In brief
- The professional assessment of a specialist dentist qualification obtained outside the European Union costs 1,000 euros. The figure is set by Decision no. 7/2CN/2026 of the National Council of the Romanian College of Dentists and applies from 21 October 2026, the date of publication in Official Gazette of Romania (Monitorul Oficial). At an exchange rate of 5.09 lei to the euro, the amount works out at around 5,090 lei.
- Where the assessment also includes an aptitude test, the fee doubles and reaches 2,000 euros. The act does not say who decides that the test is necessary, nor at what point in the procedure, so a candidate cannot know when filing the application whether they owe 1,000 or 2,000 euros, that is around 10,180 lei at the rate above.
- Payment is made in lei, at the euro exchange rate of the day of payment, into the College’s account. The exact amount in lei cannot be calculated in advance, and the act provides for no refund, no exemptions, no reductions, no payment in instalments and no lower amount at a second attempt after an unfavourable result.
Published: Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 883 of 21 October 2026, page 8
Who it affects: dentists holding a specialist qualification obtained in states outside the European Union, including Romanians returning from the diaspora, together with the clinics and practices that want to employ them and the College’s joint assessment committees
Takes effect: 21 October 2026, because Article 4 provides for entry into force on the date of publication in Official Gazette of Romania
A dentist who obtained their specialist qualification outside the European Union and wants to use it in Romania pays, from 21 October 2026, a professional assessment fee of 1,000 euros. If the assessment also involves an aptitude test, the fee doubles and reaches 2,000 euros. The amount is paid in lei, at the euro exchange rate of the day of payment, and goes into the account of the Romanian College of Dentists.
The rule comes from Decision no. 7/2CN/2026, adopted in Cluj-Napoca on 9 October 2026 by the National Council of the Romanian College of Dentists and published in Official Gazette of Romania, Part I, no. 883 of 21 October 2026, on page 8. The act has four articles, enters into force on the date of publication and provides for no transition period. The legal basis invoked is Article 4792 and Article 534 of Law no. 95/2006 on healthcare reform, republished.
In this procedure, the phrase „stat terț”, third country, means a state outside the European Union, the European Economic Area and the Swiss Confederation. A specialist qualification obtained in the Republic of Moldova, in Ukraine, in Serbia or in Türkiye falls within the category, as does one obtained further afield, in Asia, in Africa or on the American continent. Qualifications issued by Member States of the European Union follow a different recognition regime and are not affected by this decision.
In lei, the fee works out at around 5,090 lei, and the doubled version at around 10,180 lei. The figures are indicative, calculated at a rate of 5.09 lei to the euro, because the act fixes no amount in lei: the sum owed is established only on the day the candidate makes the payment. The preamble explains why the money is being asked for: the costs of the process of recognising qualifications obtained in third countries, the functioning of the joint committees approved by order of the Minister of Health, and the protection of patients’ health through a rigorous assessment of the competences of specialists trained outside the Union.
What it changes in practice
From 21 October 2026, every application for recognition of a specialist dentist qualification issued by a third country carries a fixed cost, written down in Official Gazette of Romania: 1,000 euros for the professional assessment, 2,000 euros where the assessment also includes an aptitude test. The amount does not depend on the speciality, on the issuing state, on the age of the qualification or on the number of documents in the file.
Payment has three features fixed by Article 3: the currency, the reference moment for conversion and the payee. The currency is the leu, even though the fee is expressed in euros. The reference moment is the day of payment, not the day the application is filed and not the day of the assessment. The payee is the account of the Romanian College of Dentists, so there is no payment to the assessment committee or to any other institution.
The practical consequence of converting at the day of payment is that the applicant cannot budget an exact amount in lei. A two per cent move in the exchange rate between the moment they prepare their file and the moment of payment shifts more than 200 lei on the 2,000 euro version and around 100 lei on the basic one. The currency risk stays entirely with the candidate, even though the administrative service being paid for is provided in Romania and has costs in lei.
The text does not expressly make the filing of the application conditional on prior payment of the fee and sets no payment deadline. Nor does it provide for any refund, whether partial or total, where the assessment no longer takes place, the file is rejected on formal grounds or the applicant withdraws. For whoever pays, the proof of payment remains the only document they hold.
What has changed compared with the previous situation
The decision repeals no earlier act and mentions no amount that would have been in force up to 21 October 2026. From the published text it is impossible to tell whether the fee has gone up, gone down or only now been set in published form, and the absence of a repealing clause leaves open the question of what happens to any older decision on the same subject.
What does change for certain, from the candidate’s position, is predictability. From 21 October 2026 the figure is public and identical for everyone: it is no longer negotiated case by case and no longer communicated solely through the College’s administrative channel. The doubling for the aptitude test is itself written into the text, in Article 2, so it cannot be exceeded by a supplement invented later on.
The way the obligation is expressed changes too. The fee is denominated in euros, not in lei, and it updates itself through the exchange rate, with no need for a fresh decision of the National Council. For the College, that means an income that holds steady against the European currency; for the candidate, an amount in lei that follows the rate upwards, with no new decision they could challenge.
Advantages and disadvantages
What it improves
- There is a single figure, public and verifiable in Official Gazette of Romania: 1,000 euros, or 2,000 euros with an aptitude test.
- The doubling is expressly provided for in Article 2, so the ceiling of the procedure is known and a third level of fee cannot be added without a new, published decision.
- Payment is made in lei, so the applicant needs no foreign currency account and does not depend on an international transfer.
- There is a single payee, the account of the Romanian College of Dentists, which reduces the risk of misdirected payments.
- Entry into force on the date of publication removes the window of uncertainty between appearance in Official Gazette of Romania and actual application.
- The legal basis is stated in the preamble, Article 4792 and Article 534 of Law no. 95/2006, so anyone wishing to challenge the amount knows which rule the College relies on.
- The reasoning is written down rather than merely assumed: the costs of the recognition process, the functioning of the joint committees and the protection of patients.
What remains a problem
- The amount in lei cannot be known when the application is filed, because Article 3 ties it to the rate of the day of payment, and the act does not say whose rate that is.
- Any refund rule is missing, so a file rejected on formal grounds or an assessment that no longer takes place leaves the fee with the College.
- Exemptions and reductions are absent: a doctor returning from the diaspora, a refugee and a candidate at a third attempt all pay the same.
- The amount is not differentiated by speciality, even though the effort of the joint committee is not the same for dento-alveolar surgery as for a speciality with a simpler file.
- The act does not say who decides that an aptitude test is needed, or when, so the difference between 1,000 and 2,000 euros remains unpredictable for the candidate.
- It is not specified whether a second attempt, after an unfavourable result, is charged in full again.
- Transition is missing altogether: a file submitted on 20 October 2026 and one submitted on 22 October 2026 fall under regimes the text says nothing about.
- The preamble invokes costs but shows no cost, no breakdown of the fee and no basis of calculation for the 1,000 euros.
Practical advice
- Check first whether your qualification falls within the category. The fee concerns specialist dentist qualifications issued by states outside the European Union, the European Economic Area and the Swiss Confederation.
- Ask the College, in writing and before paying, to confirm whether the assessment also involves an aptitude test. The answer makes the difference between 1,000 and 2,000 euros.
- Budget 2,000 euros rather than 1,000 for as long as you have no written confirmation that the aptitude test is not needed, and add the bank’s transfer charges.
- Convert and pay on the same day and keep the evidence of the rate used, because Article 3 refers to the rate of the day of payment.
- Keep the payment order and the bank statement. The decision provides for no refund of the fee, and the proof of payment is the only document available to you in the procedure.
- Ask on filing for confirmation of the complete list of documents, so that you do not pay for a file that stops on a point of form.
- If the fee is borne by the employing clinic, put that in writing, in a separate agreement or in the contract, because the act does not name the payer.
- Ask your bank which rate it applies to a payment from your account, especially if you are paying from a euro account, given that payment is made in lei.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the professional assessment of a specialist dentist qualification obtained outside the European Union cost?
What does „stat terț”, third country, mean?
When are 2,000 euros payable instead of 1,000?
In which currency is payment made?
Which exchange rate applies?
Who is the fee paid to?
Is the fee refunded if the file is rejected or if I withdraw?
Are there exemptions or reductions?
If the result is unfavourable, do I pay the whole fee again at a second attempt?
From when does the fee apply?
Does it also apply to dentists without a specialist qualification?
Errors and inconsistencies in the published text
- Article 3. The fee „se achită în lei, la cursul euro din ziua plății”, is paid in lei at the euro exchange rate of the day of payment, but the text does not say whose rate that is: the reference rate of the National Bank of Romania, the selling rate of the commercial bank through which payment is made, or the rate of a bureau de change. The difference between them runs to a few per cent, and on the 2,000 euro version that shifts more than 200 lei onto the applicant, so two candidates paying on the same day may owe different amounts, each of them relying on the published text. For a payment made on a Saturday, a Sunday or a public holiday there is also no published rate for „the day of payment”, and the act refers neither to the last rate published nor to the next working day. Since this is the only figure that establishes what is actually paid, the omission cannot be treated as a drafting slip.
Editorial analysis
The decision is short and, in essence, clear: four articles, one figure, one doubling, one account. The problem lies not in what it says but in the relationship between what it asks of the candidate and what the College takes on. The National Council adopted the act in Cluj-Napoca on 9 October 2026 and published it on 21 October 2026, so it took twelve days to carry the act from the vote to Official Gazette of Romania, while giving the addressee zero days to adapt: the fee applies from the very day of publication, with no provision for applications already filed.
The second observation comes out of combining Article 1 with Article 2. The doubling means that the aptitude test, a single additional step in the procedure, is priced at 1,000 euros, exactly as much as the whole basic assessment: examining the file, verifying the qualification, the work of the joint committee. The preamble invokes the costs of the recognition process and the functioning of the joint committees, but shows no cost from which that parity would follow. Without a breakdown, the 1,000 euros for the test look more like a deterrent than a way of covering costs, and an act that writes its reasoning into the preamble ought to be able to back it up with figures.
The third point is technical, but it shows up in the wallet. The fee is denominated in euros and converted at the day of payment, so it updates itself without passing through any vote of the National Council. On the other side, the costs the preamble invokes, the committee members’ allowances, the correspondence, the administrative work, are costs in lei. The currency risk therefore does not sit where the expenditure sits: a two per cent move in the rate shifts around 100 lei on the basic fee and more than 200 on the doubled one, and the candidate pays the difference with no decision they could challenge. Finally, the absence of a repealing clause leaves it unclear what happens to any earlier decision on the same subject, since the act neither confirms nor removes any older amount.
What should be changed
- Naming the exchange rate and the reference day. An amendment to Article 3 saying „the reference rate of the National Bank of Romania of the day of payment, and for days with no published rate the last rate published beforehand” would close the only open figure in the act and would mean that two candidates paying on the same day owe the same amount.
- A moment and a decision-maker for the aptitude test. If the decision provided that the need for the test is communicated to the applicant in writing before payment, the candidate would know from the outset whether to budget 1,000 or 2,000 euros, and the College would no longer have to ask for a top-up of the fee during the procedure.
- A refund rule. A full refund where the assessment does not take place for reasons beyond the applicant’s control, and a refund of the part relating to the aptitude test where the test is no longer sat, would remove the situation in which a 2,000 euro fee stays paid for a service not provided.
- A reduced amount at a second attempt. A lower fee for the reassessment of the same file, after an unfavourable result, would keep the cost recovery without turning a second examination into a repeat charge of 1,000 euros in full.
- A published breakdown of the fee. An annex setting out the structure of the 1,000 euros, the committee allowances, the verification costs and the administrative ones, would turn the reasoning in the preamble into something verifiable and would make the fee harder to challenge.
- A transitional provision. One sentence saying which fee applies to applications filed before 21 October 2026 would spare candidates and committees a negotiation that the present text does not resolve.
Original text of the legal act
The text below is reproduced in Romanian, the official form of publication.
The full text, as published in the Official Gazette of Romania
Official Gazette of Romania no. 883 of 21 October 2026, page 8 16 pages PDF, 190 KB the act starts on page 8
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This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For specific situations, consult a licensed attorney or tax advisor.