assessment office for health professions

What does the GfG do?

The assessment office compares training completed abroad with the corresponding German training and describes whether and where material differences exist. It does not decide itself. The decision remains with the licensing authority of the relevant federal state, which uses the opinion as a technical basis. The office was established at the initiative of a joint working group of the Health Ministers' Conference and the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs, in order to achieve more consistent national standards and to spare the states their own research into foreign programmes. It is designed to handle approximately 3,000 commissions per year.

When does it come into play?

The GfG becomes relevant as part of the equivalence assessment under § 3(3) of the Federal Medical Act, i.e. for training certificates from third countries. The authority commissions it; costs are reimbursed as disbursements and appear later in the fee invoice for the procedure. If the opinion concludes that material differences exist, a notice of substantial differences is issued and the route leads via the knowledge test. Direct applications to the GfG are not provided for; the commissioning party is exclusively the authority. The assessment lengthens the procedure because the office requires documentation and curricula in the original.

What does this mean for graduates from EU countries?

Those who have studied in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Malta, or the Baltic states and hold a qualification listed in Annex V point 5.1.1 of Directive 2005/36/EC will generally not encounter the assessment office. For these diplomas, automatic recognition under Article 21 applies. Those primarily affected are graduates from Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as holders of older diplomas acquired before the country of training joined the EU for which no conformity certificate is available.

What changes from November 2026?

Because the document-based equivalence assessment will from 1 November 2026 only take place on application, the number of assessments is likely to decrease. Those who still want their documents assessed must apply within four weeks of the start of proceedings. The details of how the states will implement this will only become clear in practice.