Moving to Spain for study or residence permit, Russian emigrants often face the need to confirm educational documents. It is widely believed that homologation is a confirmation of a diploma. However, it is not.
Recognition of a Russian diploma of education in Spain
Many people who move to Spain have difficulty confirming their education documents because they are often confused between three different procedures that prove this. Homologation, which means "certification" (from the word homologación), validation, i.e. equating Russian completed subjects with Spanish, and legalization of a diploma, i.e. its legalization.
Understanding the differences between these three procedures is very important, otherwise you can lose time and money. Therefore, it is best to immediately determine which confirmation is needed.
To study, you need the validation of subjects or the full legalization of a diploma, but for work, depending on the employer, only homologation of qualifications may be required. The homologation procedure takes up to a year, and as a result, the person applying for this procedure receives a certificate of degree or qualification.
Specialty homologation
To get a job in Spain, you need to provide an education diploma. Or at least to confirm the availability of qualifications - to conduct a homologation procedure (that’s it - we figured it out above), which will allow us to attest to the specialty assigned in a higher educational institution of Russia.
To homologate a diploma in Spain, you need to apply to their educational department (Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports). In response, you can get both full confirmation of the specialty (in this case, a special signed certificate of conformity is issued), as well as partial, with the recommendation to take additional subjects at a Spanish university.
It may also happen that the applicant will be denied homologation. In this case, it would be advisable to request recognition of higher education without a specific specialty in order to be able to work in related fields.
Item validation
Sometimes the validation of academic subjects is also needed, it is required to pass with partial homologation. That this is a prerequisite for legalization, few also know. Consideration of disciplines may be necessary in case of discrepancy of hours in the Russian and Spanish educational institutions required for mastering the course.
Often they pay attention to this when continuing their studies at a Spanish university. The Ministry of Education proposes to listen to a certain number of hours at the University of Spain, in addition to those already attended, or to pass a new similar discipline, in the absence of full compliance.
So, validation affects individual disciplines, and homologation is a recognition of an existing specialty.
Legalization of a diploma
But the procedure for legalizing a diploma (or its full legalization) already implies confirmation of the full compliance of the Russian diploma with the Spanish educational system.
For this, first of all, it is necessary to request an apostille for a diploma and an insert from the Russian Ministry of Education, and then it must be translated from officially accredited translators in Spain, or at the Spanish consulate.
Copies should be made from the translated documents and given to the educational institution (or to the supervising educational authorities), while showing the original documents. It should be remembered that the documents will not be returned, therefore it is necessary to submit for consideration only copies, but the originals may be needed to confirm the authenticity.