Recognition of education in abroad

Recognizing certificates acquired at secondary education institutions abroad

The recognition of the secondary education completed in another EU members state country of the third country is organized by the district office. The process of recognition is based on the comparison of the content and the range of the completed education of the applicant with the range of the education which is required based on the state educational program in Slovak republic.

The process of the recognition is begins by the day of the submission application of the recognition.

The application contains the name and the surname of the applicant, the permanent address of the applicant, the subject of the application, the name and the address of the recognized secondary school which provided the applicant with the diploma/confirmation of the completed studies.

The attachments of the application are:

- copy of the identity card/passport
- certified copy of the diploma/confirmation of the completed studies (apostil/super-legalization of the document)
- transcript of subjects and exams (transcript of records)
- verification of the authenticity of the signature and stamp of the school on the proof of completed education by the issuing authority competent to verify
- the confirmation of the payment of the administration fee (you cannot pay this fee before your application is submitted if you pay from abroad. For this reason you need to ask for the preparation of the payment. Payment application is part of the application for recognition therefore just fill in the application and send it and the Ministry will prepare the document for you).

All attached documents need to be translated into Slovak language.

The office will examine the application no later than 30 days from the day when the application is submitted. If anything is missing in the application the office will inform the applicant that the recognition procedure is postponed and will ask the applicant to bring/send the missing documents.

The office will decide no later than 2 months from the submission for the application whether:
- it accepts the application and thus will recognize the secondary education of the applicant
- it does not accept the application and thus will not recognize the secondary education of the applicant

The application needs to be sent on the following address:

The application needs to be submitted in Slovak language therefore please do not change the language of the application; just fill it in based on the information in the brackets. Please submit/send the application exactly in the form as you can see it in the next page, do not delete anything.

Please do not forget to send all required documents along with the application otherwise your application might be denied.

Several notes to the application form:

-       Please fill in all necessary information in Latin alphabet

-       In the list of the documents which you are attaching to the application circle only those you are attaching there; from the point number one the applicant from abroad usually send the translation of the original with apostille (option b) or translation of original document with superlegalization (option c) – this depends on the fact whether the country of your origin signed the Convention on Apostille of documents, please check it on the following web page: https://www.hcch.net/en/instruments/conventions/status-table/?cid=41

-       Since you are not in Slovakia you do not have the possibility to pay the administrative fee, you need to apply for the document through which it would be possible for you to pay the administrative fee, the text of the application can be found on the following page; please send this application along with the application for the recognition of yout education

-       Please be careful when filling in the address at which you ask the office to send the recognized document, it is the best to fill in this part with the capital letters

All necessary information might be found also on the web page of the ministry, published here.

Application form can be foind on the bottom of the web site.

Recognizing certificates on the 1st and 2nd education degree acquired at universities abroad

 Documents on education issued by a recognized university or other educational institution in the European Union member state, in a state of the European Area of Higher Education, the Swiss Confederation, or in a non-EU member country (the third country) can be recognized as being equivalent to the documents issued by a university in the Slovak Republic. The process of recognition of foreign documents on education is targeted at assessing the meeting of the conditions specified for issuing the resolution on their recognition. If the conditions are fulfilled, the university shall decide on recognition of the document on education as of document equivalent to the document on education issued in the Slovak Republic.

Documents on education may be submitted at Comenius University in Bratislava (the  address: Department of Study Affairs, Rector’s Office, CU, Šafárikovo nám. 6, P. O. BOX 440, 814 99 Bratislava 1) for recognition for the purposes of continued study, for the purposes of issue of the EU blue card, for the purposes of performing a job non-regulated in the Slovak Republic, and for the purposes of authorization to use academic title and its abbreviation as awarded in accordance with the national legislation of the country in which the document was issued. Comenius University in Bratislava is entitled to decide upon acknowledging the documents on education, on rejecting requests of acknowledging the documents on education or to require a differential examination. 

Please find more information about the process on the web page of Comenius University in Bratislava.