Work in Iceland as a foreign doctor, nurse or AHP (2026)

• Directorate of HealthDirectorate of Health (Embætti landlæknis)

  Doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists, pharmacists and all 36 licensed health professions

  Read the registration guide

1. 1

   1. Confirm your profession is licensed and read its regulation

   Check the Directorate of Health's list of authorised healthcare professions and open the regulation for yours. The regulation sets the Icelandic education standard your training will be measured against, for example a medical degree of at least 5 years and 5,500 hours of teaching for doctors under Regulation No. 856/2023. If your profession is not on the list, it is not a licensed health profession in Iceland.
2. 2

   2. Find a job with an Icelandic health institution

   Regulation No. 483/2023 says the Directorate will only take up a non-EEA application once you have submitted a work and residence permit or a signed employment contract with a health institution or practice in Iceland. The contract may be conditional on the licence being granted. Landspítali posts vacancies on Starfatorg and has registration portals for nurses and doctors, and you can apply without an Icelandic ID number by registering on the state recruitment site.
3. 3

   3. Gather and certify your documents

   You need your diploma, a copy of your current licence, a letter of good standing no more than three months old when the Directorate receives it, an official transcript, a course description (syllabus) for every course with hours, credits and clinical hours, and optionally a signed employment certificate. Graduates from the Philippines also send the CHED certification on authentication and verification and their board exam certificate. All documents must be originals or certified copies, in Icelandic or English, with a certified translation of anything else.
4. 4

   4. Submit the paper application to the Directorate of Health

   Use the form 'License to practice - education completed outside the EEA or Switzerland'. Applicants trained outside the EEA cannot apply electronically. Number every supporting document with an A4 cover sheet, do not bind or staple them, and hand the pack in at Katrínartún 2, Reykjavík, or post it. Unnumbered applications are not accepted.
5. 5

   5. Pay the evaluation fee and wait for the assessment

   Because Iceland has no recognition agreement with your country, the Directorate obtains an evaluation of your education. For doctors this comes from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Iceland; for nurses from the nursing faculties of the University of Iceland or the University of Akureyri. The evaluation fee is ISK 73,600 for university-level education. The Directorate says an evaluated application should take no longer than four months from receipt of all documents.
6. 6

   6. Complete compensation measures if asked

   If the evaluation finds gaps, the Directorate may require an adaptation period, working under the supervision of a licensed colleague with a temporary licence, or an aptitude test if your training is significantly different. You must find the job and the supervisor yourself, the supervisor must have worked in the profession in Iceland for at least three years, and remote supervision is not allowed. An aptitude test must be passed within 13 months of the decision.
7. 7

   7. Get the work permit and residence permit

   Your employer applies to the Directorate of Immigration for a temporary work permit, usually for work requiring expert knowledge, together with your residence permit based on work. The residence permit fee is ISK 80,000. Since 8 July 2026 work permits are processed by the Directorate of Immigration rather than the Directorate of Labour. You may not start work until the work permit is granted.
8. 8

   8. Arrive, register and receive your licence

   Before the residence permit is issued you attend a photo appointment, notify your address and, if required, have a medical examination within two weeks of arrival. You then receive an Icelandic ID number (kennitala). The Directorate of Health issues your licence only once you are in Iceland with a work and residence permit, and the licence is sent to your mailbox on island.is. The issue fee is ISK 12,000.
9. 9

   9. Start work and plan for Icelandic

   Landspítali prepares the employment contract after you have a kennitala, a bank account, an electronic ID and an Icelandic phone number. Icelandic is not a licence condition, but your employer must be satisfied that your language skills are adequate for the job, and Landspítali strongly encourages learning Icelandic. Specialists apply separately for an Icelandic specialist licence; for doctors trained as specialists outside the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, the Directorate consults the relevant specialty training council (kennsluráð).

• Iceland has no national language test for the licence. Article 15 of Regulation No. 483/2023 states that knowledge of Icelandic is not a condition for a licence or specialist licence for applicants from countries without a recognition agreement.
• Instead, the employer must make sure you have the language skills and knowledge of Icelandic law and rules that the job requires, particularly for patient safety, communication with patients and keeping medical records. In practice this means the language standard is set job by job.
• The Directorate of Health does not list an English test (such as IELTS or OET) as a requirement for non-EEA applicants. Your documents must be in Icelandic or English, with a certified translation of anything in another language.
• Landspítali says Icelandic is its primary working language and that internal systems, guidelines and most day-to-day communication are in Icelandic, while English is widely spoken and used as a support language, especially in your first period of employment. It points new staff to free resources such as Icelandic Online from the University of Iceland.
• The older nurses' regulation, No. 512/2013, allows the Directorate to require Icelandic, but Regulation No. 483/2023 says its provisions take precedence over the profession regulations for applicants from countries without a recognition agreement.

• Work permit for expert knowledge

  The usual route for licensed health professionals. Conditions include that help has been sought from the Directorate of Labour to find a worker in Iceland, the EEA, EFTA or the Faroe Islands, that you have a contract for a specific job requiring expertise, and that your expertise rests on recognised university-level or comparable training. Permits are generally granted for one year and may be granted for up to four years at a time. If you lose your job you can apply for a 12-month residence permit to look for another job based on your expertise.

• Residence permit based on work

  Applied for on paper with the work permit, with the ISK 80,000 fee paid by bank transfer first; expedited processing for a fee is no longer available. You must be 18 or over, show secure means of support of at least ISK 259,951 a month before tax, and have private health insurance valid in Iceland with at least ISK 2,000,000 cover for the first three months after registering your domicile. Expert applicants may stay in Iceland while the application is processed if their stay is otherwise legal.

• Shortage of labour permit

  A separate permit for shortages, granted only in exceptional circumstances for temporary fluctuations in the labour market, for up to one year and renewable for up to two years. For a regulated profession, confirmation of your licence must be obtained. Visa-required applicants on this route may not be in Iceland while it is processed.

• Processing times and priority

  The Directorate of Immigration publishes current waiting times by application type on its website rather than a fixed target, and from July 2026 may process complete work-based applications ahead of others. Landspítali says applications it manages for its employees get expedited service. If you need a visa to travel, the Directorate of Immigration asks the relevant embassy to issue an entry visa after approval.

• Family members

  A residence permit for a spouse costs ISK 110,000 and for a child ISK 60,000. Spouses and cohabiting partners of people holding a work permit for expert knowledge, and their children under 18, are exempt from needing their own work permit.

• EEA, EFTA and Nordic citizens and UK graduates

  EEA, EFTA and Nordic citizens do not need a work permit, but still need a licence from the Directorate of Health. Doctors, nurses, midwives, dentists and pharmacists trained in the EEA or Switzerland apply with a letter of conformity under Directive 2005/36/EC. Graduates of UK programmes are assessed under chapter 12 of the free trade agreement between the EEA EFTA states and the UK, and may also be asked to complete an adaptation period.

Base monthly salaries in state health institutions, such as Landspítali, from the national salary tables in force from 1 April 2026. Doctors' grades come from the collective agreement between the Icelandic Medical Association and the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs; nurses' grades are set by each hospital's institutional agreement, so only the overall table is shown. Steps rise with experience and other factors. Figures are gross, in Icelandic krónur, and exclude shift, overtime and on-call payments.

Monthly amounts

• Doctor in foundation year or without it (grade 2)

  ISK 861,271 to 1,091,033

  Læknafélag Íslands salary table from 1 April 2026, steps 0 to 8.

• Doctor after foundation year or in specialist training (grade 4)

  ISK 913,723 to 1,157,476

  Læknafélag Íslands salary table from 1 April 2026, steps 0 to 8.

• Specialist doctor (sérfræðilæknir, grade 14)

  ISK 1,227,967 to 1,555,551

  Læknafélag Íslands salary table from 1 April 2026, steps 0 to 8. Up to 3 extra grades for job-related factors.

• Chief physician (yfirlæknir, grades 22 to 26)

  ISK 1,555,551 to 2,217,846

  Læknafélag Íslands salary table from 1 April 2026.

• Nurses, state salary table (grades 1 to 29)

  ISK 506,030 to 2,037,600

  Félag íslenskra hjúkrunarfræðinga state table from 1 April 2026. Your grade depends on the hospital's institutional agreement.