Recognition of foreign professional qualifications - Public servants - career field scientific services

The exercise of sovereign powers and the performance of governmental tasks in Germany are predominantly carried out by persons who are employed as civil servants in a special public-law service and loyalty relationship.

The following career paths are possible in the career field of academic services:
  1. Academic Councillors (second entry level),
  2. Library Service,
  3. Museum service,
  4. Conservators, and
  5. Scientific service at the police headquarters in Berlin.

In the state of Berlin, the hiring of a civil servant is bound by law to the possession of certain professional qualifications. If you have acquired professional qualifications abroad that enable you to work in the public service there, you must have these qualifications recognized in Berlin (as a career qualification) in order to be hired in the state of Berlin in a civil service position corresponding to your previous profession. For this purpose, the equivalence of your professional qualification with a career qualification in the state of Berlin must be determined.

Procedure:
1. You submit an application for recognition of your professional qualification as a career qualification for the career field of scientific services; for one of the above-mentioned career branches of the State of Berlin to the Senate Department responsible for science as the competent authority or to the Single Point of Contact. You will receive a confirmation of receipt.
2. The competent authority will determine whether your qualification can be assigned to the qualification for the running specialty and to a career segment of the career paths of the State of Berlin.
3. If the qualification can be assigned, the competent authority compares the preliminary and training requirements of the career qualification with your qualification certificates. If the authority determines a qualification deficit, it must be checked whether this can be compensated. In doing so, it must be checked whether the knowledge, skills and competencies acquired following the acquisition of the qualification as part of your previous professional experience or through lifelong learning, which have been formally recognized as valid for this purpose by a relevant body, can compensate for the deficit in whole or in part.
4. In the case of a qualification deficit that cannot be compensated, recognition is dependent on passing an aptitude test or successfully completing an adaptation course.
5. The decision on the application shall be made in writing. Successful completion of the recognition process results in qualification for the career branch and the respective career segment. It is possible that the career qualification is only recognized for certain tasks or offices (partial access).
6. If the requirements for recognition of the qualification are not met, you will receive a decision against which you have legal remedies in accordance with the Administrative Court Code (objection procedure, action procedure if necessary).
7. Recognition for a career branch of the Berlin state civil service is not associated with the placement of a position; you can apply for advertised positions.

For further information, please contact the relevant office.

Prerequisites

  • Age
    At the time of employment or takeover, you should not yet have reached the age of 45. This age limit is postponed for periods of actual childcare up to one year for each child under 18 years of age and for periods of actual care of close relatives in need of care according to a medical certificate (parents, parents-in-law, spouses, registered partners, siblings or children) up to one year for each close relative, up to a maximum of three years in total.
  • Nationality
    You have the nationality
    • of a member state of the European Union,
    • of a state party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area,
    • of a third country to which the Federal Republic of Germany and the European Union have granted a corresponding entitlement to recognition of professional qualifications by treaty.
  • Qualification
    You offer the guarantee of standing up at all times for the free democratic basic order within the meaning of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. You are not unsuitable for public servant status due to professional misconduct, criminal offences or comparable weighty reasons.

Documents required

  • Application
    (under "Online processing")
    In the application, you must indicate which public service activity you are seeking.
  • Curriculum vitae
    Curriculum vitae with a tabular presentation of the professional career
  • Proof of nationality
    Proof of nationality of the member state or of a contracting state
  • Proof of qualifications
    Proof of qualifications, e.g. training certificates, diplomas, certificates of graduation
  • Proof of good conduct
    Certificates or documents from the home country or country of qualification stating that no criminal offences, serious professional misconduct or other circumstances calling the suitability into question are known; the certificates or documents may not be presented more than three months after their date of issue.
  • Certificate of authorisation to practise the profession
    Certificate from the home country or country of qualification stating which professional practice the professional qualification entitles the holder
  • Declaration on previous professional recognition procedures
    Declaration as to whether and with which body within the Federal Republic of Germany recognition has already been applied for, and, if applicable, the decision issued in this regard.
  • Place of residence details
    For statistical purposes, the information on the place of residence is required.
  • If necessary, proof of exercised activities
    Certificates on the nature and duration of activities in the field of the qualification carried out in a member state after the acquisition of the qualification
  • If necessary, proof of competences acquired through lifelong learning
    certificates, if applicable, issued by a relevant body, on, knowledge, skills and competences acquired through lifelong learning
  • More documents
    The competent authority may request you to submit further information on the content and duration of the completed training and on other professional qualifications in the form of study regulations, examination regulations, course books or in any other appropriate manner within a reasonable period of time, insofar as this is necessary to establish equivalence.

Fees

EUR 5.00 to EUR 5,000.00, per effort

Legal basis

Average time to process request

The competent authority shall acknowledge receipt of the documents within one month and inform you of any missing documents. The one-month period begins at the time the application is received by the competent authority or the single point of contact. The decision on the application will be communicated in writing within four months of the submission of the complete documentation.

Diese Dienstleistung können Sie auch online über das des Einheitlichen Ansprechpartners erhalten.

Gewerbeservice online Einheitlicher Ansprechpartner Berlin

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