Recognition of foreign certifications
A school-leaving qualification, a vocational qualification or a degree from another country, first has to be checked by a competent authority, before a recognition happens. Having obtained this recognition will enable you to have better chances to be integrated into the labour market. Tomorrow's specialists are imploringly searched for.
Wether you need a recognition in case you would like to remain working in the profession that you have learned, can be seen on the following website www.anerkennung-in-deutschland.de/ Here you will also get information, which are the competent authorities for your profession, or where you can get a more detailed counselling. There is also a telephone hotline for your questions that is run by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. It is available in German as well as in English (Phone-number: +49 30 1815 - 1111)
Many occupations, meant are the so called not regulated professions, can also be performed without a formal recognition of your vocational qualification. However, for a potential employer it might be sensible to get the recognition in order to assess the skills and qualifications from the job applicant.
The most important steps within the recognition procedure:
- a counselling office is being visited locally
- an application for recognition is being filed by the counselling office
The following documents must be present:
- Certified copies of the certificates
- A translation done by a sworn interpreter in Germany (check the database of sworn interpreters that is available on the website of the Federal Justice Portal and the one of the German states www.justizdolmetscher.de ) or a translation done by a recognised translator who lives abroad.
Most of the time you will get a certification of your documents at the registration office, or at clerical institutions. Preparing and attestation from translations are subject to charges. There will also be charges for the recognition procedure. In certain cases these charges can be covered.
As of late there is a new app for this topic „Recognition in Germany“ https://www.anerkennung-in-deutschland.de/html/de/app.php. The portal is available in the following languages: German, English, Spanish, Italian, Romanian, Polish, Turkish, Greek and Arabic.
Down below you can find an info booklet about the topic „Integration through qualification“ put together by the IQ-Network. The info booklet contains among other topics, recognition of certificates.
- PDF-Datei: (PDF, 6.1 MB)
- PDF-Datei: (PDF, 936 kB)
Counselling offices from the county of Schleswig-Flensburg can be contacted:
Adressen:
Additional recognition- and qualification counselling can be found here: