This guide is designed for those wishing to practice a regulated profession in Hungary by using their certificates or degrees obtained in one of the Member States of the European Economic Area (EEA) ^[1] or Switzerland and are citizens of one of the Member States or Switzerland. The information presented here also concerns those who gained right in one of the Member States or in Switzerland by the recognition of their qualifications to practice a regulated profession there, and have actually practiced their profession for at least three years in one of these countries.

 

Regulated profession is a profession the pursuit of which is subject to the possession of a qualification testified by a certain certificate or degree in the given country, in this case, in Hungary. Each Member State determines which professions are to be considered regulated professions in their country. The list of regulated professions in Hungary can be found on our website (www.professionalrecognition.hu).

 

In case you are still unable to determine whether the profession you wish to practice is regulated in Hungary you can ask for information at the Hungarian Equivalence and Information Centre (HEIC) (Oktatási Hivatal, Magyar Ekvivalencia és Információs Központ, H-1054 Budapest, Báthory u. 10. Phone: (+36-1) 331-7331, Fax: (+36-1) 332-1932, e-mail: meik@okm.gov.hu) which operates as the national information centre.

 

If your profession is not regulated in Hungary then it is not necessary to have your certificate or degree recognised by the Hungarian authorities. Nevertheless, the employers may request the recognition of the certificate or degree by a Hungarian authority. The recognition of higher education degrees and higher education qualifications may be requested from HEIC, while the recognition of basic, secondary or higher level professional qualifications may be requested from the Ministry that was authorized by a decree also determining necessary professional and examination requirements for that qualification. (Also see on our website our Information bulletin on the recognition of higher education degrees and on the recognition of professional qualifications obtained abroad.)

 

In case you wish to practice a regulated profession, it is essential that you have your degree recognised by the competent Hungarian authority in order to have the right to practice that regulated profession in Hungary. In the case of each regulated profession you should gain information as to which Hungarian authority is competent to conduct the recognition procedure. (The names of these authorities and their addresses can be found on our website in the list of regulated professions.)

 

The European Union regulates the recognition of regulated professions by directives in order to facilitate the free movement of persons wishing to pursue professional activities. The principles of the directives apply to all Member States.

 

As far as their legislation is concerned we must distinguish between two main categories within the regulated professions.

 

1. The first category contains only the following seven professions: doctor, dentist, pharmacist, nurse, midwife, veterinary surgeon and architect. Their recognition is governed by the Sectoral Directives of the European Union. These directives ensure automatic recognition since the qualification requirements leading to these professional qualifications were harmonised by all Member States. Consequently, during the recognition procedure the competent authorities do not examine the training leading to these qualifications but they only examine whether the applicant has fulfilled all the requirements necessary to practice that profession in the home Member State. The automatic recognition of a foreign certificate or degree as a Hungarian certificate or degree does not mean that the practice of the profession may not have other conditions. (Such conditions can be the possession of a certificate of good character and repute or a certificate of good health.)

 

The recognition of the above mentioned seven professions are done by the following authorities:

These authorities give detailed information concerning the recognition procedure.

 

2. The second category consists of regulated professions which do not belong to the seven professions regulated by the sectoral directives their recognition is done in accordance with the general system. The general system is based on Council Directive 89/48/EEC and Council Directive 92/51/EEC.

 

The basic rule of the general system is that the citizen of a Member State, who is entitled to practice a given profession in one of the Member States, he/she should be entitled to practice this in another Member State too. This means that if you have the appropriate qualifications in a Member State to pursue a certain professional activity then you must be regarded as qualified to practice the same profession in another Member State too.

 

Recognition under the general system is based on the principle of mutual trust among Member States. The training leading to the various professional qualifications has not been harmonized by the Member States, therefore, the general system does not make the automatic recognition of qualifications possible.

 

The recognition of foreign professional qualifications under the general system belongs to HEIC's sphere of competence.

The exceptions are those healthcare related professional qualifications in which cases the National Training Registry assigns the Ministry of Health as responsible ministry for determining training and examination requirements. In these cases the responsible recognising authority is the Office of Health Authorisation and Administrative Procedures (Egészségügyi Engedélyezési és Közigazgatási Hivatal, H-1051 Budapest, Zrínyi u. 3., Phone: (+36-1) 235-7922, 235-7927 Fax: (+36-1) 269-3794, website: www.eekh.hu)

At all times the request for recognition must be handed in to the authority responsible for that given profession. The authority shall pass judgement on individual basis in each case. In the request it must be clearly stated to which regulated Hungarian profession you wish to gain right to practice. The regulated profession you wish to practice in Hungary must accord with the profession you have the right to practice in your home Member State. If you wish to practice more than one profession in Hungary, you must hand in separate requests for recognition in the case of each profession, prior to which you should make sure as to which authority is in charge of which profession.

 

During the recognition procedure based on the handed in documents the authority, on the one hand, examines the practice of which professional activity the degree entitles its holder in the home Member State. On the other hand, it compares the theoretical and practical training leading to the qualification with the Hungarian training and may bring one of the following decisions:

According to the regulations in force the present fee for the recognition procedure of regulated professions is 49 125 HUF, and the decision is passed within 90 days.

 

When calculating the deadline of the actual procedure the time period elapsing between the request for additional documents and the date when these are received does not count towards it.

 

The competent authority can give detailed information concerning the recognition procedure of the professional qualification in question.

 

---

^[1] Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom