American doctor moving to Europe?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

mmcdow18

New Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Jan 6, 2012
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Is this possible? I realize D.O.'s aren't recognized in all countries. However, with an M.D, could a grad of American medical schools find work in the EU (particularly UK, Germany or France)?
My S.O has family in Germany and is trying to establish EU citizenship, so perhaps I could "marry into" it.
We very much want to live in Europe (S.O grew up there); is this a possibility as an American M.D?
Thanks!

Members don't see this ad.
 
Yes, American MDs are recognized in EU (European Union). Getting EU citizenship (you get it directly if you get a citizenship of any member state - marriage) would definitely help you, with it you are allowed to work in any EU member state. Regarding D.O. do not know, I heard there is a D.O. school near Lisbon, so I guess might be possible. However, you would have to contact every member state's medical board and inquire, since you might be required to do an internship, take some extra exams,... (even if you are an MD). If you are DO, the medical board would probably review your academic transcript to determine if you are eligible to be recognized as a Doctor of Medicine in EU. Since (from what I've heard) DO programs teach you almost the same as MD programs, you probably would.
Also, every member state has it's own matching process, e.g. in Germany there is no national match, you get an offer from a hospital for a spot and start working right away, different from US, so you would have to inquire for a job yourself.
Of course, there is always the language barrier (unless you wanna practice in UK, Ireland). In probably all member states, if you don't have EU citizenship, you are almost always required to show language proficiency. On the other hand, with EU citizenship, in many states you are not required to do it. However, in reality, if you cannot speak the language of your patients, you are not very likely to get hired.
 
Last edited:
Is this possible? I realize D.O.'s aren't recognized in all countries. However, with an M.D, could a grad of American medical schools find work in the EU (particularly UK, Germany or France)?
My S.O has family in Germany and is trying to establish EU citizenship, so perhaps I could "marry into" it.
We very much want to live in Europe (S.O grew up there); is this a possibility as an American M.D?
Thanks!

In the UK you would need an EU passport to train here, so marrying into one would be ok.
What level are you though? The EU thing applies more to trainees. If you are an attending you need to be board certified to have your training count, if not you would have to start over.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
How its for DOs I dont know, but Germany needs MDs and, yes, Americans can work in Germany(but I dont know whether non-EU graduation is recognized). Besides I think they provide language courses as well (but I am not clear about it). Also after your residency you can work in Norway and Sweden as a specialist as well and I know that they arrange language courses.

There is a forum member in ValueMD who named devildoc8404. He has his last year of med education in Europe and had an offer from both Germany and Ireland (which is another European country in need of MDs). So he knows more about them (actually I learned all those thanks to him).
 
Bumping this thread for future questions...
American MDs are not recognised in Europe. You can find out about the procedure to gain equivalence by contacting the NARIC center (National Academic Recognition Information Centres in the European Union - http://www.enic-naric.net/country-pages.aspx) of the country you would like to move to.
However, there is some good news as the USA was (in 2007) on the German list of counties that are granted so-called “Objective equivalence” in human and dental medicine (along with Australia, Israel, Japan, Canada, New Zealand and South Africa - there's no guarantee for equivalence in other EU countries...).
If the NARIC procedure of the country you are applying to comes to the conclusion that there's no objective equivalence, than this would usually mean that an American MD will have to pass an exam to prove their degree equivalence, after which the might need to redo their residency. This would then be comparable to the procedure in the US where an IMG coming to the US has to go through the USMLEs and then needs to get a residency match.
 
Sure it is possible! Actually this year americans successfully applied in EU universities.
 
Top