Oktatási Hivatal Hungary: Recognition, Exams and Fees

• Recognition of non-EU higher education health qualifications as Hungarian qualifications, including medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and other degree-level health professions such as nursing, physiotherapy and dietetics.
• Recognition of the level of foreign education (for example, as a bachelor's or master's level), separate from recognition of a professional qualification.
• The Educational Authority does not keep a register of health professionals. Recognised qualifications are reported to the OKFŐ basic register, and practising registration is with the OKFŐ.

• A health degree from a state-recognised, accredited higher education programme in the country where you studied; recognition cannot give you more rights than the diploma gives you in the issuing country.
• Proof of identity and citizenship with an official identity document.
• For non-EU nationals (other than Hungarian citizens and people covered by EU rules), a Hungarian residence permit issued for work or for family reunification, unless you are applying only for further study.
• Exception: where your employer has applied for certain work-purpose permits and you prove it, you can apply, but a decision is only made once you show the permit, and the procedure is stopped if the visa is not submitted within 90 days (extendable by 30 days on request).
• Training that meets the Hungarian training and output requirements; if not, you must be prepared to meet the conditions the authority sets.
• For recognition as a qualification from Hungary's undivided (single-cycle) master's programmes, such as medicine, foreign training of at least five years where the foreign degree is at bachelor's level.
• Certified copies and Hungarian translations of your documents; the OKFŐ requires certified Hungarian translations of non-EU documents in its own procedures, and you should expect the same.

Check your route with the route finder

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   1. Confirm the Educational Authority is responsible

   Check the OKFŐ's allocation table and document finder. Non-EU degree-level health qualifications go to the Educational Authority; EU qualifications, non-EU specialist qualifications and non-EU secondary-level qualifications go to the OKFŐ. Sending your file to the wrong body loses time.
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   2. Sort out your residence status

   Before applying for recognition for work, make sure you hold, or qualify under the exception for, a residence permit issued for work or family reunification. This is a legal precondition under section 6 of Act C of 2001 for non-EU nationals and is one of the most common reasons a file cannot proceed.
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   3. State the purpose and the Hungarian qualification you want

   The law gives you the right to say for what purpose and as which Hungarian qualification you are asking for recognition. For a health career, ask for recognition of your professional qualification (for example, as a doctor or nurse), not only of your education level.
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   4. Submit your documents and pay

   The fee decree sets an administrative fee of 45,000 Ft for recognition of a qualification under chapter V of the Act, plus 32,000 Ft where an expert procedure is used; an appeal costs 15,000 Ft. If your application is incomplete, the authority must ask you to supply what is missing within 20 days of receiving it.
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   5. Expert comparison of your training

   The authority can appoint an expert with at least ten years of teaching or education administration experience, or ask a Hungarian higher education institution for an opinion. It compares the status of your institution, the legal effect of your diploma, quality assurance, learning outcomes, length of study and the study and exam requirements.
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   6. Meet any conditions

   Where there is a substantial difference, the authority can require you to prove practice abroad, complete professional practice, pass a professional exam, take supplementary exams or training at a Hungarian university, take an oath, or, for doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses and advanced practice nurses, complete up to one year of full-time supervised work at an accredited provider. The decision must state the requirements, the examining body and deadlines.
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   7. Work under supervision with the intermediate decision

   The OKFŐ lists completing an adaptation period required for recognition of a foreign qualification as a lawful ground for supervised work, documented with a copy of the decision ordering it, and refers to the Educational Authority's intermediate decision (közbenső határozat) in recognition cases. You report supervised work to the OKFŐ within 15 days of starting, free of charge.
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   8. Final decision and the professional title

   When the conditions are met, the authority recognises the qualification and entitles you to use the corresponding Hungarian professional title; for doctors and dentists, also the university doctor title. It then reports the recognised qualification to the OKFŐ basic register within 30 days, after which you apply to the OKFŐ for practising registration.

• Professional exam (szakmai vizsga)

  Act C of 2001 says a professional exam may only test knowledge that Hungarian qualification requirements or Hungarian training include and that you did not acquire, or cannot be shown to have acquired, abroad. The decision must set out the requirements, the examining body and the deadline, and must take your professional experience and later training into account.

• Supplementary exams or training at a Hungarian university

  Where the difference can be removed by supplementary exams or training at a Hungarian higher education institution, the authority can require them. The institution and content are set in your decision; no single national format is published.

• Supervised practice of up to one year

  Specific to doctors, dentists, pharmacists, nurses and advanced practice nurses: full-time supervised work for one year, or the equivalent part-time, at an accredited health provider or pharmacy, under the Health Act's supervision rules.

• Professional practice

  Can be required only if Hungarian training and output requirements include it as a condition of the diploma. The decision must state its length, the organising institution and the deadline for applying to it.

• The Educational Authority does not use English tests for recognising health degrees, and Hungarian licensing does not accept IELTS or OET.
• We could not reach or find an official Educational Authority page that sets a fixed Hungarian level for recognition of health degrees. Ask the authority directly what your decision will require.
• Language can come into the conditions: for supervised activity that replaces an exam, the law refers to ensuring that you have the professional knowledge and language skills needed to practise in Hungary, and supplementary exams at Hungarian universities follow the university's requirements.
• Separately, the Health Act lets the OKFŐ refuse practising registration where the professional language knowledge required by law is not proven, and gives patients the right to choose a doctor who can communicate with them in Hungarian.

Estimate your total cost

• Completeness check: the authority must ask for missing documents within 20 days.
• Decision: within 75 days of receiving the application for recognition of a higher education qualification, under section 9 of Act C of 2001.
• Conditions: no legal maximum is stated for meeting them beyond the deadlines in your decision; supervised practice for doctors, dentists, pharmacists and nurses can last up to one year full time.
• Reporting to the register: within 30 days of the final decision.
• Then: OKFŐ practising registration within 30 days of a complete application.

1. 1Act C of 2001 on the recognition of foreign certificates and diplomas (consolidated text)
2. 2Government Decree 33/2008 designating recognition authorities (consolidated text)
3. 3EMMI Decree 12/2013 on administrative fees, annex 4 (consolidated text)
4. 4OKFŐ: General information on recognition procedures (allocation table)
5. 5OKFŐ: Steps after recognition
6. 6OKFŐ: Reporting supervised activity
7. 7Act CLIV of 1997 on Health, sections 8 and 112 (consolidated text)