Nurse CV for the Netherlands: from foreign diploma to BIG register

Start with the Advice Wizard and a Dutch course

Run the BIG register's Advice Wizard (advieswijzer.bigregister.nl) with your country, nationality and profession. For a diploma from outside the EU or Switzerland it usually points to the Certificate of Professional Competence procedure (verklaring van vakbekwaamheid). Then book Dutch lessons the same week. The register's roadmap says learning Dutch to the required level takes one and a half to two years on average,.

Your language certificate may not be older than two years when you apply, so plan the exam date against your application date rather than taking it as early as possible. Procedures and fees change; check the linked BIG register pages before you send anything.

How the certificate of competence works

The certificate is the recognition of your diploma. For nurses it is not the end point: the BIG register lists nurses among the professions that must also be entered in the register before they may work, and article 4 of the Wet BIG reserves the protected title for people who are registered.

1. Prepare the file and collect every document first. An unsubmitted application is kept for six months, and processing only starts once it is complete.
2. Log in to mijn.bigregister.nl with DigiD if you have a citizen service number (BSN), or with a BIG login if you do not, and fill in the online form. Some professions add a profession-specific appendix (beroepsspecifieke bijlage).
3. Upload what you can and post the rest. The register sends you a personal list of the documents still missing.
4. If needed, Nuffic or SBB makes a first assessment of your diploma and course list. The register arranges this; you do not apply to them yourself.
5. You take the BI test for nurses after an invitation letter that explains payment.
6. The Commission for Foreign Healthcare Graduates (CBGV) assesses your file together with the test result and, in most cases, invites you to an advisory interview.
7. You receive an intended decision and have two weeks to respond. A negative final decision can be objected to within six weeks.
8. A positive decision is your certificate. You then apply for BIG registration with your CV, a Certificate of Current Professional Status and a Certificate of Good Conduct.

Mandatory documents

• The diploma and the course overview, as originals or certified copies.
• The training programme (syllabus or curriculum) with your name, the years you studied and a description of each course.
• A certified copy of your passport. Do not send the original.
• A declaration of competence showing you are allowed to practise as a nurse in the country where you qualified.
• Proof of Dutch at the required level and proof of English reading skills.

Certified copies, sworn translations and the apostille trap

The BIG register states that an apostille does not replace a certified copy, because it only proves the signature and says nothing about the contents. Ask your faculty for certified copies of the diploma, course list and syllabus, or use a civil-law notary in the Netherlands. Anything not in Dutch or English needs a translation by a sworn translator, sent together with the original-language document. The register advises certified copies over originals, since originals get lost in the post.

Language levels for nurses

The register sets the language bar by professional level, and its list files the nurse (verpleegkundige) under the mbo level. That puts nurses at the lowest Dutch level in the register's table, whatever the length of your own degree.

The NT2 state exam is held in Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Rijswijk, Rotterdam, Utrecht and Zwolle. A certificate of participation in a course is not accepted. The roadmap estimates a language test at about €200 to €300.

The BI test and the commission

For nurses the professional test (beroepsinhoudelijke toets, BI-toets) has three parts: a written knowledge test, a skills test and a clinical reasoning interview. Consortium Beroepsonderwijs runs it. The fee for nurses is €400, paid after the invitation letter; if you then cannot sit it, tell the register why and the amount is refunded.

The roadmap describes the test as a map rather than a pass or fail: it shows where your knowledge matches the Dutch level and where it does not yet. It also says the test cannot be retaken, so prepare before you file. Results arrive within three to six weeks, and the commission assesses the application within twelve weeks of a known result.

What the commission compares

• Breadth: Dutch training covers all patient groups and care sectors, namely prevention, home care, primary care and hospital care.
• Independence: Dutch nurses are trained to make their own assessments of what a patient needs.
• Professional skills beyond technique: cooperation, methodical working, evidence-based thinking and professional conduct.
• Compensation: where your training differs, the commission checks whether courses or work experience make up the gap, which is why complete evidence of both matters.

Extra training or an internship is common. The roadmap puts it at roughly 50 to 75 percent of applicants, and the costs page says an additional course can last three months to two years.

Two fallback routes the register names

With a foreign nursing diploma you may also apply for recognition as a caregiver in individual healthcare (verzorgende IG, VIG), or apply for both professions at once. The roadmap also mentions the work-and-learn track (BBL), which leads to a Dutch VIG diploma in just over two years while you earn a salary.

The clinical experience block

The CV is an optional document for the certificate application, but the register advises sending it, and it becomes mandatory at the BIG registration step. There it must list all work experience, education and courses with start and end dates and the country of each, and it must be truthful. It may be in Dutch or English. Because the commission reads it against the Dutch training profile, write each post so it shows the sector, how independently you worked and the professional skills it trained.

Match each post to a Dutch care sector

Sample block in English

• Nurse (Hemşire, registered in Türkiye), Internal Medicine Ward, 32 beds, Example State Hospital, Example City, Türkiye. 09/2019 to present, full time, rotating shifts.
• Assessment and planning: admission assessment and nursing care plan for 6 to 8 patients per day shift, updated at each handover using the nursing process.
• Independent judgement: early warning scores at every observation round; escalated deteriorating patients to the doctor on call and documented the response time.
• Cooperation: daily rounds with physicians, a dietitian and a physiotherapist; discharge planning with family carers.
• Home care placement: 4 months, Home Health Services Unit, Example City, Türkiye, 2018. Wound care and insulin education in patients' homes.
• Course: basic life support, 03/2025, Example Training Centre, Türkiye.
• Status: certificate of competence applied for 01/2027 (CIBG); BI test planned 04/2027. Dutch B1 (Staatsexamen NT2), 11/2026. English reading A2, 10/2026.

The hospital, numbers and dates above are invented to show the pattern; copy your own from the employer statement, which the register wants to show exactly what you did, in which position and for which period. Leave out patient and colleague names: the register will not use documents that contain other people's personal data. Keep the Turkish title with an English gloss until you are registered, because the Wet BIG also forbids titles that resemble the protected one.

What a Dutch employer looks for first

An employer needs to know whether you may use the title and work today. Put the status line, with your BIG number once you have it, directly under your name, followed by the two language certificates. The rest of the layout follows the general Dutch CV page.

Where each fact comes from

All pages read on 13 October 2026.

Limits of this guide

• Nurses with a diploma from the EU or Switzerland: two other procedures apply, and the Advice Wizard picks the one for you.
• Specialist nurse titles: a separate Specialist Registration Committee recognises them, and the roadmap gives about €2,285 for recognition and registration combined.
• Residence permits: a Dutch employer may sponsor you as a highly skilled migrant, covered on the kennismigrant page.
• Photo, date of birth and other personal details on a Dutch CV are covered on their own page.

Next steps

1. Run the Advice Wizard and register for one of the information meetings or a half-hour consultation the BIG register offers in The Hague or by video.
2. Start Dutch now and time the NT2 B1 exam so the certificate is under two years old on the day you apply.
3. Ask your faculty for certified copies of the diploma, course list and full syllabus, and ask every employer for a signed statement of your duties and dates.
4. Write the clinical block above. CitedCV can draft the CV in English with EU conventions from the facts you enter, and you check every line against your employer statements.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. BIG register: Certificate of Professional Competence procedure (last updated 9 September 2026)english.bigregister.nl/foreign-diploma/procedures/certificate-of-competence
2. BIG register: BI test (professional test) and its costsenglish.bigregister.nl/foreign-diploma/procedures/certificate-of-competence/tests
3. BIG register: Dutch language proficiencyenglish.bigregister.nl/foreign-diploma/procedures/certificate-of-competence/dutch-language-proficiency
4. BIG register: English reading skillsenglish.bigregister.nl/foreign-diploma/procedures/certificate-of-competence/dutch-language-proficiency/english-reading-skills
5. BIG register (Dutch): beroepen per opleidingsniveauwww.bigregister.nl/buitenlands-diploma/procedures/verklaring-vakbekwaamheid/nederlandse-taalvaardigheid/vraag-en-antwoord/welke-beroepsniveaus
6. BIG register: Documents you have to send usenglish.bigregister.nl/foreign-diploma/procedures/certificate-of-competence/supporting-documents-you-have-to-send-us
7. BIG register: Certifying and translating documentsenglish.bigregister.nl/foreign-diploma/procedures/certificate-of-competence/supporting-documents-you-have-to-send-us/certifying-and-translating
8. BIG register: Processing time and costsenglish.bigregister.nl/foreign-diploma/procedures/certificate-of-competence/processing-time-and-costs
9. BIG register: Assessment and decisionenglish.bigregister.nl/foreign-diploma/procedures/certificate-of-competence/assessment-and-decision
10. BIG register: Registering with a recognised qualificationenglish.bigregister.nl/foreign-diploma/procedures/certificate-of-competence/with-a-recognised-qualification
11. BIG register: Roadmap, on the way to working in the Netherlandsenglish.bigregister.nl/roadmap-on-the-way-to-working-in-the-netherland
12. Wet op de beroepen in de individuele gezondheidszorg (Wet BIG), articles 3 and 4wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0006251/