Work as a dietitian in Germany: Diätassistent recognition

• A completed dietetics or clinical nutrition qualification that your country of training treats as a full professional qualification.
• Training content the authority judges equivalent to the German three-year Diätassistent course, or gaps closed by your documented dietetic practice, a passed knowledge test or a completed adaptation course (§ 2 DiätAssG, § 16b DiätAss-APrV).
• Evidence of hands-on food preparation and therapeutic diet planning, because German training includes diet kitchen work and the exam tests it.
• Supervised clinical placements, with hours, in hospital or outpatient dietetics.
• German at B2 of the CEFR, as the Recognition Finder profiles for Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria state.
• Personal reliability (Zuverlässigkeit) and health fitness for the profession, both conditions in § 2(1) DiätAssG, shown through a police certificate and a doctor's certificate.
• A start in Germany: the permit is granted once all four conditions in § 2(1) DiätAssG are met, which in practice means a job, an adaptation place or an exam date in a particular state.

Check your route with the route finder

• ApprobationState licensing authorities (Approbation)

  Doctors, dentists and pharmacists; nurses through professional recognition

  Read the registration guide

1. 1

   Match your degree to the German dietetics curriculum

   Before contacting any authority, set your transcripts beside the subject list in Anlage 1 of the DiätAss-APrV: nutrition science, food science and preservation, special pathology and nutritional medicine, diet and nutrition counselling, and diet kitchen practice. Note where your hours are low, especially food preparation and hospital placements. This tells you early whether a gap is likely and what evidence to gather.
2. 2

   Gather proof of dietetic practice, not just training

   § 16b DiätAss-APrV says gaps can be offset by skills from documented professional practice. Ask past employers for letters stating the wards or clinics you covered, the diets you designed (renal, diabetic, enteral and parenteral, allergy, paediatric) and any foodservice or menu-planning responsibility. Vague letters that only give a job title carry little weight.
3. 3

   Send the application to the state where you will work

   In Berlin the file goes to LAGeSo, in North Rhine-Westphalia to the Bezirksregierung Münster (ZAG-PuG) and in Bavaria to the Bayerisches Landesamt für Pflege in Amberg. The Recognition Finder profile for Diätassistent lists each office's document checklist. Bavaria's profile says diplomas and licences issued in English need no German translation; other documents do.
4. 4

   Ask for the equivalence decision first

   § 2(3b) DiätAssG says the authority should test the equivalence of your qualification before checking German, reliability and health, and on request it issues a separate notice on your qualification alone. That notice is useful for a visa or a job offer before your German certificate is ready. The authority must decide within four months of a complete file, or within two months if your employer uses the fast-track procedure under § 81a of the Residence Act (§ 16c DiätAss-APrV).
5. 5

   Read the notice for named subjects

   If gaps remain, § 16c(2) DiätAss-APrV requires a notice that names the subjects concerned, explains each difference and says why your practice did not offset it. Check whether the gaps sit in cooking and diet kitchen work, nutritional medicine or counselling, because that decides which compensation route suits you. You can appeal a notice that does not give these reasons.
6. 6

   Choose the knowledge test or the adaptation course

   The knowledge test has an oral part on five subjects and a practical part in which you plan, cook and present a patient's menu for one day. The adaptation course is run at a dietetics school or an approved facility, lasts as long as the authority sets (three years at most) and ends with a final interview. Experienced clinicians often prefer the test; people with little kitchen practice may do better in the course.
7. 7

   Sit the exam within the state's schedule

   § 16c(3) DiätAss-APrV lets states use the regular state exam dates but requires that you can sit within six months of the decision. Each failed part of the knowledge test may be retaken once. Ask the school or authority for past practical tasks so you know the level of menu calculation and cooking expected.
8. 8

   Complete the language and personal conditions

   Submit your B2 certificate, or in Bavaria sit the specialist language exam when the authority invites you. Send a police certificate and a medical certificate that are recent when you apply. Once everything is in, the authority issues the certificate permitting you to call yourself Diätassistentin or Diätassistent.

• Kenntnisprüfung, oral part

  Covers five subjects: professional law, nutrition science, food science and preservation, special pathology and nutritional medicine, and diet and nutrition counselling (§ 16b(4) DiätAss-APrV). It lasts 15 to 60 minutes and is assessed by two examiners, with the chair of the exam board present.

• Kenntnisprüfung, practical part

  Based on a patient who needs a therapeutic diet: you draw up a one-day meal plan, cook and plate the meals and explain how you made them, then justify your choices, quantities and nutritional values in a counselling conversation (§ 16b(5) with § 16a(3) DiätAss-APrV). It should take place on one day before two examiners. Each failed part can be repeated once, and the test should be offered at least twice a year.

• Anpassungslehrgang (adaptation course)

  Theory, supervised practice or both at a dietetics school or a facility the authority accepts, with length and content set by the authority (§ 16b(2) DiätAss-APrV). It ends with a final interview with an examiner and your supervisor. If you do not pass, the course can be extended once and then repeated once.

• The language condition is German, not English: § 2(1) DiätAssG requires the German needed to practise, and the Recognition Finder profiles for Berlin, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria set this at B2.
• North Rhine-Westphalia lists the B2 certificate among the application documents; Berlin's profile also asks for a German language certificate.
• In Bavaria the authority usually tests job-related German itself through a specialist language exam; you do not register, the office contacts you. The Bavarian profile lists a cost of €350.
• You are exempt from proof if German is your first language or you completed your vocational training in German.
• Counselling is half the job, so aim beyond the minimum: the knowledge test includes a counselling conversation in German about a patient's diet.

Estimate your total cost

• Before applying: allow time to collect detailed transcripts and dietetic work letters; incomplete course descriptions are what usually hold up a dietetics file.
• Decision on your application: within four months of a complete file under § 16c DiätAss-APrV, or two months under the employer-led fast-track procedure (§ 81a Residence Act).
• Knowledge test: the ordinance says it should run at least twice a year, and states must let you sit within six months of the decision.
• Adaptation course: whatever length your notice sets, up to the three-year limit in § 2(2) DiätAssG, plus one possible extension if the final interview is not passed.
• German to B2: often the longest stage for dietitians from outside Germany, and in Bavaria followed by the authority's own language exam.

Hospital pay in Germany follows collective agreements. The rows below are monthly gross table rates from the TVöD for municipal employers (VKA), Anlage A, valid from 1 May 2026, as published by the VKA. The VKA job classification puts dietitians with state recognition in EG 7, rising to EG 8 if at least a quarter of their tasks are difficult, while people doing dietetic work without the state title fall in EG 5. Your starting step depends on relevant experience; ask how your previous dietetic posts will be counted. University hospitals, church-run and private hospitals and rehabilitation clinics often pay under other agreements.

Monthly amounts

• EG 7, step 1

  €3,294.98

  State-recognised dietitian.

• EG 7, step 3

  €3,682.69

• EG 7, step 6 (top)

  €4,045.24

• EG 8, step 1

  €3,486.40

  At least a quarter of tasks are difficult.

• EG 8, step 3

  €3,843.36

• EG 8, step 6 (top)

  €4,230.97

• EG 5, step 1

  €3,124.08

  Doing the work without state recognition.

• EG 5, step 3

  €3,449.05

• EG 5, step 6 (top)

  €3,783.33

• Hospital nutrition teams, where dietitians cover wards such as nephrology, oncology, gastroenterology and intensive care, and advise kitchens on therapeutic diets.
• Rehabilitation clinics for metabolic, cardiac and gastrointestinal conditions, which run group teaching and individual diet counselling.
• Dialysis centres, diabetes practices and outpatient counselling services; outpatient work is often part-paid by health insurers, so ask employers how counselling is billed.
• Care homes and catering providers for hospitals, where menu planning and food safety skills are valued.
• Adaptation course hosts: some hospitals and dietetics schools take internationally trained dietitians for the supervised practice an adaptation course requires; ask before you choose that route.
• Until the permit arrives you cannot use the title, and a hospital may pay you in a lower group, so agree in writing how your pay changes on recognition.

• The German dietitian qualification is a three-year vocational state exam, so once your permit is granted the usual residence title is the skilled-worker permit for people with vocational training (§ 18a AufenthG), even if your own qualification is a degree.
• If your notice requires a compensation measure, the residence permit under § 16d(1) AufenthG runs for up to three years in total. That matches the three-year ceiling of a dietetic adaptation course, but a shorter course or the knowledge test, which states must offer within six months of the decision, leaves more room for the language stage.
• The recognition partnership (§ 16d(3) AufenthG) lets you start with an employer and finish recognition in Germany. It suits dietitians whose gaps are mainly in diet kitchen practice that can be filled in a hospital; your employer must agree to make the compensation measure possible.
• Full visa options, eligibility rules and the visa fee are on the Germany country guide on this site.

1. 1

   Your DHA, DOH, MOHAP, SCFHS, QCHP or other Gulf licence as a clinical dietitian does not carry over. The authority looks at the course where you qualified, so your original university transcripts matter more than your Gulf licence.

2. 2

   Gulf clinical dietetics experience counts: § 16b DiätAss-APrV lets documented professional practice offset gaps. Letters that name the specialities you covered (for example diabetes, renal, oncology, paediatrics and nutrition support) and give weekly hours are the most useful.

3. 3

   The common gap for Gulf hospital dietitians is diet kitchen work. In many hospitals catering runs separately from the dietetics team, but the German knowledge test asks you to cook and plate a therapeutic menu, so collect evidence of any menu planning, tray-line checks or kitchen supervision you did.

4. 4

   Internship evidence is often missing: if your licence rested on a supervised dietetic internship, ask the hospital or university for a logbook or letter stating its length, rotations and hours.

5. 5

   Ask each Gulf regulator that has licensed you for a good standing letter, and check with your German authority which police certificate it wants for your Gulf country of residence.

6. 6

   Arabic and English counselling skills transfer, but German patient counselling is tested directly in the exam. Start German early enough to reach B2 before your notice arrives.

• Application plan with every step, fee and deadline

• Document checklist tailored to you, and a review of each document before upload

• Timeline built around the regulator's closure windows and document validity periods

• Help completing the application forms accurately and consistently

• Support with profession-specific evidence, such as the HCPC standards of proficiency mapping

• Guidance on certificates of good standing, references and certified translations

• Preparation for identity checks and declarations on health and character

• Tracking your application and help responding to regulator requests

• Next steps after the decision: exams, adaptation, PIN or licence and your first job

Regulators make all registration decisions and set all fees. Our fee is separate from the regulator's fees, exam fees and translation costs.

What our registration and licensing support includesPackages and fees