Recognition of foreign Professional Qualifications and Degrees

Unlike in the USA, employers in Germany typically ask if an applicant has the formal training or degree for the position being applied for. Those without this "paper" usually have much worse chances.
Some jobs may only be carried out with the required formal Degree.

A) The legal position for people from outside of EU (Third Countries):
On March 31, 2012 the new foreign qualification recognition law took into effect. („Bild-ungsanerkennungsgesetz“)

Anyone with a foreign degree or professional training may have this tested for equivalency with the German equivalent education or training.
And this is the case if he or she is living in Germany or still in a home country.
The new law therefore brings several positive things.
Although there are still about 250 different local administrative offices responsible for equivalency recognition, there is now a database, which significantly facilitates the identifi-cation of the responsible authority.
If the competent authority has been contacted with all the required documentation submit-ted, it must decide within three months.
For people with a university degree, a relatively reliable statement can be made whether or not equivalency exists.
There is a comprehensive database, in which for many third countries- unfortunately cur-rently only in German language- local qualifications are stored and described as to what degree these are comparable to the German standards.
For skilled workers without college degrees such a database is still under construction.

B) The legal position for citizens of the EU and Switzerland:
a) There is a list of 10 professions (e.g. lawyer, pharmacist, nurse, etc.) for which the said States have agreed that the education in all countries is comparable. A formal recognition is not required. ("Listed professions")
However, for people from the new EU countries (Poland, Hungary, Estonia, etc.) this applies only if the degree to be recognized, was earned after the country's accession to the EU. Oth-erwise, you are treated like someone from outside the EU (third party country).
b) For all other professions which are not mentioned in the list, the above-described rules apply to third party countries.