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The Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) has evaluated the recognition of foreign professional qualifications in 2020. Overall, 5% more foreign vocational qualifications were recognised as fully or partially equivalent in 2020 than in the previous year.

The Federal Statistical Office published the statistics on the Recognition Act for the reference year 2016 this autumn. In 2016, 19.800 applications for recognition of foreign professional qualifications were processed. Only in 3,4 percent of cases, no equivalence could be established between a credential obtained abroad and a corresponding German qualification.

The new guideline of the funding programme Integration through Qualification (IQ) for guidance counsellors provides information on the application possibilities of Section 16d of the Residence Act. Various topics are covered in connection with the recognition procedure, such as qualifications to compensate significant differences to the German reference occupation, visa procedures, funding and necessary documents. In addition, IQ has published a "Handout for Professionals" in German and English.