Berufsausübungsbewilligung (cantonal licence to practise, Switzerland)

In Switzerland, the right to practise a health profession is granted by the canton where you work, not by a national body. Federal law sets the conditions: the Medical Professions Act (MedBG) for doctors, dentists, pharmacists and chiropractors, and the Health Professions Act (GesBG) for nurses, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, midwives, dietitians, optometrists and osteopaths. The canton checks them and issues the licence, then records it in MedReg or GesReg.

The key question is whether you work under professional supervision or on your own professional responsibility (in eigener fachlicher Verantwortung). The FOPH's GesBG guidance says the licence is needed for any work not supervised by a member of the same profession, whether you are employed in a public or private organisation or self-employed, and also if you are the only professional of your kind employed in an institution. The canton of Zurich gives a resident doctor in hospital as an example of supervised work that needs no licence.

• Qualification. A Swiss or recognised foreign diploma for your profession. Doctors also need a postgraduate title; Zurich's guidance for medicine cites a medical diploma and a postgraduate title under article 36 MedBG. A non-recognisable diploma registered in MedReg does not qualify.
• Trustworthiness and the physical and mental ability to practise.
• Language. Command of an official language of the canton. Zurich's medicine guidance asks for German at B2.

Under the GesBG, cantons may not add further conditions but can ask for documents such as a criminal record extract or medical certificate.

1. Apply no earlier than three months before your start date, online through a Zürikonto with an identity-verified AGOV login, or by post.
2. Attach certified copies of academic titles for medicine, dentistry, chiropractic and psychotherapy, work certificates for the last five years, and a foreign criminal record extract if you moved to Switzerland within the last five years.
3. Pay the fee: CHF 1,000 for doctors, dentists and psychological psychotherapists, CHF 800 for other health professions; renewals cost CHF 250 or CHF 200.
4. Expect a decision usually within six weeks of a complete file. Do not start work before you have it.

The licence is valid for ten years, up to the age of 70, then for up to three years at a time. Renewal requires a new application, with continuing education records for medicine and dentistry and, if you are self-employed, liability insurance of at least CHF 5 million.

• Assuming one licence covers Switzerland. Each canton issues its own, though moving to Zurich with a licence from another canton gives a simplified, free procedure under the Internal Market Act.
• Starting a role with independent responsibility on a registered non-EU diploma. Doctors with a diploma registered but not recognised in MedReg can only work under supervision.
• Confusing it with the B permit. The B permit lets you live and work; the Berufsausübungsbewilligung lets you take clinical responsibility.
• Fees and rules vary. Other cantons set their own fees and processes, so check your canton's health department.