Diploma assesment in Germany - ZAB Guide #1: Steps & Preps
Frequent Questions and Answers about diploma assessment and recognition in Germany
This article is the first in a row of articles about the evaluation of degrees at ZAB for the purpose of work or study in Germany
Working as a migration specialist I have gone through this process from A to Z many times. In order to explain everything without overloading your brain, I have split the whole topic into several articles. This is the first article, here you will learn why (and IF) you need to have your diploma evaluated by the ZAB, as well as basic terminology and all the process steps. If any questions remain or occur, feel free to leave a comment. No registration is required.
Why one needs a diploma assesment at ZAB
If you are going to Germany to study or work as a graduated professional (this includes the Blue Card), you must submit your university degree as part of your application for a national entry visa. Two statements from the Anabin data bank are a guarantee that your diploma corresponds to the German education system. These statements are called Institution and Abschluss (Degree). A degree assessment in the ZAB is needed if your degree is not available in Anabin or if your university is not recognized in Germany ( Anabin status H+ or H+/-).
Sometimes instead of a degree assessment, one needs to do a degree recognition. Here we are talking about degree assessment at ZAB. Because it is very rare for IT professionals to need diploma recognition. This article shows the difference between diploma recognition and diploma assessment..
Stages and steps
The following steps will be required for the assessment at ZAB:
- prepare the necessary documents;
- fill in the ZAB application form;
- send the documents to ZAB Bonn;
- receive ZAB confirmation and pay the fee;
- forward the ready assessment document (Zeugnisbewertung).
Stages and steps in a little more detail
Prepare the necessary documents
Read this article.
Fill in the ZAB application form
Read this article. The registration number is crucial for contacting the ZAB. When paying fees, sending missing documents (if requested) and any other contact with the ZAB, your registration number must be always provided. ZAB is very sensitive about this, explaining this requirement by its overload - thousands of clients and diplomas under consideration.
Send the documents to ZAB Bonn
If the "regular" postal service in your country seem to be slow and unreliable,
it is recommended to send package of documents to Bonn by courier service,
such as DHL.
Recipient's address:
Zentralstelle für ausländisches Bildungswesen
Graurheindorfer Straße 157
53117 Bonn
Germany
Receive ZAB confirmation, pay the fee
After some time, usually a few days, depending on ZAB's ZAB's workload, you will receive an e-mail to the e-mail address specified in the application form:
Dear John Smith,
We hereby confirm that you have submitted all the documents required to apply for a comparability statement with registration number L2023/123456.
The normal time limit for processing an application is three months. Applications required for a Blue Card visa are processed within two weeks and applications under section 81a of the Skilled Immigration Act are processed within two months.
If some of the required documents were not submitted with the application but at a later date, the processing time will increase accordingly.
We will mail your comparability application to you as soon as it is ready. You will receive an email notification that your statement of comparability has been mailed.
Sincerely,
Central Overseas Education Board (ZAB)
You will also receive a payment slip (Gebührenbescheid) with information on how much to pay and to which account. Payment is only accepted in the form of a standard bank transfer.
After payment, after some time, usually 3-7 working days, you will receive another confirmation e-mail that payment has been received, starting the evaluation process. Now all you have to do is wait.
Timings
Getting ready documents from ZAB
The finished assessment document (Zeugnisbewertung) will arrive by email, then by "paper mail".
IMPORTANT: After the assessment, ZAB will send the finished documents by regular mail (not by courier!). This means for you the risk of a very long wait, or non-delivery (in very rare cases). Therefore, if you are outside the European Commonwealth, I recommend you to have a reliable person in Germany and to indicate the German address of this person when filling in the application form.
If you choose the "authorized person in Germany" option, this person, while waiting for the documents from the ZAB, could well help you with translating other documents into German, e.g. diploma, marriage and/or birth certificates of your children. The translations should, of course, be done by professional translators. Why it is better to translate documents in Germany and how to do it is described in this article.
27.02.24 ©️ Yarve (Jaroslav Plotnikov) All articles