The procedure d'autorisation d'exercice is the French administrative route through which a holder of a health qualification awarded outside the European Union obtains individual authorisation to practise. It combines a competitive examination, a supervised period of practice in a French hospital and a decision taken by the ministry responsible for health.
from French procedure d'autorisation d'exercice, literally procedure for authorisation to practise
PAE, autorisation d'exercice, procedure d'autorisation d'exercice
authorisation to practise procedure
The procedure begins with the epreuves de verification des connaissances. Successful candidates then complete a parcours de consolidation des competences, a period of supervised hospital practice served under a designated senior practitioner, whose length is set by regulation for each profession and speciality. The practitioner responsible for supervision reports on the candidate's clinical performance. The complete file goes before a national authorisation commission made up of professionals of the speciality, which issues an opinion, and the ministry responsible for health then takes the individual decision.
An authorisation granted under the Public Health Code allows full practice of the profession and speciality named in the decision, on the same footing as a French qualification. The commission may also condition its favourable opinion on additional training or a longer consolidation period. Once the authorisation is issued, two administrative steps follow before the first consultation: registration with the Ordre National des Medecins and the allocation of an RPPS identifier.
For a practitioner trained in Morocco, Algeria or Tunisia this procedure is the standard route into the French system, and it should be planned as a multi-year project rather than an application. The alternative open to someone still choosing where to study is a degree from an EU member state, which leads to automatic recognition instead. Those who intend to return home afterwards should note that the French authorisation carries no weight in Moroccan, Algerian or Tunisian law, where the diploma itself, duly legalised or bearing an apostille, remains the document that counts.
The authorisation is individual and tied to one profession and one speciality. It is not a general equivalence of the foreign diploma, and it does not transfer to another speciality if professional plans change. Candidates also frequently underestimate the consolidation period: during it the practitioner works in a French hospital under supervision, with the status and remuneration attached to that stage, not yet as a fully independent practitioner.
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