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How foreign and non-EU doctors get authorised to practise medicine in France: the PADHUE route, the EVC exam, the consolidation period, and the Ordre.
Canonical: https://www.prezumi.com/blog/how-to-practice-medicine-in-france-as-a-foreign-doctor
To practise medicine in France you must hold a French authorisation to exercise (autorisation d'exercice) and be registered with the Ordre des Médecins. How you get there depends on where you qualified. If you hold a medical degree from an EU or EEA country, France recognises it more or less automatically under European rules, and you apply directly to the Ordre. If you qualified outside the EU/EEA, you are a PADHUE (Praticien à Diplôme Hors Union Européenne) and you go through a longer route: the EVC (Épreuves de Vérification des Connaissances), a competitive knowledge exam in your specialty, then a supervised consolidation period in a French hospital, and finally an authorisation granted by the Commission des Autorisations d'Exercice (CAE). You also prove French language ability and, in the end, register with the Ordre. This guide walks each step. Facts here were checked against cng.sante.fr, conseil-national.medecin.fr, and service-public.fr; the rules are updated regularly, so confirm the current requirements with those bodies before you plan around them. Last reviewed: August 2026.
This is medical-registration (YMYL) information and it changes. France has reformed the PADHUE pathway several times, and the number of EVC places, the eligible specialties, and the consolidation rules are set anew for each session. Treat this as orientation and verify every step against the official sources named in each section — cng.sante.fr (the Centre National de Gestion, which runs the EVC and the CAE), conseil-national.medecin.fr (the Ordre des Médecins), and service-public.fr — before you make decisions. Last reviewed: August 2026.
Three bodies matter. The Ordre des Médecins, through its Conseil National (the CNOM), keeps the register (le Tableau) that every practising doctor must be on; you cannot legally practise in France without being inscribed on it. The Centre National de Gestion (CNG) organises the EVC exam and the Commission des Autorisations d'Exercice (CAE) that grants authorisations to non-EU graduates. The Ministère de la Santé sets the overall framework in the Code de la santé publique. In short: the CNG and the CAE decide whether a foreign-trained doctor may be authorised, and the Ordre is the register you join to actually work.
Doctors with a basic medical qualification issued or recognised by an EU or EEA member state (plus Switzerland) benefit from automatic recognition under EU Directive 2005/36/EC. You do not sit the EVC. Instead you apply directly for registration with the departmental council of the Ordre des Médecins where you intend to work, providing your diploma, proof of nationality, and evidence of good standing. Specialist qualifications from those states are recognised the same way when they appear on the EU list for that specialty. The practical hurdle is usually administrative and linguistic rather than an exam: your file, your specialty title, and your command of French.
Doctors who trained outside the EU/EEA follow the PADHUE pathway, which has three stages: pass the EVC, complete a consolidation period in a French hospital (the Parcours de Consolidation des Compétences within the Parcours d'Autorisation d'Exercice), and obtain the authorisation from the CAE. Only then can you register with the Ordre and practise independently.
The EVC is a competitive knowledge exam organised by the CNG, held in the specialty matching the one you obtained abroad. It consists of anonymous written papers testing your fundamental and practical knowledge for the profession and specialty, each scored out of 20. Crucially it is a concours with a limited number of places per specialty each year, set nationally, so passing the mark is not enough on its own; you compete for the available places. Non-EU/EEA graduates register on 'liste A'; refugees, stateless persons, and certain protected categories register on 'liste B'. You enrol in the specialty corresponding to the one you already hold, not a different one.
After passing the EVC you are recruited into a French hospital to complete a supervised consolidation of your skills, typically lasting around two years for doctors, during which your performance is evaluated by the department. This is where your practice is checked against the French standard for your specialty, and specialty-specific requirements (numbers of procedures, particular rotations) apply. The exact duration can vary and, in some cases, be shortened based on your prior experience, on the advice of the relevant coordination commission.
Once you have passed the EVC and completed the consolidation period, you assemble a file for the Commission des Autorisations d'Exercice (CAE), managed by the CNG. The commission reviews your qualifications, your consolidation evaluations, and your language evidence, and decides whether to grant the full authorisation to exercise (autorisation d'exercice) in your specialty. That authorisation is what makes you eligible to register with the Ordre and practise without supervision.
| Your qualification | Route | Main assessment |
|---|---|---|
| EU / EEA / Switzerland | Automatic recognition | Direct application to the Ordre; no EVC |
| Outside EU/EEA (PADHUE) | EVC + consolidation + CAE | Competitive EVC exam, ~2-year supervised consolidation, CAE authorisation |
| Refugee / protected status | PADHUE via 'liste B' | Same steps as liste A with specific provisions |
You must be able to practise in French, and non-francophone applicants are asked to prove it. For the PADHUE file the CNG requires a French language test (such as the TCF) or a French language diploma (such as the DELF); nationals of countries whose official language is French are generally exempt from providing this proof. Beyond the paperwork, the consolidation period and, ultimately, the Ordre expect a working command of clinical French, so a formal certificate is the minimum rather than the whole picture. Confirm the accepted tests and levels with the CNG for your session.
Whichever route you take, the final step to legally practise is inscription au Tableau de l'Ordre des Médecins. You apply to the departmental council (conseil départemental) where you will work; it checks your qualifications, your authorisation or automatic recognition, your good standing, and your command of French, and may interview you. Registration with the Ordre is mandatory and continuous for as long as you practise. The Conseil National (CNOM) publishes the requirements and the departmental councils handle individual files.
For a non-EU doctor on the PADHUE route, plan for several years from your first EVC attempt to full authorisation: the EVC runs on an annual cycle and is competitive, so many candidates sit it more than once, and the consolidation period itself is typically around two years. EU/EEA graduates are usually much faster because they skip the EVC and consolidation and go straight to the Ordre, limited mainly by administrative processing and language. Costs are lower than in some countries because the consolidation is a paid hospital post, but you should budget for the language test, document translation and legalisation, and living costs during consolidation. Fees and timeframes are published by the CNG and change, so price your specific route from their current information.
Hospital posts for the consolidation period, EVC applications, and Ordre files all rest on the same document: your CV. French health services want a clear medical CV that leads with your diploma and specialty, your EVC status or EU recognition, your clinical experience, and your referees. Our doctor resume examples show how a physician CV should look at each stage, with a copyable template and the sections a recruiter checks first. You can reuse the same profile for the other destinations in our series: see the international medical licensing comparison for how France stacks up against the US, UK, Germany, Italy, Australia, and Canada, or read the full guides on practising medicine in Germany and practising medicine in Italy.
You can build that CV in Prezumi: enter your training, authorisation status, and clinical record once, render it into an ATS-friendly template, and export a text-based PDF for free. When you apply to a specific hospital or the Ordre, the AI editor rewords your real entries to match the posting without inventing anything you didn't enter.
Yes, but through the PADHUE route (Praticien à Diplôme Hors Union Européenne). You must pass the EVC (Épreuves de Vérification des Connaissances), a competitive knowledge exam in your specialty organised by the CNG with a limited number of places, then complete a supervised consolidation period in a French hospital lasting around two years, and finally obtain an authorisation to exercise from the Commission des Autorisations d'Exercice (CAE). Only then can you register with the Ordre des Médecins and practise. Confirm current rules with cng.sante.fr.
The EVC (Épreuves de Vérification des Connaissances) is the French knowledge exam that non-EU/EEA doctors must pass to work in France. It is run by the CNG in the specialty you qualified in abroad and consists of anonymous written papers on fundamental and practical knowledge, each scored out of 20. It is competitive: there is a limited number of places per specialty each year, so meeting the pass mark alone does not guarantee a place. Non-EU graduates sit on 'liste A'.
No. Doctors with a basic medical qualification from an EU or EEA state, or Switzerland, benefit from automatic recognition under EU Directive 2005/36/EC and do not sit the EVC. They apply directly for registration with the departmental council of the Ordre des Médecins where they will work, providing their diploma, proof of nationality, and evidence of good standing. The main hurdles are administrative and linguistic rather than an exam.
You must be able to practise in French. For the PADHUE file the CNG generally requires a French language test such as the TCF or a diploma such as the DELF; nationals of countries where French is an official language are usually exempt from providing this proof. In practice the consolidation period and the Ordre expect a working command of clinical French, so a certificate is a minimum. Confirm the accepted tests and levels with the CNG for your session.
For non-EU doctors on the PADHUE route, plan for several years: the EVC runs annually and is competitive so many sit it more than once, and the consolidation period itself is typically around two years, followed by the CAE authorisation and Ordre registration. EU/EEA graduates are usually much faster because they skip the EVC and consolidation and apply directly to the Ordre. Confirm current timeframes with the CNG and your departmental council.
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