Recognition

If you are moving to the Ruhr region from abroad, find out in advance whether your profession is recognised in Germany or which German qualification your degree is equivalent to. Recognition can also be helpful for nationals from the EU, EEA and Switzerland. It brings advantages when applying for a job, when changing jobs or when negotiating salaries. With the certificate of recognition in German, employers can immediately recognise the skills and knowledge of foreign skilled workers.

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Important distinction: Regulated and non-regulated professions

You are only allowed to work in regulated professions in Germany if you have a specific qualification. This applies, for example, to many professions in the fields of healthcare, legal counselling, teaching at state schools and engineering. There is also regulation for certain master craftsmen who run a business. If you would like to work in one of these regulated professions, you will always need to have your foreign professional qualification recognised, regardless of your country of origin. In regulated professions, recognition is usually decided as part of the procedure for granting a licence to practise.

However, most professions in Germany are not regulated. These include, for example, dual training occupations and many professions with a university degree. In order to work in Germany as a business economist, IT specialist or baker, for example, you do not need your foreign professional qualification to be recognised.

How can I have my foreign university degree recognised?

There is no recognition procedure for university degrees that do not lead to a regulated profession, such as biologist, physicist or linguist, as there is for regulated professions or dual training occupations. Persons from a third country with such a university degree must prove that their foreign university degrees are recognised as comparable in Germany in order to obtain a residence permit. The anabin database of the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB) provides information on this.

Professional recognition before entering the Ruhr Area

You can have your qualification acquired outside Germany recognised, even if you are neither resident in Germany nor have German citizenship or a residence permit for Germany. For third-country nationals, recognition of the foreign professional qualification or the comparability of the university degree is usually a prerequisite for the issue of a visa. Third countries are countries outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland.

If you come from the EU, your qualification will in most cases be recognised without an individual equivalence assessment if the certificate was issued after the country of training joined the EU. Qualifications issued before the date of EU accession are automatically recognised if the applicant submits a certificate from the competent authority of the country of training stating that the training completed before accession meets the minimum standards of Directive 36/2005/EC.