is determined by your documents, not by your diploma. This is the single most common point at which applicants file on the wrong basis and lose a year.
The BIG register is the Dutch state register of healthcare professionals. Without an entry in it, a doctor, dentist or nurse may not practise independently. It grants the right to work as a basisarts. If you hold a medical specialty, that specialty is registered separately with the RGS — Registratiecommissie Geneeskundig Specialisten. These are two distinct steps, and the order depends on your case.
Working with patients requires confident professional Dutch — commonly described as B2/C1 — including clinical terminology and the ability to take a patient history. Formal requirements are published by CIBG; we always verify against the primary source and cite it in your written assessment.
You should. Legalisation, translations and requests to authorities in your home country take months and run in parallel with language study. Doing them sequentially costs you roughly six months. The one exception is a starting level of A0–A2, where language must come first because everything else will wait on it anyway.
The route audit is €250, or €99 for nurses: a written assessment, a personal checklist and a call. Registration support and language programmes are priced separately and quoted before you commit. We do not work on a percentage of salary and we charge no fees that depend on you being hired. You also have 14 days to withdraw from the contract — see the question below.
Yes. As a consumer buying online you have 14 days to withdraw from the contract without giving a reason, and we will tell you so at checkout. If you ask us to start straight away — most people do, because waiting two weeks helps nobody — you keep the right to withdraw until the service is fully performed, and you pay only for the part already delivered. To withdraw, write to info@mentoramedic.eu.
No, and nobody can — the hiring decision belongs to the clinic. We are accountable for what is within our control: the correct recognition route, a complete document file, language preparation, and introduction to employers recruiting in your field. If someone guarantees you a contract, that is a reason to be careful.
From roughly 8 months on a clean EU route with language already in place, to 24 months for a specialty outside the automatic list starting from no Dutch. The dominant variable is language, not bureaucracy.
Yes. With a contract or a lawful basis of residence, your spouse and children obtain residence rights and your spouse the right to work. The exact procedure depends on your nationality and is covered in the audit.
Then the audit is worth most to you — straightforward cases people complete on their own. We decline cases where no route exists, and we say so directly rather than after you have paid for support.

Know your route before you file

Most rejections and lost months on the European route come not from the difficulty of the procedure, but from filing on the wrong ground or discovering a missing document too late.

  • Written assessment of your situation
  • Personal document checklist with authorities and lead times
  • Month-by-month route map
  • A 60-minute call for anything you want to ask
€250

14-day right of withdrawal.
Refunded in full if no recognition route is available to you.

Book the audit Free assessment first

We are not a recruitment agency and do not place candidates.
We do not guarantee employment.

Contact

Tell us where you qualified

And what you are trying to do. We reply within two working days.

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