Doctor

Doctors who have qualified outside the EU/EEA

In order to work as a medical doctor in Finland, you must have an authorisation (licence to practice a profession) from Valvira. You may be granted a licence to practice your profession as a medical doctor upon application and will also be entered in the Central Register of Health Care Professionals (known as Terhikki) upon application.

In order to be eligible for licensing, you must complete an internship and sit a three-part licensure examination as mandated by Valvira to ensure that your qualification is equivalent to medical training in Finland.

The applicant shall not complete the employment, the supplementary studies, the internship or three-part examination required by Valvira, before Valvira has inspected and approved applicant’s degree and education.

Practicing as a medical doctor without a licence in Finland is a criminal offence punishable by a fine or imprisonment.

Conditions for licensing:

You have completed a qualification in a country that is not an EU/EEA Member State

• Medical training for a medical doctor’s profession completed abroad that fulfils certain criteria
• Sufficient language skills
• At least six months of internship at a Finnish hospital or health centre maintained by a public body (central government, municipality, joint municipal authority)
• Three-part examination

Training requirements

‘Medical training for a medical doctor’s profession completed abroad' refers to basic medical training that fulfils certain criteria. Apply to Valvira for recognition of your qualification using the form provided.

Application of approval of a medical degree completed in abroad  

Appendices to the application

1. A copy of your valid passport or similar official document to verify your identity and citizenship
2. A document certifying your change of name if any of your appended documents were issued under a name that is different from your current name
3. A copy of your original qualification certificate
4. Certificate of a licence to practice your profession issued by a competent foreign authority if you have been licensed to practice your profession in a country other than Finland. This certificate must be no more than three months old and it must indicate that the licence is valid and not subject to any restrictions. If you have been licensed to practice your profession in more than one country, you must submit the certificates from all those countries in either the original or as a copy.
5. If you cannot provide the certificate mentioned in point 4, the proof that practitioners of this profession are not registered in said country and the proof should be established by means of a certificate to that effect, issued by the competent authority of the said country or a proof by other reliable means.
6. Translations into Finnish, Swedish or English of the aforementioned documents made by a translator certified or authorised in Finland or another EU/EEA member state. The translations may be submitted in the original or as copies.
7. Applicants who have completed their professional training related to the application or their general education in a language other than Finnish or Swedish must submit a copy of their National Certificate of Language Proficiency or Civil Service Language Proficiency Certificate no later than in the context of signing up for their first examination test. If general education is completed in Finnish or Swedish, Leaving certificate/diploma of the education completed in Finnish or in Swedish, on a second stage educational institution. The second stage educational institution is an institution intended for post primary studies (for example vocational school and upper secondary school).

Formal requirements for application documents

All copies appended to your application must be authenticated.

Authenticated copies may be obtained from notaries public in Finland and other EU/EEA Member States and from Finnish missions abroad. The copies submitted to Valvira must bear the original stamp and signature of the notary public or Finnish mission. Copies issued by a foreign authority are acceptable if endorsed with an Apostille.

Translations of the documents into Finnish, Swedish or English must be appended to the application. The translations must be made by a translator certified or authorised in Finland or another EU/EEA Member State. The translations must be submitted either in the original bearing the translator’s original stamp and signature or as authenticated copies bearing the original stamp and signature of a notary public or a Finnish mission.

Valvira will not return your application documents and does not make copies of documents.

Further information on notaries public

Database search for authorised translators(search available only in Finnish)

Further information on Apostille

Verifying the qualification

Please have your qualification certificate or diploma authenticated in the country where the training was provided using Apostille or Grand Legalisation endorsement. You may submit to Valvira an authenticated copy of your qualification certificate with Apostille or Grand Legalisation endorsement, but the endorsement must be on the original document itself.

If you are unable to submit your qualification certificate with Apostille or Grand Legalisation endorsement, Valvira will verify your qualification directly from the educational institution. Verifying the qualification will delay the processing of the application.

Language skills

As a medical doctor, you must have sufficient spoken and written language skills to be able to carry out your duties. The official languages of Finland are Finnish and Swedish.

Applicants must submit with their application either their Civil Service Language Proficiency Certificate or National Certificate of Language Proficiency. The Civil Service Language Proficiency Test must be passed with a level of Satisfactory or higher in all subject areas. For the National Certificate of Language Proficiency, an intermediate level (levels 3–4) or higher is required. The national certificate of language proficiency needs to include all the skill components of the test, each passed on a level of satisfactory (3-4) or higher.

Certificates of studies in the Finnish or Swedish language, e.g. language course certificates, will not be accepted as proof of language skills by themselves. For further information on language examinations and certificates, please see the website of the National Board of Education (www.oph.fi).

Internship

An internship for qualification recognition is an internship in a Finnish hospital or health centre maintained by a public body with a job description equivalent to the internship required of Finnish medical students. The internship should last at least six months, but Valvira can specify both the length and the content of your internship as necessary.  You have to have begun and finished your internship within the three years immediately preceding your taking of the Tampere examination.

Research is only accepted as part of internship if it takes place at a medical care facility, and even then only to a maximum of two months.

Observing the operations of a medical care facility as a visitor, serving at a facility as a volunteer employee or undergoing labour market training as part of the training provided by the immigration or employment authorities (‘integration services’) does not count as internship for the purposes of this process.

Valvira does not serve as an employment exchange for internships: you must obtain your own internship position yourself, for instance by contacting hospitals directly and agreeing on your internship with the hospital. You do not need permission from Valvira to begin your internship.

Examination

You may take the first test in the examination when you have completed your six-month internship in full and passed your language certificate test.

The examination consists of three tests:

1. Clinical knowledge
2. Health care in Finland
3. Clinical skills

The tests are given in Finnish or Swedish and must be completed in the order given above.

Further information on the examination (valvira.fi)

Limited licence

Valvira may, on application, grant you a limited licence at the examination stage.

After you have passed the first test in your examination, you may be granted a limited licence to practice at a hospital maintained by a public body. After you have passed the second test in the examination, you may also be granted a limited licence to practice at a health centre.

A limited licence is granted for a specific speciality and a specific facility, and for no more than six months at a time. Generally, limited licences are only granted for a maximum total of two years.

Application for a limited licence to practice as a medical doctor (in Finnish)

Application for a limited licence to practice as a medical doctor (in Swedish)

Licensing

Once you have passed all the parts of your licensure examination, you may be licensed to practice as a licensed medical doctor. In order to be licensed to practice your profession as a medical doctor, you must submit an application to Valvira. Your application must be in Finnish, Swedish or English, and it must be dated and signed.

1. In order to be licensed to practice your profession as a medical doctor, you must submit an application to Valvira. Application form (in Finnish) Appilication form (in Swedish)
2. You must enclose with your application your employer’s statement about your most recent internship or your practice as a medical doctor under a limited licence.

Failure in licensure examinations

You may attempt written clinical and Finnish healthcare licensure examinations a maximum of ten times each. After three unsuccessful attempts, you must take a year’s break before registering to sit the examination again. If you have failed the clinical or administrative licensure examination ten times, you may no longer sit the examination.

You may sit the practical patient examination a total of three times. If you fail the patient examination on the first attempt, you may have a second attempt after at least six months have elapsed. If you fail the second time, you must wait a further year before sitting the examination a third time. During this year, you must successfully complete six months’ intern service (amanuenssipalvelu) in a hospital or health centre run by a public entity. Your employer must submit a statement of the intern service you have completed to Valvira. If you fail the patient examination the third time, you may no longer attempt the examination.

If a person fails ten times in the written licensure examinations or three times in the practical patient examination, he or she may apply to Valvira for a licence to practice as a medical doctor to obtain a decision for amenable review in the matter. Application for a licence to practice as a medical doctor by application addressed to Valvira (application pdf in Finnish). Valvira will issue a negative decision for amendable review to persons who have failed the written licensure examination ten times.

Alternatively, in such cases, a person may apply to study for a Finnish degree in medicine and have his or her credits from earlier studies transferred to the new degree.

Licensing when you have completed a qualification in a country that is not an EU/EEA Member State and an EU/EEA Member State other than Finland has recognised your qualification and licensed you to practice your profession

Licensing is subject to the condition that you have practiced as a medical doctor or specialist for at least three years in the EU/EEA Member State in which you were licenced to practice as a medical doctor or specialist. If you have less than three years’ experience, please see above under ‘Conditions for legalisation’ for additional information.

Appendices to the application

1. A copy of your valid passport or similar official document to verify your identity and citizenship
2. A document certifying your change of name if any of your appended documents were issued under a name that is different from your current name
3. A copy of your original qualification certificate and any appendices demonstrating the content and scope of the qualification (e.g. diploma supplement or transcript of records)
4. Certificate of a licence to practice your profession issued by a competent foreign authority if you have been licensed to practice your profession in a country other than Finland. This certificate must be no more than three months old and it must indicate that the licence is valid and not subject to any restrictions. If you have been licensed to practice your profession in more than one country, you must submit the certificates from all those countries either in the original or as a copy.
5. If you cannot provide the certificate mentioned in point 4, the proof that practitioners of this profession are not registered in said country must be established by means of a certificate to that effect issued by the competent authority of the said country or a proof by other reliable means.
6. Certificate issued by a competent authority verifying that your qualification complies with EU requirements either in the original or as a copy.
7. Translations into Finnish, Swedish or English of the aforementioned documents made by a translator certified or authorised in Finland or another EU/EEA member state. The translations may be submitted in the original or as copies.
8. Applicants who have completed their professional training related to the application or their general education in a language other than Finnish or Swedish must submit a copy of their National Certificate of Language Proficiency or Civil Service Language Proficiency Certificate.

Doctor ID

All foreign medical doctors practicing medicine in Finland must have a doctor ID, which is issued by Valvira in connection with the licensing decision or the granting of your first limited licence. The doctor ID must always be written or stamped on prescriptions, for example.

Specialising in medicine in Finland

Specialist training in Finland is in the form of postgraduate professional education at a university. Specialist training is provided by the faculties of medicine at the universities of Helsinki, Eastern Finland, Oulu, Tampere and Turku. Training is subject to the strict requirement that the medical doctor is licensed by Valvira to practice the profession of medical doctor in Finland.

Each Faculty of Medicine decides on admissions of foreign medical doctors as post-graduate students and on how your training completed abroad will be recognised in specialist medical training in Finland. The medical specialist degree programme lasts 5–6 years and principally involves practical work in the specialist field in question.

A foreign medical doctor can also complete a post-graduate Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree at the universities listed above. If you only intend to engage in scientific research, it is not necessary for you to be licenced to practice medicine.

Processing time

The application processing time is roughly 4 months and it begins to run once Valvira has received all necessary documents.

Decision

Professional practice rights decisions are subject to a fee, and the fee will be charged also from the negative decisions. Half of the application processing fee will be charged for the cancelled application. Currently valid fees.

The decision on your licence to practice your profession will be issued in Finnish or Swedish. The invoice will be sent as a separate mail delivery.

Work permit

For further information on residence permits and work permits, please contact the Finnish Immigration Service and the employment authorities.

Finnish Immigration Service (migri.fi)
TE Office (mol.fi)

Relevant legislation

Act on Health Care Professionals

Decree on Health Care Professionals

www.finlex.fi/fi/laki/kokoelma/2011/20110377.pdf (in Finnish only)