For Employers
Fideneum manages the entire path from needs assessment to completed recognition (Anerkennung). Your contracting partner is based in Hamburg.
You describe your need, you choose the person, you receive a settled-in nurse on the ward. Everything in between — language, the recognition procedure, visa, entry and arrival — we organise. Throughout, you keep a clear view of the status of every single case.
The situation
Not the statistics, but the concrete gap that has to be closed again every week.
Vacant qualified-nurse positions cost you agency staffing first, then predictability, and in the worst case your occupancy. Anyone who has recruited abroad before also knows the second problem: staff who arrive and leave again after eighteen months. Both are reasons why we have set the process up differently.
Two routes
Does the Indian qualification have to be recognised in Germany? The answer decides the visa, the timeline, the pay and your own effort.
For examined nurses with a GNM or B.Sc. Nursing degree and Nursing Council registration, the path runs through the recognition procedure (Anerkennungsverfahren). For younger applicants without a recognisable qualification, it runs through German vocational training (Ausbildung). We can deliver both, but they place very different demands on your organisation.
When the position has to be filled now.
When you are building and training for the long term.
The training route is only actively promoted once a school-place partner is confirmed.
Your path
This depiction follows the standard case of an examined nurse with professional experience. Route and duration are decided by the authority in each case.
Four decisions rest with you; the rest rests with us. Between mandate and arrival, roughly a year usually passes, because language training and the recognition procedure run in parallel and the visa procedure follows on from them. You receive a short monthly update and can see progress at any time in the portal.
Employment status
The nurse does not arrive as a qualified professional. She arrives as a nurse in the recognition procedure and becomes a qualified professional during employment.
This is not a disadvantage, but it must be in your planning. From arrival there is a regular employment relationship subject to social-insurance contributions, with pay according to your collective agreement. The person only counts towards the Fachkraftquote once the professional certificate is issued. With the certificate, the residence permit also changes to § 18a AufenthG and the grading rises.
From arrival
After the certificate
Division of roles
In full, even where it is uncomfortable. What is not listed here, we do not promise.
The largest part of the procedure runs without any action on your part. Three things no one can take off your hands, because they are legally or professionally bound to the employer: the grading, the initiation of the accelerated skilled-worker procedure and the practical guidance during the adaptation measure. Housing we clarify together within the mandate.
Why Fideneum
The differences lie not in the marketing, but in the structure of the procedure and in where the candidates come from.
International recruitment rarely fails at the start and almost always in the middle: on people no one really knows, on documents checked too late, and on expectations never spoken aloud beforehand. Our process is built at exactly these three points.
One contracting partner in Germany, bound and licensed partners in India.
Candidates from established college cooperations, known personally.
Aptitude, resilience and expectations are tested before selection, not after.
Invoicing and evidence built so that they fit into your negotiation.
Safeguards
Three cases that can occur, and what is contractually agreed in each of them.
We work on a success basis. The fee is tied to the actual start of employment, not to the effort beforehand. This means the risk of the long middle sits with us and not with you. For the period after arrival, a defined timeframe is agreed within which we fill the position again.
The person does not take up the position.
No success fee.
The knowledge examination is not passed.
A retake is provided for, and we support it.
Departure within the agreed timeframe.
Re-placement according to the rules of the framework agreement.
All three cases are in the contract, not in a brochure.
Refinancing
In Schleswig-Holstein a fixed, decided amount; in Hamburg via your own care-rate negotiation. In both cases the quality of your documentation decides.
Recruitment and placement costs for foreign nurses are operating costs and belong in the remuneration agreement. On 19 June 2025 the Landespflegesatzkommission Schleswig-Holstein resolved a flat amount of 12,500 euro per recruited foreign nurse for this purpose, coupled with a mandatory review of the actual costs. In Hamburg there is so far no comparable commission resolution, but the route via your own negotiation under § 84 and § 85 SGB XI is open. What matters in both cases is prospectivity: the costs must be registered for a future remuneration period; there is nothing retroactive.
Interactive
In under thirty seconds, see whether your facility falls within a refinancing regime.
Responsibility
It is the condition for your costs remaining refinanceable, and it is the reason people stay.
Candidates pay nothing at any point in the chain: no placement fee, no language-course costs, no examination, translation or visa fees. This obligation applies contractually to our partners in India as well. We align with the WHO Code and the ILO principles of fair recruitment.
Capacity
Both are possible. From several positions upward, a framework agreement pays off, because language training and the procedure run bundled together.
For a single placement, an individual mandate is enough. If you are planning several positions across the year, a framework agreement makes more sense: it defines roles, numbers and timings once, and the cohort starts language training together. That considerably shortens the time to the second and third nurse.
FAQ
As a rule, about twelve months, if language training begins in India and the recognition procedure runs in parallel. Two factors push this back: the language level at the start and the processing time of the authority. In the mandate we give you a case-specific range, not a guarantee.
With certified B2. That is the precondition for the professional licence and is not up for negotiation. Job-related nursing German we train in addition, and it continues after arrival.
No. Until the professional certificate she works as a nurse in the recognition procedure. Only with the certificate do the counting and the higher grading take place. This belongs in your workforce planning, see the section above.
A retake is possible and provided for. We support the preparation again. The employment relationship continues during this time, so your nurse remains available to you.
Usually the problem was not the placement, but the time afterwards. Our fee depends on the start of employment, our support continues quarterly afterwards, and the candidates come from colleges we work with on a lasting basis, not from an anonymous applicant pool.
Reckon with four points: selection interviews, initiating the accelerated skilled-worker procedure, onboarding, and practical guidance during the adaptation measure. Everything else rests with us.
Not the nurse. The cost allocation between you and us is set out in writing in the mandate before anything begins.
In Schleswig-Holstein via the flat amount of 12,500 euro per recruitment; in Hamburg and other states via your own remuneration negotiation. Use the reimbursement check on this page and you will see your constellation.
Within the timeframe agreed in the framework agreement we fill the position again. Independently of that, the aftercare is designed precisely so that this case is rare.
Yes, if you are a training provider, i.e. you have a cooperation with a nursing school and practical-guidance capacity. The route takes three years, but in return the recognition procedure falls away permanently.
Next step
A needs-assessment conversation, at no cost and with no obligation.
We go through your open positions, clarify which route fits your organisation, and tell you honestly if we are not the right address. If it fits, you then receive a concrete proposal with a timeline.
Helpful in advance