To have your qualifications recognised, you must be fully qualified to practise your profession in an EU/EEA country. If you are fully qualified, you may apply to have your professional qualifications recognised in another EU/EEA country. Once your qualifications are formally recognised, you can work in the EU/EEA country you applied to and you have the right to use the professional title authorised in that country. See the list of all regulated professions in Norway
Read more information about special systems:
There is automatic recognition of qualifications for professions that fall under the sectoral system. This means that minimum training requirements have been set for these professions in the various EU/EEA countries. If you have completed the training that permits you to practise your profession in one EU/EEA country, you have fulfilled the requirements to practise the profession in all the others. You will find details of the minimum training requirements for each sectoral profession in the Directive.
The following are classed as sectoral professions:
- Medical doctor
- Dental practitioner
- General nurse
- Midwife
- Pharmacist
- Veterinary surgeon
- Architect **
** Architect is not a regulated profession in Norway, but in many EU countries. The system of recognition for sectoral professions permits architects to be automatically recognised in another EU country, where the profession is regulated. This makes it easier for architects to practise there. Read more about sectoral professions on the European Union website
The general recognition system applies for those professions which are regulated by law, but which are not covered by the sectoral profession system (see above).
The professions in the general system are not adapted across the EU/EEA with regard to minimum education and training requirements.
If you wish to work in a profession regulated under the general system, the country you wish to work in will require you to have certain qualifications; you will not receive automatic recognition.
It is a requirement that you must practise the same profession in your home country as you will practise in Norway. The recognition authority is required to examine your entire professional status. It will look at your professional experience, prior experiental learning and formal education (length and scope) in total, and make an overall assessment on that basis. The recognition authority will at all times be focused on the practice of the particular profession when assessing whether you are qualified.
The recognition authority may require you to undergo an adaptation period at work or take an aptitude test. This is intended to show whether you are qualified to practise the profession where there are significant differences between the professional qualifications required in Norway, and your professional qualifications.
An adaptation period or aptitude test may also be required if your education is at least one year shorter than what is required in Norway. In such cases, the recognition authority is obliged initially to check whether your total qualifications and professional experience can compensate fully or partly for the relevant “competence mismatch”.
In some regulated professions and trades in crafts, industry and commerce your qualifications may be recognised on the basis of professional or vocational experience, if you otherwise fulfil the conditions for professional practice laid down in the Directive.
Contact the relevant recognition authority if you have any questions about this.
Read more about the general system on the European Union website
If you only wish to work temporarily in another EU/EEA country, the rules are more flexible than for professional establishment. In the case of some professions, formal, written advance recognition of your qualifications is required, but for many professions that is not required. The recognition authority may require you to send in information before you commence practising your profession.
You must contact the recognition authority to find out what the requirement is with respect to your profession. You must in any case be lawfully established in one of the other EU/EEA countries in order to come under the temporary work system.
In the case of temporary work, there are various requirements for registering in different registers and/or for work permits, depending on what profession you wish to work in.
See which recognition authority to apply to for recognition of your professional qualifications
* Source: The Rambøll Report Godkjenningsordninger for lovregulerte yrker (Systems of Recognition for Regulated Professions).