The applicants willing to have their foreign credentials recognised must bear the costs of the recognition procedure. They must meet the costs for an application, translations, certified copies, and if necessary for a qualification analysis, as well as an additional training.
Since it is often not easy for migrants with foreign professional qualifications to bear such costs, there are now several ways to secure financial assistance. The paper “Recognition of Professional Qualifications Obtained Abroad for the Dual or Further Training System in North Rhine-Westphalia: The Cost Factor” [German] issued by the West German Chamber of Trade Association provides information on available funding options.
Key funding options:
- Employment agencies and job centers can assume the costs of the recognition process.
- The project “Prototyping Transfer – Professional Recognition through a Qualification Analysis” offers funding of qualification analyses in case the costs cannot be borne by the applicants themselves or the employment agencies.
- Those who are granted only partial equivalence and would like to complete additional training in order to obtain full equivalence can apply for the financial assistance of the IQ-Network.