Getting your qualifications recognised abroad
Regulated professions, credential assessments, licensing exams and bridging courses. How to get your degree and professional licence accepted in a new country.
One of the hardest parts of moving abroad is discovering that your qualifications do not automatically count. Nurses, doctors, engineers, electricians, teachers, lawyers and accountants often need formal recognition before they can work in their profession. The process can take months, so start before you move whenever you can.
Regulated and unregulated professions
- Regulated professions require a licence or registration by law. Medicine, nursing, pharmacy, teaching in public schools, law, many trades (electrician, plumber, gas fitter) and sometimes engineering and accounting. You cannot work in these roles until you are registered.
- Unregulated professions do not require a licence. Software development, marketing, design and most business roles fall here. Employers decide whether your degree is enough, although a formal comparison can help.
Your first step is always to find out whether your job is regulated in your destination country, and by whom. The regulator is often at state or provincial level, not national.
Credential assessments
Many countries have official bodies that compare foreign degrees with local ones:
- Canada: Educational Credential Assessments from WES, ICAS, CES and others, required for Express Entry
- United Kingdom: UK ENIC provides statements of comparability
- Germany:
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