Nursing and health professions: Triple Win, doctors, recognition
Nursing and medicine are regulated professions: you may work in them in Germany only with German recognition (nurses) or an Approbation (doctors). Otherwise you can work as an assistant.
Recruitment ban list: Tunisia is not on it
Under § 38 BeschV the active recruitment of health workers from the states in Annex 1 (55 states, based on the WHO Health Workforce Support and Safeguards List 2023) is allowed only through the Federal Employment Agency (private placement is an administrative offence, but only for those Annex 1 states). Tunisia is not in Annex 1. So the ban does not apply to Tunisia, and recruiters other than the BA are not excluded by it. We did not read the WHO list itself; a provisional newer WHO list (circular C.L.25.2026) was not checked. Rely on the current Annex 1. Fair recruitment is still advisable: Faire Anwerbung Pflege Deutschland, and Avoiding scams.
Nurses: Triple Win
- Triple Win is run by the Federal Employment Agency (ZAV) and GIZ; Tunisia is a partner country for nurses (BA, Triple Win).
- The BA page for Tunisia (Triple Win Tunisie) says: three selection rounds a year; calls and documents are published by the Tunisian employment agency ANETI; candidates are Tunisian nationals living in Tunisia with a nursing qualification (the page names a four-year programme, level IV); nursing assistants, midwives and career changers are not considered; candidates pay no placement or preparation fee, the employer carries the costs. German at A1 is desirable. The page may be a cached version, and the general BA brochure speaks of a three-year Bachelor; check the current ANETI call.
- B1 German is required within the programme; recognition as a nurse needs B2 (BA brochure). The Embassy books nursing visas directly at TLScontact: Visa and Embassy.
- GTAI reports that the Embassy issued visas for work or training to more than 3,500 Tunisian nurses in 2024 (GTAI).
Ways to recognition for nurses
| Way | In short |
|---|---|
| Recognition first | Apply for recognition from abroad. If your training is only partly equivalent, you get a notice with the missing parts. |
| Qualification measure (§ 16d (1) AufenthG) | Residence permit for an adaptation course or an aptitude test (Kenntnisprüfung). German is, as a rule, at least sufficient (A2). |
| Recognition partnership (§ 16d (3)) | Needs a concrete job offer and an agreement with the employer. |
| Placement agreement (§ 16d (4)) | Only where the BA has a placement agreement with the country; Triple Win is the BA programme. Whether it uses § 16d (4) for Tunisia: not confirmed. |
Statute: § 16d AufenthG. Who decides in Berlin: the LAGeSo. Fees and processing times: not confirmed.
Doctors
- GTAI states that doctors are not recruited through state programmes; the Federal Medical Association counted more than 1,000 Tunisian doctors working in Germany at the end of 2024, mostly in hospitals.
- The licence is the Approbation (§ 3 BÄO), granted by the state authority after an equivalence check of your training; where it is not equivalent, a knowledge exam (Kenntnisprüfung) can be taken. A medical language exam is also required. Level, exam dates, Berlin procedure and fees: not checked; see anerkennung-in-deutschland.de.
- Doctors attending a specialist language course book the visa directly at TLScontact (Embassy page).
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