US Registered Nurse Considering Germany or the Netherlands — Questions About Nursing Recognition, Visa Pathways, and Family Life
Posted by InShOtx@reddit | expats | View on Reddit | 41 comments
Hi everyone,
My wife (20F) and I (22M) have recently started seriously considering leaving the U.S. for Germany or the Netherlands. I’m an RN (Registered Nurse) with a BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) working in a large hospital ICU (Intensive Care Unit), and for the last few years my plan was to pursue CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist) school. While CRNA is a great career path in the U.S., it requires taking on significant debt and three intensive years of schooling, during which I would not be able to earn additional income.
Recently, my wife and I sat down and talked about what we really want long-term. We’d like to start a family, have a healthier work–life balance, and not feel like everything is on hold until I complete an expensive program. Currently, we have been working and saving aggressively to get into CRNA school, which has been both stressful and mentally taxing. We realized that the main reason I wanted to become a CRNA was to gain financial stability, better time off, and less stress — things that seem to be more broadly accessible in parts of Europe without needing a high-earning specialist role.
We’ve been researching European social systems, family policies, and work culture, and Germany and the Netherlands stood out as the two countries where my nursing credentials might realistically be recognized and where a work visa seems feasible. I’m also actively studying German, which makes Germany feel slightly more within reach.
We are aware of many of the pros and cons, such as being further away from family, restarting our life completely in an unfamiliar place, and expenses and loss of income, but we also feel that these trade-offs may be necessary to achieve the type of life we would like to live.
My questions for people who have gone through this or know the process:
For a U.S. RN with ICU experience, is Germany or the Netherlands generally more straightforward for credential recognition?
Are hospitals in either country known to sponsor foreign nurses directly?
How does the spouse visa/work rights situation look in each place?
For those who moved to either country with the intention of raising a family, how has your experience been with healthcare, childcare, and general quality of life?
We’re not trying to “country shop” — these are the two countries we believe are actually realistic for us, and we’d appreciate any guidance from people who understand the nursing recognition or visa process there.
Thank you in advance for any insight.
Chrissyab1@reddit
I currently reside in the Netherlands under my husband’s visa (DAFT). I was at the end of my nursing career in the US (ER being my last stop) and hold a BSN. They desperately need nurses here. I disagree w many comments here…you do have to look at the big picture though. I believe that you can absolutely achieve a much better quality of life (especially if you’re starting a family) here vs US. You will make less money but can absolutely climb up the education ladder here as well. Maybe not CNA but advanced practice. You are young enough to do this (and without I hope the obligation that comes w middle age of caring for elderly parents). Do it ASAP. You must have your education evaluated, pass a language test (B1-difficult but there are nurse recruiters that may offer training-google this) and I believe pass an actual nursing skill test. There is a housing crunch in many areas but you can live in an area that isn’t in the Randstad and be fine. You will love it here and is an amazing place for kids. I’d start w contacting a Dutch recruiter or even calling a hospital HR rep and starting there. You need to research this. I think long term a better life
Competitive_Lion_260@reddit
You are just wrong
bigopossums@reddit
Nurses in Germany can't even hand out ibuprofen and make awful wages, plus there is very little growth in the role compared to the US. Also, I've been here for 3 years including 2 in a German uni and my German is still not great, it takes serious time to learn a language deep enough to work on a technical level.
Americans (my fellow ones, to be clear) always post threads like this talking about how seriously they are considering the move but yet nothing indicates that they have done any more than surface-level thinking about it. Just living vicariously through content creators who focus their content on living abroad as a highlight reel and not the reality of it.
Competitive_Lion_260@reddit
Exactly. It's the same in the Netherlands.
And the information those country content creators give in their videos is often wrong or just lies.
And, yes, they always make everything seem fantastic while they leave out the bad things.
Suspicious-Switch133@reddit
The Netherlands has a massive housing shortage, so unless you’re coming with a bag of money, forget it.
mmoonbelly@reddit
The Dutch overstate the problem (6 years living in The Hague). The housing market there’s similar to London’s.
It’s just the local wages don’t match costs in the same way they do 230 ish miles westwards.
Alone_Ad_9071@reddit
On a Dutch nursing salary without an existing network it will be very difficult to get proper housing though.
mmoonbelly@reddit
Yep. That’s structural.
However a specialist nurse with appropriate qualifications/caoabilities might get higher wages and be in demand in specific locations (international healthcare in Amsterdam or The Hague) with the appropriate US salary equivalent brought across for the specialisation.
Low chance, but there are always quirks for niche International skills being paid higher when the knowledge/ability is not available and needed in the host country. Healthcare is one of those sectors where this can happen.
Competitive_Lion_260@reddit
Housing shortages in the Netherlands have far-reaching social, economic and psychological consequences and can seriously affect the quality of life and the future of The Netherlands
This can lead to a shift in demographic trends and has broader societal implications.
https://www.woningnoodnederland.nl/blog/gevolgen-van-woningnood-voor-jongeren/
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Young Dutch people postpone living together and having children due to housing shortage:
The future of the Netherlands is locked down
[The Future of the Netherlands is locked down](https://www.rtl.nl/nieuws/binnenland/artikel/5489376/jongeren-stellen-door-woningnood-samenwonen-en-kinderen-krijgen
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The Housing Shortage in the Netherlands: An Urgent Social Challenge
https://cw-opinie.nl/de-woningnood-in-nederland-een-urgente-maatschappelijke-uitdaging/
1,4 million Dutch people can not find housing
https://vastgoedactueel.nl/ruim-kwart-thuiswonende-jongeren-wil-uit-huis-maar-kan-geen-woning-vinden/#:~:text=De%20totale%20groep%20Nederlanders%20die,1%2C4%20miljoen%20in%202024.
Even for dual-income earners with an average income, a house is threatening to become unaffordable.
The general expectation is that house prices will continue to rise this year. De Hypotheker assumes that houses will become 7% to 10% more expensive on average.
At the same time, the advisory chain points out that not enough is being built.
Due to the enormous shortage on the housing market, overbidding is common.
https://archive.ph/xPYXr
https://www.telegraaf.nl/financieel/1165434217/koophuis-raakt-zelfs-voor-tweeverdieners-met-modaal-loon-buiten-bereik-dit-heeft-een-enorme-impact
Housing shortages are further reducing the birth rate in the Netherlands.
https://archive.ph/iAefV
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900,000 new homes are needed to meet growing demand
https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/volkshuisvesting/nieuwe-woningen
Living in the Netherlands is more expensive than in the rest of Europe
On average, Dutch people spend almost 23 percent of their income on their housing costs. The European average is 19.7 percent.
In the Netherlands, the average house price rose by 83.3 percent between 2015 and 2023, compared to the EU average of 48.1 percent.
In the same period, rents in the Netherlands rose by an average of 18.5 percent. The EU average is 13.3 percent.
https://brusselsenieuwe.nl/wooncrisis-nederland-versus-eu/
Competitive_Lion_260@reddit
You know nothing about the housing market and the job market.
You moved here SIX years ago.
https://www.vanbruggen.nl/actueel/nieuws/2025/pas-in-juni-bereikten-huizenprijzen-ook-na-inflatiecorrectie-een-record
You just live in an expat bubble.
Children are living in cars and garages all throughout the Netherlands
Throughout the Netherlands, children are living in places that are not meant for that, such as cars and garages.
This is evident from a survey among schools by Nieuwsuur and the Youth Education Fund. Spekman blames the problem on the housing shortage.
https://nos.nl/nieuwsuur/artikel/2569689-in-heel-nederland-wonen-kinderen-in-auto-s-en-garageboxen
Mila lives with her newborn baby in a car urgent declaration for housing rejected by the municipality
Mila (27) is homeless and has been living in her car for several years. Last year, she unexpectedly became pregnant and applied to the municipality for urgent priority for social housing.
That application was rejected, and she has now been living in her car with her newborn baby for two months. She parks somewhere in Noord every night: "I don't sleep a wink at night."
https://www.at5.nl/nieuws/225622/mila-woont-met-haar-pasgeboren-baby-in-een-auto-in-noord-urgentieverklaring-afgewezen
mmoonbelly@reddit
I also left with a €150k profit three years ago. So yeah. I know nothing about the housing market.
tinyadipose@reddit
No, that’s not how the medical field works in the Netherlands
EntertainmentIcy3592@reddit
I don’t think this is really possible outside of physician/doctor level positions. I personally know several specialist nurses in The Hague and their salaries are only slightly higher than other bachelor level nurses. I’ve never heard of a foreign nurse being sponsored.
OperationEast365@reddit
OP would be earning a local wage, so this comment is indeed rather relevant.
mmoonbelly@reddit
Yep. Guess the glory days of proper relocation packages are over.
Mind, the same housing pressures are seen in most major cities around the world , just the Dutch like to think their housing market is exceptional - and it’s really not.
Suspicious-Switch133@reddit
I don’t think that our housing crisis is exceptional (you do like to put words in peoples mouths, don’t you?), but a US nurse has more chance in Germany than NL housing wise. They will not make enough money to be able to get proper housing until they have been here a while. And I don’t see what London has to do with it, since OP isn’t from there.
jazzyjeffla@reddit
There’s a lot of agencies within the EU that ‘scout’ nursing professionals from other EU countries. You’d be surprised with the amount of Spanish nurses that move to Nordic countries without having the language. It’s all about your work experience and getting your degrees/licenses validated. For some reason the US just kinda stopped having relationships with many other countries regarding degree/license validation thus has really left us out of the international work force. It’s kind of sad when you really think about it. I know someone who gets their Nursing degree in Ireland can work with ease in Australia, Dubai, EU, NZ and Canada with just simple documents getting recognized whereas US folk have it a bit harder.
Puzzleheaded_Dig174@reddit
Dutch nurse here. Your Bsc. will be valued to a dutch equivalent. You will need decent understanding of the language to work in home care or assisted eldery living facilities at a starting level. More chance of a job at smaller organisations. For hospitals you need to be fluent. While your diploma is not valued yet its possible to work at a lower level. I dont know about other settings but home care starts at 40k excl the benefits for working hours after 20h till 6am and weekends. My average employee makes 20% extra of this (and we dont work nights). At Bsc level this inscreases to 47k at the start with same benefits for hours after 20h and weekends (after 10 years of experience this reaches 73k without said benefits. A fulltime job in nursing is generally 36h a week and we have good laws about overtime and time to rest between shifts. Experienced nurses in home care and nursing homes do make a decent living these days, even tho its still one of the wordt paid Bscs.
HVP2019@reddit
Looking at Canada, Australia, NZ, UK make more sense for you, because of language but also because how their immigration is designed.
JeromeZilcher@reddit
Good point! Maybe Ireland also?
alloutofbees@reddit
No. It's virtually impossible for US-trained nurses to get licensed in Ireland.
New-Trash372@reddit
Not to mention terrible salarys and work life balance for this specific industry in Ireland
carltanzler@reddit
For NL: the procedure itself takes between 6 months and 1.5 years, see https://english.bigregister.nl/foreign-diploma/procedures/certificate-of-competence This does not include the time needed to learn Dutch to B2 level (for nursing at bachelor's degree level). You'll need to do additional exams, including on Dutch fluency. You can't get hired in health care prior to recognition, and you can't get a residence permit for the purpose of doing this procedure. Average salary for a nurse is below 50k/year gross, and COL is high, especially housing is expensive. Honestly, I'd either stay in the US or look into Canada or Australia, as there's no language barrier and they have the smoothest transition for US trained nurses.
Haunting-Wonder208@reddit
The Netherlands has a housing crisis. Please don’t take a house from a Dutch homeless person looking for a home when you have options to move elsewhere.
Georgie_Pillson1@reddit
You will need to be fluent in the language, including in medical terminology, and able to speak and understand during high stress situations in order to work in any country. How ‘actively’ are you studying German? Americans always massively underestimate how hard it is to learn another language, and how fluent they are expected to be. You cannot expect patients or staff to speak English to you in a medical environment. You’re on their turf.
TheTesticler@reddit
I don’t think a lot of Americans in healthcare (that want to move abroad to a country that doesn’t speak English) realize that medical terminology in another language is like a whole separate language in and of itself.
I had a friend who was fluent in Spanish, grew up speaking it, and he tried to go to medical school in Mexico and he noped out of there he didn’t even finish a year.
Disastrous_Coffee502@reddit
Moved to Canada and the medical terminology is just different enough to give me pause, can’t imagine how it would be in an entirely different language
crambeaux@reddit
Medical terminology is often based on Latin and is therefore almost identical in European languages (not sure about Germanic languages but in Latin languages it’s the case). I’d say the medical terminology isn’t the hardest part because op already knows the vocabulary and what it means. It’s the language that it’s used in that remains the hurdle in my opinion.
_mangotango@reddit
to be frank, a lot of foreign healthcare workers in america including doctors have a questionable grasp of the english language
austin06@reddit
I’ll just say I understand “putting your life on hold”, but at your ages this is exactly the time to do it and get as much schooling as you can to up your earning power and opportunities. You’ll still be very young when you finish. And if you decide on expat life that will also take time and be stressful. I’d work toward that original goal. It will most likely be very worth it.
upstatenyusa@reddit
Your best bet is to become a CRNA and come twice a year for some locum work, get housing paid, and go back to Germany for 6 months.
icecream1973@reddit
High demand for nurses in NL, but no Dutch fluency = no job in Dutch healthcare.
Also zero chance you will be able to afford expat housing due to nation wide housing crisis on a nursing+ partner salary. Landlords have a 3 - 4 times rent to Dutch income requirement, UNLESS you come with a huge bag of money, you will have a very slim zero chance to find anything suitable (even outside the randstad area).
You either get the required Dutch language proficiency (or German) or seek a future in an Eng only country.
ihavenosisters@reddit
While not impossible it’s very unlikely to learn a language that well and quickly for most people.
I have an American friend who managed to do it and currently studies medicine in Germany but her language abilities are insane.
alloutofbees@reddit
I'm sorry, but this really comes off like you haven't thought about this logically at all. You're thinking of not being a CRNA because it would take three more years of school, and instead learning a new language so you can take a lower-skilled job where you'll be earning under €50,000 a year forever? You could literally make more money working six months a year as a travel nurse than many nurses make in a whole year in Germany. Hell, if you picked up overtime you could be making more in three months a year.
How exactly do you think your life is going to be better with a salary that maxes out under €50k in Germany than it would be making $250k in the States? You can't even seriously make the argument about time off since if you really wanted to prioritize time off, CRNAs can also travel and live extremely comfortably taking three or six months off a year. That kind of lifestyle is basically unthinkable in Europe.
This all just reads as extremely naive. Nursing is a field that gives an insane amount of flexibility and financial freedom in the US that it just doesn't in the rest of the world, but especially not in Germany.
Competitive-Leg-962@reddit
We don't have nursing degrees in Germany, it's a vocational discipline and vastly different from anything you've learned in the US.
You will also need C1 German (native level fluency) to work in the medical field, and the same is true for pretty much any country with their respective local language.
I would suggest UK or Ireland as the only realistic targets in Europe due to language alone.
Alone_Ad_9071@reddit
Yep, this will be very similar in the Netherlands. My SIL is German and knew Dutch quite well before moving here but to work in health care and see patients she still went through some intense courses!
South-Beautiful-5135@reddit
Yes, we do: https://www.charite.de/studium_lehre/studiengaenge/bachelor_pflege
Hutcho12@reddit
You're going to have two issues in Germany. Firstly, you don't speak German. That's kind of important.
Secondly, you're going to be way overqualified and extremely disappointed with your salary here. Nursing is a much lower level thing here, you don't need a degree for it for example. You're basically sitting between a German nurse and a doctor and my understanding is there isn't much of an in between position here, certainly not one where you can get by without good German.
ThisIsSpata@reddit
I don't know that people here could help much, but I would look at agencies that recruit for healthcare in those countries and have some conversations with them.
In the UK for example, they recruit from abroad a lot due to shortages and there's dedicated agencies that source the professionals. There might be something like that for Germany, Netherlands.
misadventuresofj@reddit
OP, have you looked into how different nursing is here in Germany than the US? Here nurses have different responsibilities and its considered to be a lower paying job. In addition, nurses go through an apprenticeship rather than a degree.
Competitive_Lion_260@reddit
To work in healthcare, you need to be fluent in Dutch, obviously. How are you gonna help patients if you don't understand them?
And besides the language there are many other hoops you need to jump through.
https://www.bigregister.nl/buitenlands-diploma