Dr. med. Keivan Daneshvar, Doctor of Medicine (Approbation)

My story

Keivan Daneshvar did not have an easy start in Germany. He had to fight many years for his right to live and work here. The formal recognition as a doctor of medicine (approbation) was one of the biggest obstacles in this process. As early as in 2006, the Iranian was unable to accept a job offer because he lacked both the licence to practise in his profession and the residence permit.

Following a six-month advanced training course in the field of radiology in Switzerland, Keivan Daneshvar first worked for two years as a visiting physician at the Heidelberg University Hospital. "There were many bureaucratic problems. For example, as a visiting physician the residence permit was granted only for half a year at a time", he says, looking back. Every time he wanted to rotate within the university hospital or change his place of employment, the licence to practise in his occupation had to be newly applied for. "I had to inform the prospective new employers that the process prior to taking up the job is likely to take three to four months, but even so I could not provide an exact date when I would receive the licence to practise, so many obviously withdrew their job offers."

But Keivan Daneshvar did not give up. He urgently wanted to work in Germany in the long term and receive in-depth training as a medical specialist. "They use high-class devices in the field of radiology here. Also, I had read many German publications and knew that research is held in high regard in Germany; that piqued my interest. Moreover, the location in Central Europe is good and I had already made many acquaintances here, so everything matched. Essentially ..."

He changed jobs to work at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg in 2009, yet required a new licence to practise to do so. "The Landesprüfungsamt (Federal State Examination Office) in Stuttgart granted me the temporary licence to practise in my profession. I had to sign an agreement to sit the theory examination for physicians. At the time it was the rule that one was automatically issued an appointment to take the exam after six months", Keivan Daneshvar remembers. Following the examination in March 2010 he then had it in writing: his Iranian degree is equivalent to the German medical university course.

Even so, he still felt a little like a "second class" physician, because under the legal provisions effective at the time he as a third country national was barred from being granted approbation – the formal state-issued occupational licence for doctors of medicine. It was only after receiving information from the IQ advisory office in Mannheim regarding the options under the new Recognition Act that had become effective in spring 2012 that Keivan Daneshvar filed a renewed application; he eventually received approbation in April 2012. As he had previously passed the theory examination, he did not have to sit any additional examinations.

"At last I can work as a physician in Germany in a regular manner. In spite of all the difficulties, I have made it from visiting physician to senior physician within seven years. In the meantime I have retaken a doctoral degree, because my doctoral title had not been recognised either. Now I hold a title as a medical specialist and work as a senior physician in radiology. I would not have achieved all this without the recognition."

The interview with Keivan Daneshvar was conducted in November 2014.

My procedure in brief