Directorate of Health Iceland: Licence and Requirements

• Medical doctor (læknir)
• Registered nurse (hjúkrunarfræðingur)
• Licensed practical nurse
• Midwife (ljósmóðir)
• Dentist (tannlæknir)
• Pharmacist (lyfjafræðingur)
• Physiotherapist
• Occupational therapist
• Psychologist
• Radiographer
• Biomedical scientist
• Paramedic and emergency medical technician

• Other licensed professions, including administrative dietician, alcohol and drug treatment counsellor, audiologist, biologist in healthcare service, chiropodist, chiropractor, dental assistant, dental hygienist, dental technician, diet cook, dietician, food scientist, genetic counsellor, health information manager, massage therapist, nutritionist, optometrist, osteopath, pharmaceutical technician, prosthetist, social educator, social worker and speech therapist.
• Specialist licences for doctors, dentists, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, physiotherapists, psychologists, biomedical scientists and social workers.

• A completed qualification in a licensed profession that allows you to practise in the country where you trained, from an institution recognised by the health authorities there and in Iceland.
• A work and residence permit in Iceland, or a signed employment contract with a health institution or practice in Iceland where health services are provided. The contract may be conditional on the licence.
• A valid passport and an Icelandic ID number (kennitala) for applicants with citizenship outside the EEA and Switzerland.
• A copy of your licence to practise and a letter of good standing from the competent authority, confirming your licence is valid and has not been suspended, restricted or revoked, no more than three months old when the Directorate receives it.
• An official transcript and a course description (syllabus) for each course, confirmed as applying to the years you studied, showing length or credits and clinical hours.
• Graduates from the Philippines: certified copies of the CHED certification on authentication and verification and of the board exam certificate.
• Documents in Icelandic or English, as originals or certified copies, with a certified translation of anything in another language.
• Before the licence is issued: presence in Iceland and a granted work and residence permit.

Check your route with the route finder

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   1. Check your profession and its regulation

   Find your profession on the Directorate's list of authorised healthcare professions and read its regulation, which sets the Icelandic education standard. For doctors this is Regulation No. 856/2023, which requires a degree of at least 5 years with at least 5,500 hours of teaching; for registered nurses it is Regulation No. 512/2013. The regulations also say who the Directorate consults when it evaluates foreign education.
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   2. Secure an employment contract

   Article 2 of Regulation No. 483/2023 makes a work and residence permit or a signed employment contract with an Icelandic health institution a precondition for the application to be considered. Without it, your file will not be assessed. Many applicants are recruited by Landspítali, whose international staff service helps with the paperwork.
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   3. Collect certified documents

   Gather your diploma, licence, letter of good standing, transcript, course descriptions and passport copy, plus the extra Philippine documents if they apply to you. A certified copy is one whose match with the original is confirmed by a public institution or the issuer of the original. The letter of good standing expires quickly, so request it last.
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   4. Complete and submit the paper form

   Fill in the form 'License to practice - education completed outside the EEA or Switzerland' electronically, print and sign it. Number every supporting document with a separate A4 sheet giving its number and name, do not bind, staple or put them in a folder, and send only what is listed. Hand the application in at the Directorate's reception or send it by post.
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   5. Pay the fees

   When an application is sent for evaluation, the Directorate charges an evaluation fee of ISK 73,600 for university-level education or ISK 54,400 for secondary-level education. You can request an online payment slip if you have an Icelandic bank account, or pay from a foreign bank by IBAN. The licence issue fee of ISK 12,000 follows when the licence is granted.
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   6. Evaluation of your education

   The Directorate obtains an evaluation from the appropriate educational institution, specialty training council or professional body. For doctors, it must consult the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Iceland; for nurses, the nursing faculties of the University of Iceland and/or the University of Akureyri. Your work experience is taken into account. The Directorate may prioritise applicants already in Iceland and professions with a serious staff shortage.
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   7. Decision, compensation measures or refusal

   The Directorate must inform you of the outcome as soon as possible and no later than three months after it has finished gathering information. If gaps are found, it may require an adaptation period under supervision, or an aptitude test if your education and experience are significantly different. If you do not meet the conditions, the application is refused, and you can appeal a refusal to the minister.
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   8. Adaptation period, if required

   The Directorate sets its length and objectives. You find the job and the supervisor yourself; the supervisor must hold an unrestricted licence in the profession, have worked in it in Iceland for at least three years and work at the same site, and remote supervision is not allowed. You receive a temporary licence tied to that supervisor and workplace, normally work full time (never below 50%), and the supervisor reports four weeks before the end. The period should normally start within 12 months of the decision.
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   9. Arrive and receive the licence

   Article 9 of Regulation No. 483/2023 says you must be in Iceland and have been granted a work and residence permit before the licence is issued. Issued licences are sent to your mailbox on island.is, and you can check your licence number under 'Licenses' when logged in. You then appear in the public register.
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    10. Apply for a specialist licence if relevant

    Specialist licences are a separate application with their own forms for training inside and outside the EEA. For doctors whose specialist training was outside the EEA, Switzerland and the UK, the Directorate consults the relevant specialty training council, and the training must meet the Icelandic curriculum for that specialty. The evaluation fee for a specialist licence is ISK 73,600.

• No routine licensing exam

  Iceland has no standard knowledge or language exam that every foreign-trained applicant sits. Your education is assessed on paper by the evaluator, and an exam is only set when the Directorate decides your training is significantly different from Icelandic training.

• Aptitude test (hæfnispróf)

  Assesses your professional knowledge and skills and, where relevant, clinical knowledge. It is organised by the appropriate educational institution in consultation with the Directorate, which may also offer you the test at an institution in another country. You must pass it within 13 months of the Directorate's decision. A fee may be charged, capped at the cost of preparing and running the test; no amount is published.

• Adaptation period (aðlögunartími)

  Supervised work in Iceland that lets the Directorate judge whether you meet the standard and lets you fill gaps. At the end your skills should match those of a practitioner trained in Iceland. If not, the Directorate may extend the period (apply at least four weeks before it ends), require specific courses in Iceland or refuse the application.

• Temporary licence for urgent specialist needs

  A health institution can apply on your behalf for a temporary licence of up to six months, tied to a specific post, if it has shown an urgent shortage of your specialist expertise and could not recruit a licensed specialist in Iceland. The institution vouches for your expertise and language skills, and a regular application must start at once if the need will last longer.

• Iceland does not set a language test for the licence. Article 15 of Regulation No. 483/2023 says knowledge of Icelandic is not a condition for a licence or specialist licence.
• Your employer must make sure you have the language skills and knowledge of Icelandic law and rules that the job requires, especially for patient safety, communication with patients and keeping medical records.
• The Directorate does not list an English test such as IELTS or OET for applicants trained outside the EEA.
• All documents must be in Icelandic or English. A certified document translator must translate anything else directly and in full, including signatures, stamps and seals, and you send both the original and the translation.
• For a temporary licence for urgent specialist needs, the applying institution must vouch that you have adequate language skills to work as a specialist in Iceland.

Estimate your total cost

• Start of processing: the Directorate aims to begin within two weeks of receiving the application.
• Evaluation: the Directorate says an application sent for evaluation should take no longer than four months from the time it has all documents.
• Decision: Regulation No. 483/2023 requires a decision as soon as possible and no later than three months after information gathering ends.
• Aptitude test: must be passed within 13 months of the decision requiring it.
• Adaptation period: should normally begin within 12 months of the decision; its length is set case by case.
• Licence issue: only after you arrive in Iceland with a granted work and residence permit, so permit processing time is added on top.