Halleluiah! I’m “homologated”

As you can tell from the “halleluiah” title of this post, I’m pretty happy.  Why?  The answer’s simple, really.  You see, my university degree from the USA has recently been officially recognized by the Spanish Ministry of Education.  In case you didn’t know, the process of getting a university degree recognized here in Spain is known as homologación (hence the title: “I’m homologated”) and it’s both a very lengthy and a very time-consuming ordeal.

Let me give you the rundown on the whole “homologation process” (does anybody know if “homologation” is really a word in English??).  To have your degree “homologated” (another possibly made up word in English), the ministry you need to talk to is the Ministry of Education; which, incidentally, has changed its name about three times in the past year.  But this post isn’t about the various name-changes that the Ministry of Education has undergone recently, it’s about degree recognition — so let’s get back on track. You can find information about the recognition of foreign studies on the Ministry of Education’s website.

Basically, there are two types of university degree recognitions in Spain.  The first type is what they call Homologación a un Grado Académico Español. This first type gives you a piece of paper saying that your degree is similar in difficulty and duration to a Spanish Diplomado or Licenciado degree.  Thus, it does what its name suggests: it aligns your degree to a specific academic grade or level but it doesn’t align your degree to a specific academic major.  The second type aligns your degree perfectly to a Spanish degree from the Official Spanish Catalog of Degrees.  With this type of homologation, not only do you have your level of studies recognized but also your major.  In both cases you have to submit legalized copies of your university degrees and transcripts, along with sworn translations.  Continue reading this post…