Professional Qualifications Assessment Act

What does the BQFG regulate?

The Act governs the recognition procedure for foreign professional qualifications. Part 2 Chapter 1, §§ 4–8, covers non-regulated professions; Chapter 2, §§ 9–13, covers regulated professions. § 11 governs compensatory measures and expressly names the adaptation course of up to three years and the aptitude test. The decision is to be issued within three months of receipt of the complete documentation. § 14a provides for an accelerated procedure designed primarily for skilled worker immigration.

Why it only indirectly applies to doctors

§ 2 paragraph 1 makes clear that the BQFG yields where professional law provides otherwise. For doctors, that is the Federal Medical Practitioners Act: § 3 paragraph 2 governs training certificates from EU and EEA states; § 3 paragraph 3 governs the equivalence assessment for third-country qualifications. The BQFG provides the framework and the terminology; the actual licence to practise is governed by the specific professional statute. For health care professions without their own specific rule, however, it applies directly.

What does this mean for graduates from EU countries?

Those who have studied medicine in Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Malta, or the Baltic states go through automatic recognition and barely encounter the BQFG. It becomes relevant for qualifications from Serbia or Bosnia and Herzegovina, for non-regulated professions, and for family members wishing to have another qualification recognised in parallel. Austria and Switzerland have their own legislation; the BQFG does not apply there. Alongside the federal act, state-level BQFG legislation exists for professions governed by state law.

Limits of the entitlement

A legal right to the procedure is not a right to a particular outcome. The three-month deadline only begins once all documents are complete, and certified translations and certifications cost money and time. Depending on the profession, competent authorities include chambers, state authorities, or district authorities, so practice and fees vary regionally. The same qualification may therefore be subject to procedures of different lengths in two federal states. Whether a qualification is equivalent is decided by the competent authority following its own assessment; the decision must be reasoned.