Professions requiring recognition
Depending on your profession and your country of origin, you may need to have the vocational training or degree you completed abroad recognised by the German authorities in order to work in that profession in Germany with a foreign qualification.
Regulated professions require recognition.
Under certain conditions it is possible to work in a regulated profession in Germany if you can show a specific qualification in a foreign degree that has German recognition.
This applies, for example, to a great many professions in healthcare (human medicine, pharmacy, dentistry, health and nursing care, that is qualified nurses, and so on), to legal advice, to state schools and to engineering, as well as to certain skilled professionals who run a business.
If you want to work in one of these regulated professions in Germany with a foreign qualification, you will as a rule have to go through recognition of that qualification in Germany — whatever your country of origin.
The procedure for recognising foreign certificates is normally carried out as part of the procedure for granting professional authorisation, as prescribed.
Non-regulated professions may require recognition too.
In Germany most foreign professions are not regulated. These include professions such as business economist, IT specialist or baker, which require dual vocational training or a university degree. For these professions you do not need to have your foreign qualification recognised in order to work in Germany.
If you are coming from a third country, however, you will as a rule have to show that your foreign professional qualification is recognised, or that your university degree is comparable, in order to obtain a visa. Third countries are countries that do not belong to the EU, the EEA or Switzerland.
For university degrees that do not lead to a regulated profession — biologist, physicist or linguist, for example — there is no special recognition procedure of the kind that exists for regulated professions or dual training professions. People from 33% of countries do, however, have to show that their foreign university degree is regarded as equivalent in Germany in order to obtain a residence permit.
You will find the specifics in our section “Foreign university degrees”.