Recognition of qualifications, how to validate a diploma in Lithuania?

How to continue working in your profession after forced relocation — we discuss the procedure for recognition of qualifications in Lithuania. Who needs this procedure, and what is a regulated profession? What exemptions exist for refugees when recognizing academic qualifications? How does professional qualification recognition differ from academic recognition? Where can you get advice depending on your specialty?

At the end, I will tell you about the outcome of my court case regarding the refusal of asylum.

Recognition is necessary so that Lithuanian institutions can officially confirm that your diploma and professional experience meet local requirements. This is especially important for those who find themselves in a situation of forced migration.

The procedure consists of academic and professional recognition.

What are regulated professions?

A regulated profession is one for which special requirements are established at the legislative level. In Lithuania, there are a total of 44 such professions.

You can find the list of professions and the institutions they belong to here.

If your profession is not regulated, then everything will be decided directly with the employer through interviews, tests, etc.

What is academic recognition?

Academic recognition is the process of determining whether your educational document corresponds to the documents existing in Lithuania.

What can be recognized?

1. General education;
2. Vocational education;
3. Higher education.

NOT recognized:

• Partial studies;
• Academic degrees.

Where to apply?

The entire procedure is carried out through the electronic platform EPE: https://epe.skvc.lt/

What documents will be needed?

1. Online application on the EPE platform.
2. Diploma or school certificate.
3. Diploma supplement — this is a document that describes the curriculum: subjects, hours, grades, program volume.

For a school certificate, there may also be additional requirements.

4. Previous educational documents — for example, if you are applying for recognition of a master’s degree, you will also need a bachelor’s diploma.
5. Identity document.
6. Document confirming a change of surname or first name, if there was such a change — for example, a marriage certificate.
7. Grounds for submitting the application — academic recognition is carried out by the Centre for Quality Assessment in Higher Education if:

• you are a citizen of an EU Member State, EEA State, or a family member thereof;
• you are a foreigner of Lithuanian descent;
• you are an asylum seeker;
• you have a temporary or permanent residence permit in Lithuania.

In all other cases, you need to contact directly:

• the educational institution (if you want to study),
• the employer (if you want to work),
• the institution responsible for the recognition of the regulated profession (if you want to engage in regulated professional activity).

Submission specifics

• Documents must be high-quality color scans from the originals and uploaded through the EPE system.
• A translation into Lithuanian or English is required if the documents are not in Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish, or English. The translation must be official, attached to a copy of the document, and certified by the translator’s signature and the bureau’s stamp.
• If your documents are not from the EU, EEA, USA, Russia, Belarus, Moldova, or Ukraine, an Apostille may be required.

How long does it take?

1 month, BUT! if additional documents are required, you will have 3 months to correct the deficiencies.

Information for refugees

What to do if you cannot provide a full set of educational documents?

1. Still fill out the application through EPE.
2. Attach at least partial documents.
3. Include an explanation of why you cannot provide the rest.
4. If you have one, attach the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees.

The verification may take about 3 months.

What’s the outcome?

The result of the recognition is an official electronic document signed with an electronic signature. Paper versions are not issued.

What is professional recognition?

For third-country nationals, the procedure is different. Two aspects will be taken into account:

1. the duration of the study course, the subjects studied, i.e. the number of academic credits or hours
2. professional experience

Possible outcomes:

1. The qualification is recognized.
2. A compensatory measure is assigned — if there are minor differences from Lithuanian standards: to take a qualification exam, or to complete a period of professional adaptation.
3. The qualification is not recognized — if the duration of studies is more than one year shorter and covers less than two-thirds of the curriculum required in Lithuania, or if you lack the necessary professional experience.

The review process takes around 3 months, BUT the period will be paused if something is missing.

Professions may also require a fairly high level of Lithuanian language proficiency. The specific level required is determined by the responsible institutions.

Professions that do not require qualification recognition but are only assigned stamp numbers if they meet certain requirements:

1. Nurse assistants
2. Dental assistants
3. Clinical speech therapists
4. Medical physicists
5. Embryologists
6. Art therapists
7. Orthopedic technologists
8. Occupational therapy assistants
9. Physiotherapy assistants
10. Lifestyle medicine specialists

Where to apply?

• To the Health Care Activities Accreditation Service

or to the

• License Registry for Medical and Pharmaceutical Practice (LICREG).

What did the Supreme Administrative Court decide in my case?

I hope that by listening to not only this episode but the entire “Easier Said” podcast, you have found answers to your questions. Throughout its creation, I aimed to collect and share the most useful information covering different aspects of life for refugees and asylum seekers in Lithuania. Today, the production of the podcast is being suspended, as I have been ordered to leave Lithuania.

This was supposed to be the final part of the episode. You may have already read about the reason in the Belsat article. However, on April 30, the Supreme Administrative Court of Lithuania annulled the decision of the Migration Department. The asylum refusal has been overturned, and now the application must be reviewed again.

What exactly was stated in the decision? I will quote the most significant findings (full quotes are available in the episode).

• The potential risk of persecution was not assessed, and the relevant circumstances were mischaracterized in the context of the possibility of granting refugee status.
• The applicant’s political views and the extent of their expression were not properly evaluated, taking into account the situation in Belarus, where protest and dissent are perceived as threats by the regime.
• The practice of identifying protest participants through video footage and facial recognition systems was not taken into account.
• Information about the persecution of students and trade union activists was ignored, even though the applicant had indicated she had been subjected to such persecution.
• Being listed on Interpol or the “extremist” list is not a requirement for politically motivated persecution.
• The evidence must be evaluated as a whole, which was not properly done in this case.
• The decision to require the applicant to voluntarily leave the Republic of Lithuania for Sakartvelo (Georgia), and not for the country of origin, raises doubts as to whether the respondent truly believed that the applicant was not at risk of persecution in her country of origin.

In total, the appeals process took 7.5 months from the initial decision. This situation brings us back to the fifth episode of the podcast, where we talked about how important it is to defend your right to protection all the way to the appellate court.

Overall, “Easier Said” was my attempt to at least partially fill the information gap that refugees and asylum seekers often face. And if even one person found answers or managed to solve a problem thanks to these episodes — then it was all worth it.

If you would like to be a guest on the Easier Said podcast as a guest or have a question, we invite you to anonymously fill out a feedback form: https://forms.office.com/r/R6zVM97JfP

If you would like to participate in the recording, it is possible for those who are in Vilnius, because we record the podcast here. If you are not from Vilnius but want to share your story, we can tell it in the podcast instead of you. In this case, select “Have a question/suggestion or want to share information” in the second question of the form and tell your story in as much detail as possible, so that it helps other refugees or asylum seekers who have faced a similar problem and have not yet solved it.

If you want to contact us but are afraid to use comments, you can send us an e-mail. After that it will be enough to delete your letter from the “Sent” folder.
Our e-mail address is: help@belarus.fm