Getting your qualifications recognised

Whether you need a foreign qualification recognised in Germany depends on your job and your visa. Here is how to tell, and where to start.

This is general information, not legal advice. Which office handles your case, what it asks for and what it costs depend on your profession and on the German state where you will work, so confirm the details with the official bodies listed at the end.

Do I need this?

Two things decide it: the job, and your citizenship.

Regulated professions: yes, always

A reglementierter Beruf is a regulated profession: German law says you may not work in it without formal recognition of your qualification.^[1] There are more than 400, including doctors, nurses, teachers and architects.^[1] Many jobs in health, safety and social services fall in this group.^[2]

Some professions are regulated through their title. Ingenieur (engineer) is a protected title, which counts as a form of regulation: to use the title you may need recognition.^[2]

Non-regulated jobs: the employer judges

Many roles in IT, business, marketing, finance and research are not regulated.^[3][4] There is no licence, and the employer judges for itself whether your degree and experience fit the job.^[3] EU, EEA and Swiss citizens need nothing formal here.^[1]

Everyone else has a second question. The job may be unregulated, but the visa office will still want evidence that your qualification is comparable to a German one.^[1] The next two sections cover how.

University degrees: anabin and the ZAB

The ZAB (Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen, the Central Office for Foreign Education) is the German authority that assesses foreign qualifications. It runs anabin, a free public database of foreign universities and degrees.^[5]

Check anabin first. Your degree generally counts as comparable if your university is rated H+ and your degree is listed as "entspricht" or "gleichwertig" (equivalent).^[4][6] Visa offices ask you to bring a printout of the anabin results.^[6]

If your university or degree is not listed, or the rating does not fit, you apply to the ZAB for a Statement of Comparability (Zeugnisbewertung):^[6]

• Cost: €208. Work starts only once the fee is paid in full.^[7]
• Time: three months from the point your documents are complete and the fee has arrived. The ZAB says shorter timeframes apply for EU Blue Card applications and the fast-track procedure for skilled workers.^[8]
• How: entirely online, through the ZAB portal, with scans saved as PDFs.^[8]
• What it is not: a licence. It does not entitle you to work in a regulated profession.^[9] A doctor still needs the separate professional recognition.

Vocational qualifications: the chambers

If you trained for a trade or occupation rather than at university, recognition compares your training with a German reference occupation. Who decides depends on the field:^[10]

• Commercial, industrial and technical occupations: IHK FOSA, the recognition centre for Germany's chambers of industry and commerce (the IHKs of Hanover, Braunschweig and Wuppertal handle their own).^[10]
• Skilled crafts: the local Handwerkskammer (HWK), the chamber of crafts.^[10]
• Other fields, such as agriculture, have their own chambers.^[10]

The result is full equivalence, partial equivalence (with a list of the gaps, which you can close through further training), or no equivalence.^[10][11] IHK FOSA aims to do a preliminary check within one month, then decide within three months once your application is complete.^[12]

The ZAB also issues a Statement on a Foreign Vocational Qualification, used for some visas. It is not a recognition decision: it only confirms your training was completed, is recognised where you did it, and equals at least two years of full-time training.^[13]

How this ties into your visa

The visas guide covers each route in full. The recognition part, in short:

• EU Blue Card: you need a German degree or a foreign degree shown to be comparable — through anabin or a ZAB Statement.^[14][9]
• Skilled worker visa with a vocational qualification: you need formal recognition in Germany.^[1]
• Visa for professionally experienced workers, in place since March 2024: no German recognition needed, for non-regulated jobs only.^[15] You need at least two years of qualified work experience in the last five years, a qualification recognised by the state where you obtained it (vocational training of at least two years), proof of it through the ZAB (or anabin for a degree), and a job paying at least €45,630 gross a year in 2026 (more if you are over 45) — or an employer that pays under a collective agreement.^[16]
• Recognition partnership (Anerkennungspartnerschaft), since 1 March 2024: you come and start work, and complete recognition in Germany. You need a job offer, a qualification of at least two years recognised in the country where you gained it, an employer who commits to supporting the process, and German at level A2. The permit runs a year at a time, up to three years.^[17]

Timelines, and starting from abroad

You can apply for recognition from abroad.^[2] What to expect:

• A decision usually comes within three to four months of a complete application, with confirmation of receipt within a month. If the authority asks for a skills analysis, it can take longer.^[18]
• Under the fast-track procedure for skilled workers, which your employer arranges and the immigration office starts, recognition is due within two months.^[18][19]
• Costs vary by authority and can run to several hundred euros, plus translations. You will often need German translations by a publicly appointed translator. Ask the authority first whether translations made abroad are accepted.^[18]

Recognition can take months, so start it early.

Free help before you apply

• The Recognition Finder on the official Anerkennung in Deutschland portal. Enter your profession and where you want to work, and it tells you which authority is responsible, whether the profession is regulated and what the procedure involves.^[11]
• The Working and Living in Germany hotline, run by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees and the Federal Employment Agency: +49 30 1815-1111, Monday to Thursday 9:00–16:00 and Friday 9:00–12:00 German time, in German and English. There is no special charge: you pay your usual call rates, and calls from mobiles may cost more.^[20]
• The IQ network (Integration durch Qualifizierung): counselling centres across Germany that support people through recognition, free of charge.^[21]

Where to check

• Anerkennung in Deutschland — the official recognition portal
• Recognition Finder
• How do I get recognition?
• Working and Living in Germany hotline
• ZAB: Statement of Comparability and its fees
• ZAB: Statement on a Foreign Vocational Qualification
• anabin database (in German)
• IHK FOSA
• IQ network recognition counselling
• Recognition partnerships — Make it in Germany
• Federal Employment Agency: professional qualifications

This guide is about Germany. Austria and Switzerland work differently — sometimes very differently. See working in Austria and working in Switzerland.

Figures on this page were checked on 23 September 2026 against the sources below. Fees and processing times change; confirm them with the responsible authority.