How to recognize a diploma in Germany
The diploma is half of the identity, and often people form an image of you based on your profession. Whether you find this superficial or not, it's a fact.
You've spent time at university/college or some other educational program, you've invested effort, will, work, and money to ensure good job positioning and satisfactory earnings? By moving to another country, you don't necessarily lose that half of your identity. It just requires a little awareness, check which industry it is, see how you can nostrify or translate it to benefit you in your further life in a new environment and new country. An even better option is to start the process before moving because it takes several months to resolve the matter.
Every person with professional or academic education has the right to the process of recognizing foreign qualifications.
Nostrification of a diploma is essentially a process in which high school diplomas, college exams, and academic titles earned in the country you come from are checked and recognized so you can work in the industry you've chosen to specialize in. After the nostrification process, the diploma has the same value as in the country you come from.
A first and basic step for everyone is the website: https://tvoja-integracija.com/preporuke/priznavanje-diplome, where you can check which category your profession and faculty belong to, and whether your diploma is fully recognized, partially recognized, or not at all. This site is also great for finding the institution you need to contact related to your profession. The procedure is not the same for every industry, nor the competent body.
Documents required for the application for recognition:
From situation to situation, there may be differences in documentation, but this is some golden standard that is always needed.
• Application for diploma nostrification
• Personal ID or passport
• Proof of professional qualification (diploma and diploma supplement)
• Proof of duration and curriculum (certificates, index, completed professional practice)
• Language level (varies from profession to profession). For some professions, you need to have a certificate right away, for some not, but in the end, without valid language knowledge regardless of the diploma, you can't get a job.
• Sometimes: work booklet, CV, certificates.
Documents must be translated into German and sent in the form of copies certified by a court interpreter. A recommendation for a court interpreter can be found here: www.tvoja-integracija.com/preporuke.
If you do not possess all the above documents, in exceptional cases, you can prove your professional qualification ability with a practical qualification analysis.
Practical qualification analysis manifests in the form of trial work, professional interview, and practice. It's important to nostrify a diploma, i.e., prove that you are a professional in your field because it greatly helps in salary negotiations, as well as in further professional development. A professional with nostrification is, on average, 20% higher paid compared to one without it.
Good luck in recognizing your diploma!”
