To this day, Germany has a large number of heterogeneous rules for admitting specialists with foreign education to work. The regulatory legislative and by-laws are issued by federal and state authorities, professional associations, individual ministries and departments. This creates great fragmentation and uneven law enforcement in various federal subjects. Most acts regulate the handling of university and institute education, leaving less intensive packages of professional education unattended.
The law I cite is intended to simplify and unify the existing rules for assessing and recognizing foreign professional education. True, the law itself is written on 40 pages of complex legal text, containing numerous references to other legal acts. So it won't be completely simple.
An important innovation was the intensive elaboration in the law of possibilities for recognizing foreign qualifications in working specialties from classical, mass production sectors: hairdressers, locksmiths, construction workers, auto mechanics, refrigeration equipment specialists, and many others. Upon arriving in Germany, foreigners with working professions surprisingly quickly fall into the category of unskilled and poorly trained personnel, which negatively affects their employment history and does not promote integration.
Regulated professions
The federal law divides professions into two categories: regulated and unregulated labor activities. Representatives of a regulated profession – for example, doctors, pharmacists, lawyers, nurses – must obtain a special state permit (for doctors this is an internship). Without it, the applicant does not have the right to work in Germany in the specialty obtained abroad.
The issuance of a permit is associated with a number of conditions and checks regarding the circumstances of additional qualifying measures. State control authorities want to verify the suitability of a foreign applicant for a job to perform a responsible profession and the equivalence of the foreign education obtained to the similar German education. If the control authority identifies gaps in education, it is obliged to offer the applicant specific measures to eliminate them.
Access to some regulated professions (teacher, educator, architect, engineer) is regulated by state legislation. The federal government has announced innovations affecting state acts on the handling of foreign professional education in the direction of simplification and uniformity.
As I already said, an important innovation was the law's elaboration of professional education at various levels, not just higher education diplomas. The competent authorities for processing applications for recognition of foreign education as equivalent to German education remain the state authorities. The discussed creation of a single federal authority for evaluating foreign education did not find majority support.
Unregulated professions
The performance of unregulated professions does not require a special state permit to carry out labor activities. The authority for checking the equivalence of foreign and German professional education can issue a certificate of equivalence for an unregulated profession as well. It can issue a certificate of partial equivalence indicating specific deficits of foreign education compared to the reference German education.
At the same time, the foreign specialist himself decides whether he will undergo additional qualification or will seek a job in his specialty based on the authority's assessment of his incomplete qualification. It is important to know that in the field of higher education, this law affects only regulated professions: doctors, dentists, pharmacists, lawyers. Unregulated professions for persons with higher education do not fall under the new law on establishing professional qualifications.
Specialists in unregulated professions can directly seek a job in the German labor market. To assess the higher education obtained, foreign specialists in unregulated professions can contact the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB, www.anabin.de). Interested foreign specialists can find useful information at www.netzwerk-iq.de. The law obliges local labor agencies to advise foreign specialists who approach them.
Applications for assessing foreign qualifications and recognizing the equivalence of foreign and German professional education can also be submitted by foreign residents. This is important for those contemplating job search in Germany. The response of the authority for assessing and recognizing professional qualifications will help them realistically assess their chances in the German labor market without leaving for Germany.
Fees and disputes
The recognition and assessment procedure may be fee-based, so I recommend inquiring in advance about the procedure for paying the authority fee. German unemployed may apply for compensation of this fee from the labor agency. Foreign residents must bear the costs of the said fee for processing the application themselves.
As a rule, the applicant submits notarized copies of his qualification documents and certificates along with their translations into German to the authority. Sometimes simple, uncertified photocopies are sufficient, sometimes authorities will want to see the original document or certificate. There are also Russian-speaking employees working in the German authority who can accept documents without translation.
No later than three months after receipt of the complete set of documents, the authority is obliged to make a decision on the application. In 2012, the authority is still exempt from the three-month processing period for the application. The verification authority is obliged to make specific proposals for eliminating the identified deficiencies in foreign professional education. The costs of attending advanced training courses are borne by the applicant himself.
Specialists in the list of unregulated professions are not required to prove their qualifications. They can enter the labor market with what they already have and work in their profession without state authorization and without establishing equivalence between foreign and German education.
Disputes with the recognition authority can be resolved in court at the local administrative court. Depending on the circumstances, state payment of court costs may be possible. Court proceedings are lengthy and costly, so before seeking judicial assistance, I recommend weighing all the pros and cons of legal proceedings. Often, for the further career path in Germany, it is better to follow the authority's instructions and fill the identified gaps through additional qualification. Nevertheless, in some cases, seeking judicial assistance may be a sensible way to exercise one's right to a profession.
Thomas PUE,
German lawyer.