Did you qualify as a physiotherapist in a European Union country and want to work in France? The procedure is clearly defined and achievable, but it often comes as a surprise: unlike nurses responsible for general care and midwives, whose compliant qualifications are recognised automatically, physiotherapists (masseurs-kinésithérapeutes in France) do not benefit from automatic recognition of their qualifications. You need an individual authorisation to practise, issued by the prefect of the region where you want to settle, after the opinion of the physiotherapy committee. This guide covers each step, the documents required by law, the timelines set by the Public Health Code and what happens once you have your authorisation.
EU-qualified physiotherapist: automatic recognition or not?
Directive 2005/36/EC organises the recognition of professional qualifications between Member States. For a physiotherapist, two systems matter:
- Automatic recognition of compliant qualifications provided for by Article 21 for seven professions whose minimum training is coordinated at European level: doctor, nurse responsible for general care, dental practitioner, veterinary surgeon, midwife, pharmacist and architect.
- The general system of recognition, which applies in particular to professions that are not on that list, including physiotherapy.
In practice, the authority does not just check that you hold a foreign diploma: the physiotherapy committee examines the knowledge, skills and competences gained through your training, your professional experience and your validated continuing education. If there are substantial differences from French training, a compensation measure (aptitude test, adaptation period, or both) may be required.
Under Article L4321-4 of the French Public Health Code, an EU or EEA national can apply for authorisation in three situations: a qualification required by a Member State that regulates the profession and allowing you to practise there lawfully; one year of full-time practice (or an equivalent part-time period) during the last ten years in a Member State that regulates neither the training nor the profession; a qualification obtained in a non-EU country, recognised in another Member State, with three years of full-time practice (or an equivalent part-time period) in that Member State.
Want to know whether your file is complete before you send it? Suxens helps you gather and check the documents for your authorisation application. Join the waiting list →
DREETS or regional prefect: who does what?
It is not the Ordre des masseurs-kinésithérapeutes that authorises you to practise: it is the prefect of the region where you want to settle, after the opinion of a committee of physiotherapists. To submit your file, the practical starting point is the website of the DREETS for that region, the French State's regional office: several DREETS explain there how to apply.
Authorisation to practise: the procedure step by step
Step 1 — Find the DREETS page for the region where you want to settle
All DREETS are listed on dreets.gouv.fr (in Île-de-France it is called DRIEETS). Choose the region where you want to settle, then look on its website for the page about European qualifications or applications for authorisation to practise: its title varies from one region to another (in Occitanie, for example, « Diplômés européens : Demande d'autorisation d'exercer »). Where it exists, it tells you how to apply in that region. The pages are in French: your browser's translation tool is enough to find your way around them (but not to translate the documents in your file: see the translation rules below).
Step 2 — Submit your file
Two cases:
- The page offers an online application (on demarche.numerique.gouv.fr): use it. This is the case, for example, in Bretagne and Occitanie.
- No online application: send your file in two copies, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, to the secretariat of the region's physiotherapy committee. If the address is not on the page, ask the DREETS for it.
Watch out for the « attestation de conformité ». The online form sometimes marks this certificate of conformity as « obligatoire » (mandatory). For a physiotherapist's application for authorisation, it is not on the official list of documents: it is mainly used for automatic recognition, for example that of nurses responsible for general care. The proof of address and the summary table of placements, also requested online, are not on that list either (the content and length of your placements still have to be proven by the training certificates described below). Don't hold up your file looking for a document your country may not issue for your profession: contact the DREETS to find out what to attach instead.
Step 3 — Watch for the acknowledgement of receipt (1 month)
Within a month of submitting, you receive an acknowledgement of receipt. If documents are missing, it tells you: complete your file as quickly as possible. Keep this document: the decision period only starts once your file is complete.
Step 4 — Wait for the decision (4 months at most)
Once your file is complete, the authorities have 4 months to answer. Be careful: if you have had no answer after 4 months, your application is considered refused. Don't let that deadline slip by: ask about the status of your file before it runs out.
Step 5 — If you are asked to complete a compensation measure
If the committee finds substantial differences between your training and French training, taking into account your professional experience and validated continuing education, a compensation measure may be required:
- an aptitude test, to be taken within six months of the decision being notified;
- an adaptation period, whose length is set in the decision.
Depending on the case, the authority may let you choose between the two, impose one of them or impose both. The decision you receive states its reasons and sets out the content and length of the measures.
What the texts say. The authorisation is issued by the prefect of the region designated by order of the Minister of Health, after the opinion of the physiotherapy committee (Article R4321-27 of the Public Health Code). That order designates the region in which you intend to settle. The order of 20 January 2010 provides for the file to be sent in two copies, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, to the committee's secretariat. The online applications offered by some DREETS are an administrative practice: the texts we consulted do not say whether they replace this postal submission, or whether a file containing all the documents in the order, but not the extra documents requested online, counts as complete.
The documents in your file
The content of the file is set by the order of 20 January 2010:
| Document | When to provide it | What it is and who issues it |
|---|---|---|
| Application form | Always | An official form you fill in yourself: personal details, contact details, qualification, posts held. Open the form (annex to the order of 20 January 2010, in French). |
| Identity document | Always | A legible copy, still valid on the day you submit your file. |
| Copy of your qualification | Always | The qualification that allows you to practise as a physiotherapist in the country where you obtained it. |
| Additional qualifications | Only if you have any | Copies of your additional qualifications. |
| Evidence of continuing education and experience | Always | Any document showing your continuing education, your experience and the skills you gained in practice. The text gives no list. A CV is not required. |
| Statement of no sanctions | Always; issued less than one year ago | A document from the competent authority of the country where you are established, confirming that you have not been sanctioned. |
| Detailed training programme | Always | Certificates from the authorities that issued your qualification: level of training, content and hours of teaching year by year, content and length of placements. If you cannot obtain them, the commission's secretariat may request them itself (Article 5 of the order, in French). |
| Evidence of practice in a country that does not regulate the profession | Only if you practised in a country that regulates neither the training nor the profession | Documents showing at least one year of full-time practice (or an equivalent period part-time) in that country during the last ten years (Article L4321-4, in French). |
| Recognition of your qualification by an EU country | Only if your qualification comes from outside the EU and EEA | The decision of the EU or EEA country that recognised your qualification; you must also have practised there for 3 years full-time (or an equivalent period part-time). |
Reading the form (it is in French)
The application form is in French. Here is what each section asks for, in the order of the form.
| On the form | In English | What to write |
|---|---|---|
| « Profession : » | Profession | The French name of the profession you are applying for: masseur-kinésithérapeute. |
| « Vous êtes de nationalité communautaire… » (3 sentences) | Your situation | Indicate the one that applies to you. (a) You are an EU national holding a qualification required to practise the profession in an EU or EEA state that regulates access to it or its practice. (b) You are an EU national and have practised the profession in an EU or EEA state that regulates neither access to it nor its practice. (c) You are an EU national holding a qualification issued by a country outside the EU and the EEA and recognised by an EU or EEA state other than France. |
| « Etat civil » | Personal details | Title (M. = Mr, Mme = Mrs, Mlle = Miss), surname (« Nom de famille »), married name (« Nom d'épouse »), first names, date, city and country of birth, nationality. |
| « Coordonnées » | Contact details | Home address, city, postcode, country, phone, mobile (« Portable ») and email (« Mél »). |
| « Diplôme de la profession considérée » | Qualification for this profession | Title of the qualification, date and country obtained, the body that issued it (« Délivré par ») and, if applicable, the date it was recognised by an EU or EEA state. |
| « Diplômes » / « Autres diplômes, titres et certificats » | Qualifications / other qualifications, titles and certificates | Two tables with the columns country (« PAYS »), title (« INTITULÉ »), date and place of training (« LIEU de formation »). |
| « Exercice professionnel : fonctions exercées à l'étranger ou dans un Etat membre ou partie » | Professional practice | Posts you have held abroad or in an EU or EEA state: type of post (« NATURE »), place and country, period. |
| « Projets professionnels éventuels (facultatif) » | Professional plans (optional) | You may describe what you plan to do in France; this section is not compulsory. |
| « Formulaire à retourner dûment complété au secrétariat de la commission compétente pour l'examen de votre demande. » | Where to send the form | Send the completed form to the secretariat of the commission that will examine your application. |
| « Date » / « Signature » | Date and signature | Date and sign the form. |
If you have practised in a State that regulates neither the training nor the profession, also include the documents proving one year of full-time practice (or an equivalent part-time period) during the last ten years.
Apart from the application form and the identity document, the documents in your file (qualification, training certificates, documents on your experience and continuing education, statement of no sanctions) must be written in French or translated into French by a translator approved by the French courts or authorised to work with the judicial or administrative authorities of an EU or EEA State or of Switzerland. A machine translation is not enough. See our article on translations.
Source: order of 20 January 2010 setting the content of the file (Légifrance, in French)
Timelines: what the law sets
The texts set the following timelines:
| Stage | Timeline set by law |
|---|---|
| Acknowledgement of receipt by the regional prefect | 1 month |
| No answer after receipt of the complete file | 4 months of silence amount to a rejection |
| Aptitude test, if required | Within 6 months of the decision being notified |
No text sets the total length of the process: it depends on your file, on any compensation measure, on translation times and on registration with the Ordre.
Tip: start gathering your documents before you have a final work address. The certificates detailing your teaching and placements year by year can take time to obtain from your training institution.
The European Professional Card (EPC): another procedure, not a shortcut
Physiotherapists can also apply for a European Professional Card (EPC). Introduced by Directive 2013/55/EU amending Directive 2005/36/EC, it is open at European level to five professions: nurses responsible for general care, pharmacists, physiotherapists, mountain guides and estate agents. Under French law, it applies to pharmacists, nurses and physiotherapists. Sources: Implementing Regulation (EU) 2015/983, Annex I, Directive 2005/36/EC, Articles 4a to 4e, Articles L4002-2 and R4321-32-1 of the French Public Health Code (in French).
In practice, with the EPC:
- you apply through an online tool provided by the European Commission, to the competent authority of a Member State, which forwards it to the French authority;
- in a later application, documents already in your file and still valid cannot be requested again;
- for settling in France, the regional directorate designated by order may require a compensation measure within two months (extendable by fifteen days, renewable once); if no decision is taken within that period, the card is deemed to have been issued.
The Directive lets you choose between applying for an EPC and the standard recognition procedures. No text allows us to say that one is faster than the other: their timelines do not measure the same thing.
Be aware: issuing an EPC for settling in France does not give an automatic right to practise where other procedures already existed before it. The French texts we have consulted do not say whether the card exempts you from the authorisation to practise described above, or what you must then provide for registration and entry on the Ordre's register: ask the competent authority before choosing this route. The national council of the Ordre des masseurs-kinésithérapeutes deals with temporary provision of services in France and with physiotherapists established in France who apply for an EPC to work in another country. See our article on the European Professional Card.
After the authorisation: registration and the Ordre
The authorisation to practise is necessary, but not sufficient. Before you start working, you must register your authorisation, free of charge, with the office or body designated by the Minister of Health, and be entered on the register of the Ordre des masseurs-kinésithérapeutes.
Registration with the Ordre is compulsory to practise lawfully in France, including as an employee. The title of masseur-kinésithérapeute is protected: using it without being entitled to is punished as the unlawful use of a title.
French: what the law says
The competent authority may check your command of French, and its decision can be challenged before the administrative court. The texts set no numerical level for the authorisation to practise: ask the competent authority whether it expects a language certificate and, if so, which one, and work on your professional French alongside your file.
Frequently asked questions
Can I practise in France while my application is being processed?
No. A person who practises physiotherapy without holding the required qualification or authorisation, or without being entered on the Ordre's register, is practising unlawfully. You therefore need to wait for your authorisation to practise, its registration and your entry on the Ordre's register.
Do I really have to send my file by registered letter?
Not necessarily. Start with the page of the DREETS for the region where you want to settle (list on dreets.gouv.fr): several DREETS, for example in Bretagne and Occitanie, offer an online application, and that is then the route they indicate. The texts themselves provide for the file to be sent in two copies, by registered letter with acknowledgement of receipt, to the secretariat of the physiotherapy committee (order of 20 January 2010): that is the procedure to follow if your region offers no online application.
My diploma is recognised in several EU countries. Does that speed things up?
Not directly. The committee examines your training itself (content, length, teaching and placements), not the number of countries that recognise your diploma. Your professional experience and validated continuing education are, however, taken into account before any compensation measure is required.
Is a compensation measure always required?
No. A compensation measure is only required where there are substantial differences between your training and French training, assessed in the light of your qualifications, professional experience and validated continuing education. Each file is examined individually: no country of origin guarantees an authorisation without compensation.
Do I need to speak French to practise in France?
Yes. The competent authority may check your command of French, and its decision can be challenged before the administrative court. The texts set no numerical level for the authorisation to practise: ask the competent authority whether it expects a language certificate and, if so, which one.
Is the European Professional Card faster?
No text allows us to say so: the card and the authorisation to practise follow different procedures, whose timelines do not measure the same thing. The French texts we have consulted do not say either whether the card exempts you from the authorisation to practise: ask the competent authority before choosing.
Can my partner make the same application?
The authorisation procedure is individual: if your partner is also a physiotherapist, they must submit their own application. If they work in another health profession, the procedure depends on their profession.
Suxens supports you through this process
Putting together an application for authorisation to practise can feel daunting, especially when you are not yet familiar with every detail of French administration. That is exactly why Suxens exists: personalised support for EU-qualified health professionals who want to work in France, from preparing the file to settling in. Join the Suxens waiting list →
Further reading
- General guide: practising in France with a European healthcare qualification
- Ordre national des masseurs-kinésithérapeutes (in French)
- Order of 20 January 2010 — content of the file (Légifrance, in French)
- Public Health Code, Article R4321-27 — authorisation to practise for physiotherapists (in French)