Non-EU diploma in France 2026: doctors, lawyers, engineers

We at Vibe South of France have gathered what happens in France to a diploma earned outside the EU, from the official pages of the CNG, service-public and the ministries of health, culture and education; checked on 19 October 2026. There is one fork. Either the profession is not regulated, and then the employer decides, or it is regulated, and then you cannot practise it without permission from the state or a professional body. If you want to ask who has been through recognition in your region, the place is the “Vibe South of France” community chat on Telegram - work and diploma recognition in France.

First: is your profession regulated

A diploma and the right to work are two separate questions. Even where no professional body is involved you will need a residence permit that allows work, or an autorisation de travail: that is covered in the guide Working in France as a Russian-speaker: permits and pay, and the types of permit in Residence permits in France.

Regulated professions are many: in its card of 6 March 2026 INPI (the national industrial property institute, which keeps the directory of regulated activities) says “more than 250”, and for each of them access is tied to a qualification or a title. Check your profession in the directory on the INPI site: if it is not among the regulated ones, there is no recognition procedure for it. The employer looks at your skills and experience, and whether they want an ENIC-NARIC statement is their own decision (what the statement gives and what it costs is in the guide Apostille, sworn translation and diploma for France 2026).

The professions in one table

Timing, prices and conditions for each row are in the sections below. The source pages differ in age, and each one is dated.

Doctors, dentists, midwives, pharmacists: the EVC exam

For these four professions the route with a non-EU diploma starts with the EVC (épreuves de vérification des connaissances, the knowledge-verification exam), run by the CNG (Centre national de gestion), the National Management Centre under the Ministry of Health. The 2026 session is set up like this.

• Registration. From 17 June, 14:00, to 21 July 2026, 17:00 Paris time (extended from 16 July by an order of 15 July). It is closed; our sources give no dates for the next session.
• Language. French of at least B2: a TCF or TEF certificate, a DELF B2 diploma, a French baccalauréat, or a university certificate that all your studies were in French.
• Format. External route (voie externe): two written papers of 2 hours on the same day, 10:00-12:00 and 15:00-17:00. Internal route (voie interne): one paper, a QCM multiple-choice test, 2 hours, 10:00-12:00. The venue is the Espace Jean Monnet in Rungis (94150).
• Calendar. The written exams run from 10 November 2026 to 15 January 2027, and the date depends on the specialty: the external route starts with occupational medicine and ends with general medicine on 15 January, while midwives and general-practice dentists on the internal route sit on 8 January 2027 (CNG calendar of 7 July 2026). On 8 October 2026 the CNG announced that the summonses were already available.
• Attempts and threshold. You can sit four times; sessions since 2021 count. A mark of 6 out of 20 or below on even one paper means the exam is not passed.

Places under the 2026 order:

The source is the CNG annexes to the order of 12 June 2026. The sum over the specialties matches the totals.

For dentists, pharmacists and midwives only the internal route is open in 2026. It is for people who have worked in France in their profession for pay for at least two of the last three years; the signature of the head of department and of the chair of the establishment’s medical commission (CME) is required.

After the exam, successful candidates complete a parcours de consolidation des compétences (PCC) in full-time employment: two years for doctors, one year for dentists and midwives (Article R.4111-40 of the Public Health Code, as the CNG cites it). The period is not unconditional: individual decisions can shorten it. Details and fresh news are on the EVC 2026 session page on the CNG site.

Nurses

There is no direct route here. In its answer to member of parliament’s question No. 5826, published on 16 June 2026, the Ministry of Health writes that, since paramedical diplomas from outside the EU cannot be recognised, nurses with such a diploma cannot obtain an authorisation to practise in France, apart from the Quebec - France agreement and the convention with Saint Joseph University in Beirut. The ministry has begun a comparative study; we have not seen a result as of 19 October 2026.

The service-public card F39604 of 1 September 2026 does not contradict this. It describes the route for people whose diploma has already been recognised by an EU or EEA state and who have worked there for 3 years full time. The same route is open to the spouse of an EU citizen, a long-term resident or a refugee, if the diploma is recognised in the EU. The application for an autorisation d’exercice goes to the regional DREETS, the CRAE commission gives its opinion, the DREETS decides, and the authorisation is valid across France. Where the differences are substantial, an aptitude test (épreuve d’aptitude) or an adaptation placement in a hospital is required, and the procedure takes months or years. For Quebec the application goes not to the DREETS but to the Ordre national des infirmiers.

If none of these conditions applies, what remains is training at an IFSI (a nursing training institute), and from the September 2026 intake there are two options.

• The full course. Three years, which the head of the institute may shorten to two, with French at B2 or better (F39604).
• The adapted course. The new arrêté of 20 February 2026 on the nursing diploma (articles 22-23) opens a parcours de formation adapté that ends before the DE jury. You can apply if you hold a nursing diploma from a country outside the EU and EEA that entitles you to practise where it was issued. You need a French B2 certificate and translations by a sworn translator (certified by the French consulate if you live abroad); the head of the institute decides on a proposal from the admissions committee. After that come the theory block (domaine A), four professional procedures, two full-day placements totalling 10 to 33 weeks, a written and oral synthesis paper and the AFGSU level 2 (emergency care certificate). You can go before the jury twice.

The arrêté does not say how long the adapted course lasts or which IFSIs already take students on it, and F39604 of 1 September 2026 does not describe this route yet: ask at an IFSI in your region. How training at an IFSI works and how you get in is covered in our guide to studying in France.

Physiotherapists and nursing assistants

We did not find a separate recent page for these two professions. The general rule from ARS Centre-Val de Loire (28 April 2026): with such a diploma you cannot, as a rule, work in France; you need the matching French diploma, obtained through the VAE (validation of professional experience) or by studying at an institute. A formation d’adaptation (bridging training) is possible only where a bilateral convention with a European state exists. The service-public card F3141 says the same but was checked in April 2021, so go by the ARS.

Lawyers (avocats)

The Article 100 route of decree 91-1197 is open to a lawyer who, on the day of filing, is a member of the bar of their own country. A law degree without advocate status does not fit here; other routes (through the bar exam, say) we do not cover, because we have no reliable source.

• Application. It goes to the CNB (Conseil national des barreaux, the National Council of Bars), is examined free of charge, and the decision comes no later than two months after.
• Exam. Written: legal opinions on a civil case (3 hours) and a legal opinion on one of the areas of administrative, commercial, employment or criminal law (3 hours). Oral: a 20-minute presentation on a topic drawn by lot (civil, criminal or administrative procedure, or the organisation of justice) and a 15-minute discussion of the rules and ethics of the profession. An average mark of at least 10 out of 20 is required.
• Exemption. Part of the tests may be waived on the basis of university or academic work.
• Citizenship. Someone who is neither an EU citizen nor a refugee must prove that their country allows French lawyers to practise.
• Session. The nearest one, in November 2026, is organised by HEDAC, but the filing of files with the CNB closed on 25 June 2026. The CNB page does not name the next session.

Chartered accountant

A citizen of a non-EU country needs authorisation to register with the Ordre des experts-comptables (F38330, 27 February 2026). If the commission finds the diploma equivalent to the French one, the exam must be sat no later than 6 months after its decision: an hour in writing on business, tax and employment law and 30 minutes orally. The exam is held once a year in Paris, at the end of November or the start of December. The decision is made by the Minister of the Economy in agreement with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The file goes to the Ordre by 30 April each year. For Quebec and New Brunswick there is a simplified procedure under agreements; for everyone else the general one applies.

Architects

You can register with the Ordre des architectes on a non-EU diploma only if that diploma is on the list recognised by France. We opened the official Ministry of Culture list (version of 5 December 2025): there are no schools from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus or Kazakhstan on it. Of the countries our audience comes from, only Armenia is there: the diploma of the architecture faculty of the Yerevan University of Architecture and Construction, issued from 1 January 2023 to 31 December 2027 inclusive, is treated as equivalent to the French DEA. According to the note in the list, with it you can work as a salaried architect and enrol for the HMONP.

For people whose diploma is on the list the procedure is: a file to the regional council of the Ordre, an opinion of the national council CNOA, a decision of the regional prefect. The time limit is two months, and silence counts as refusal. Professional liability insurance and an entry fee are required. Only the school itself, not a private individual, may ask for an equivalence (Ministry of Culture page).

Teachers

The Ministry of Education (devenirenseignant.gouv.fr, September 2026) names ENIC-NARIC as the only body that confirms a diploma from outside the EU and the EEA. After that there are two routes.

• Competition. The competition for a fonctionnaire (civil servant) post is designed for citizens of France and the EU: a citizen of another state who wins it for a state school does not become a fonctionnaire. In a private school under contract, a rector’s authorisation to depart from the citizenship requirement is needed after the competition.
• Contract. A foreigner from outside the EU can also become a contractuel if they live and work in France lawfully. A Bac+3 diploma (licence or equivalent) is needed; in a vocational lycée Bac+2 is enough. After 6 years of uninterrupted contracts (gaps of no more than 4 months) an open-ended one is possible (page on contracts).

Engineers and electricians

Engineer. The profession is not regulated: according to the CTI (the engineering titles commission) a company may hire a person who has no engineering diploma. France has no automatic recognition of foreign diplomas, and an ENIC-NARIC statement does not give the right to call yourself “ingénieur diplômé”. The title is protected, and its unlawful use is punished under Article 433-17 of the Criminal Code: a year in prison and a €15,000 fine. An employer may hire you as an engineer; the restriction concerns only the title.

Electrician. According to the INPI card (30 August 2021; the page is old, so check it before you decide anything), electrical work is done by someone who holds a qualification (CAP, bac pro, BP and similar), or under the permanent and real supervision of a qualified person. You can set up your own business after three years of work as an electrician in the EU or the EEA - France included; INPI advises applying to the chambre des métiers (CMA) for an attestation of qualification. The habilitation électrique is a permit to work with electricity, issued by the employer after training and a check by an occupational physician (INRS); a foreign diploma does not replace it.

What we have not checked, and what is not in the chat

We do not yet have data from our chat on how recognition went in Occitanie and on the Côte d’Azur, and we are not making any up. If you sat the EVC, went to the DREETS or filed a file with the CNB, tell us in the chat and we will add it to the page with a date. You can ask there too.

And while the question is open, it helps to know what to expect in money: salaries in France, working in France by nationality and the level of French needed for documents, in the guide to French for a residence permit. For Ukrainians under temporary protection the ENIC-NARIC statement is free, and they have the right to work on the APS: temporary protection in France.

The “Vibe South of France” community chat on Telegram - work, diplomas and life in the South of France

See also

• Moving to the South of France: paperwork step by step
• Working in France as a Russian-speaker: permits and pay
• Apostille, sworn translation and diploma for France 2026
• Working in France by nationality: visas, agreements, shortage occupations
• French for a residence permit and citizenship
• French residence permit types: which card to pick
• Salaries in France: SMIC, net pay, regional averages
• Studying in France for Russians and Ukrainians