Your Italian degree in Spain: homologación or EU recognition?

An Italian doctor who wants to practise in Madrid does not homologate the degree. Neither does an architect, a nurse or a vet. That comes from Royal Decree 889/2022, the rule that governs homologación in the first place: article 3.4 carves out the cases covered by EU law and sends them to Royal Decree 581/2017.

Picking the wrong door costs months. A homologación file has a statutory deadline of six months. EU recognition of a professional qualification is decided in three.

Three procedures with confusingly similar names

Most of the noise comes from mixing up three things that answer different questions.

Recognition of professional qualifications. The EU route. It lets you practise a regulated profession in Spain with a degree earned in another member state. It rests on Directive 2005/36/EC, amended by Directive 2013/55/EU and brought into Spanish law by Royal Decree 581/2017.

Homologación. Article 2.b) of Royal Decree 889/2022 defines it as official recognition that the training behind a foreign degree matches the training required for a Spanish degree that opens a regulated profession. It is the door for degrees outside the EU system.

Declaración de equivalencia. Article 2.c) limits it to the academic level of Grado, Máster or doctorate, with a phrase that settles many cases: professional effects are excluded.

Regulated profession, Italian degree: recognition

Seven professions get automatic recognition across the Union because their minimum training is harmonised: doctor, general care nurse, midwife, dentist, pharmacist, architect and vet. An Italian medical graduate files the certificates and waits for authorisation. Nobody reopens the syllabus.

The clock is set by article 51 of the Directive. The authority acknowledges receipt within one month and decides within three. For professions that go through the general system, the ones outside the harmonised list, that deadline stretches by one more month. Under the general system the administration can compare training paths and, where it finds substantial differences, impose a compensation measure: an aptitude test or an adaptation period.

The competent authority changes with the profession. Health professions go to the Ministry of Health, which runs its own application system, RETUEX, and a dedicated mailbox for these files. Everything else goes to the ministry for the sector, with the General Secretariat for Universities at the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities acting as national coordinator.

There is also the European Professional Card, an electronic procedure that currently covers five professions: general care nurse, pharmacist, physiotherapist, mountain guide and real estate agent.

Once the qualification is recognised, one step remains that nobody in Spain skips: registration with the relevant colegio profesional, the professional body.

Homologación still exists, for other cases

Royal Decree 889/2022 keeps a closed list of degrees that can be homologated, in three blocks.

Health: dentist, dietitian-nutritionist, nurse, pharmacist, physiotherapist, speech therapist, doctor, optician-optometrist, podiatrist, general health psychologist, occupational therapist and vet. Technical: architect, technical architect and the engineering degrees, full and technical. Social: early years teacher, primary teacher, and secondary and vocational education teacher.

Abogado and procurador de los tribunales are expressly left out of homologación. They have their own route, and for an Italian it is the most interesting one here.

The numbers: applications are filed electronically only, through the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities portal Valida-TE; fee 790, code 107, is 166.50 euros; and article 18.3 requires a decision to be issued and served within six months from the day the application enters the electronic register. Past six months with no notification, silence counts as refusal. The file is handled by the National Office for Recognition of Professional Qualifications, at Paseo de la Castellana 162 in Madrid.

Equivalencia is for public competitions and further study

This is the route for people who will not practise a regulated profession: someone sitting a Spanish public competition, enrolling in a Spanish master's, or proving a level of study to a private employer.

For equivalence at Grado level, the Italian degree has to be official in Italy, cover at least three years of full-time study or 180 ECTS credits, and give access to master's programmes. For equivalence at Máster level, one year full time or 60 ECTS credits, plus access to doctoral study. Doctorates skip the ministry entirely: Spanish universities recognise them directly.

The fee is the same 166.50 euros, and the certificate carries academic and administrative effects across Spain from the day it is granted. Professional effects, none.

Paperwork: no apostille, yes translation

Italy has an advantage here. The general rule requires original documents to be legalised through diplomatic channels or with a Hague Convention apostille, but the ministry states in writing that the requirement does not apply to documents issued by the authorities of EU member states, signatories of the European Economic Area Agreement and Switzerland.

A degree issued by an Italian university needs no apostille. It does need an official Spanish translation where applicable.

The other document that saves work is the Diploma Supplement. It sets out the length of the programme, the subjects and the hours or credits, which is exactly what the Spanish administration asks for in the academic transcript.

The Italian lawyer has a separate door

Royal Decree 936/2001 implements Directive 98/5/EC and governs permanent practice of law in Spain under a professional title obtained in another member state. An Italian avvocato registers with the Colegio de Abogados where their main professional address sits, filing the certificate of registration from the Italian bar, issued within the previous three months.

The colegio board has two months to decide. If it does not, registration is treated as admitted. Practising under the home title, the registered lawyer carries out the same activities as a Spanish colleague and can advise on Italian law, EU law, international law and Spanish law.

After three years of effective and regular practice in Spanish law, they can apply for full admission as abogado, with no aptitude test and no separate recognition of the title. The colegio decides within three months and can call an interview if the documented activity looks thin.

School and vocational qualifications go to a different ministry

Non-university qualifications (ESO, bachillerato, vocational training, artistic and sports studies) are not handled by the Ministry of Science. They go to the Academic Regulation unit at the Ministry of Education, Vocational Training and Sport, which runs its own electronic procedure.

The other direction: a Spanish degree in Italy

The picture is symmetrical. For academic recognition of a foreign degree in Italy, the information point is CIMEA, the Italian ENIC-NARIC centre. To practise a regulated profession, the application goes to the ministry responsible for that sector, under the same Directives 2005/36/EC and 2013/55/EU. For the legal profession, the counterpart is the Ministry of Justice.

If you have any doubts, Riondato & Partners is here to help

We have spent over 45 years working between Italy and Spain, on files where a qualification is valid in one country and has to be made to count in the other, with two administrations that do not talk to each other. If you are deciding which door to use, write to us: we go through the procedure that fits your qualification before you pay the wrong fee.

Sources

• Royal Decree 889/2022 on homologación, equivalence and validation of foreign university studies, BOE
• Homologación of foreign higher education degrees, Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities
• Declaration of equivalence of foreign higher education degrees, Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities
• Legalisation of documents and the EU exemption, Valida-TE portal
• Royal Decree 581/2017 on recognition of professional qualifications, BOE
• Recognition of professional qualifications, Your Europe
• Royal Decree 936/2001 on permanent practice of law in Spain under a title from another member state, BOE