The articles written by the PÚBLICO Brasil team are written in the variant of the Portuguese language used in Brazil.
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The number of Brazilians with higher education who want to work or take specialization courses in Portugal has skyrocketed. Around 3,500 Brazilians form the largest group of foreigners who already have a diploma enrolled in Portuguese higher education, according to data from the Migration Observatory. In total, the number of Brazilians enrolled in higher education reaches 19 thousand.
Compared to last year, the number of Brazilians with a visa to look for work in Portugal reached 7,200, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which represents an increase of 20% compared to the same period of the previous year. And Portugal is the main dream destination for around 80% of Brazilian students, according to a survey by SEMESP Institute.
For those who want to have the possibility of working in the area in which they graduated in Brazil, it is necessary to pay close attention to the existing rules. The fundamental step is the recognition of the diploma, essential for studying or working in regulated areas, such as medicine, engineering, law.
Types of Diploma Recognition
For those arriving, it is important to know that not all diplomas are equal. Even though graduates in Brazil have the same title, the recognition of the academic degree may depend on the university or college where the course was taken.
According to General Directorate of Higher Education (DGES)there are three different types of diploma recognition in Portugal: automatic, level and specific.
Life becomes easier for those who have a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree or doctorate from a Brazilian institution with a CAPES score of 5, 6 or 7. It is not a Portuguese institution that assesses the quality of colleges or universities in Brazil, but the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel itself, a Brazilian government body. Anyone who comes from an institution with these grades has automatic recognition of their diploma.
Those who did not have automatic recognition may have level recognition, which means that the diploma is equivalent to a certain degree of Portuguese education — bachelor’s degree, master’s degree or doctorate —, but without indicating the name of the completed course.
A third situation is specific recognition. It is considered that the person has formally completed a foreign course, but it is necessary to compare the study plan and workload (credits) with that of a Portuguese institution. This is a much more complex and detailed process, which requires in-depth analysis by a Portuguese higher education institution.
Required Documents
Before starting the process, check that you have all the necessary documents. If they are in another language, they may have to be translated — most institutions accept them if they are in English, French or Spanish.
To be considered valid, they must be apostilled. This means that they will receive an international certification that gives legal validity to documents abroad.
The required list includes the original diploma; the academic record — with subjects, grades and workload; the study plan, with a description of the subject contents, including bibliography; the university’s statement on the grading scale (in Brazil grades go from zero to ten, while in Portugal they go from zero to 20), with the minimum passing grade and the performance coefficient; a copy of the passport and CV, which summarizes professional and academic experience. Even if not requested, using the CV from the Lattes Platform can facilitate the process.
It is also necessary to attach proof of payment of fees. These may vary from university to university and depending on the type of recognition that applies in each case.
Costs, on average, can vary from 40 euros (R$ 240.00) to 150 euros (R$ 600.00) for automatic recognition; from 450 euros (R$ 2,600.00) to 650 euros (R$ 3,800.00) for level recognition; and from 550 euros (R$ 3,300.00) to 1500 euros (R$ 9,000.00) for the specific one.
These values do not include sworn translation or apostille. It is only what will be paid to the university that will carry out the process.
Choice of University
If you want to pay less and have a faster process, it is important to choose the university where the recognition request is made carefully. Only public universities and the Portuguese Catholic University can recognize diplomas.
Compare the study plan with that of the course at the Portuguese university where you intend to carry out the process. The more similar, the easier and faster it will be to have the possibility of studying or working in Portugal.
In addition to the syllabus, it is important to check whether the course workload is similar, including the number of hours of theoretical and practical subjects. It is important that the workload is not less than 80% of what students in Portugal must complete. The more similar it is, the lower the chance of you being forced to take subjects in order to have a valid diploma in Portugal.
Care when requesting recognition
Before starting the process, it is important to know which way to go. In the case of professions that are regulated by a professional order — doctors, lawyers, nurses, engineers, psychologists, for example — find out what types of foreign diplomas are recognized by the institution.
Check that you have all documents and that they are apostilled and those in a foreign language are translated, if necessary. Missing just one document can delay the process for months.
The universities’ average response time is 90 working days after payment of the fee and the formation of the academic jury that will evaluate the process. If the process is not done early enough, you could lose the school year.
A journey of challenges and choices
Daiane Melo, born in Cascavel, Paraná, graduated in dentistry in 2013. In 2017, she decided to move to Italy, after her husband Cassiano, who is of Italian descent, had already been in the country for two years. However, from the beginning, she knew that she would need to recognize her diploma to practice her profession in Europe.
“Since Brazil, I knew that I would have to recognize my diploma”, says Daiane. Upon arriving in Italy, she was faced with two options: study a new degree at an Italian university, which would take five years, or take the university exam. Ministry of Health Italian. However, there was a problem: his course in Brazil had 4850 hours, with 150 hours left to reach the minimum of 5000 required to take the exam.
Daiane Melo had to study two years at a Portuguese university to have her diploma recognized
Personal file
Faced with this obstacle, Daiane began researching alternatives and discovered that she could recognize her diploma in Portugal, an apparently less bureaucratic process than in Italy. “That’s when Portugal came into my life, in 2019.” She hired a consultancy.
One of the biggest surprises for those who decide to recognize their diploma in Portugal is the cost involved. The process is long and can be expensive, especially for those who do not have a stable source of income during the study period. In Daiane’s case, she had to study two years of dentistry at Egas Moniz University Institutein Almada. The investment was around 20 thousand euros, just in monthly fees, not counting food, housing and air transport between Italy and Portugal. In total, Daiane estimates that she spent between R$45,000 and R$50,000 (between R$260,000.00 and R$300,000.00) during the process.
“It’s a big investment, and many colleagues give up when they find out how much it costs. I had colleagues who spent less, because they lived with family in Portugal, but, in my case, I had to cover rent and other expenses”, says Daiane. She highlights the importance of solid financial planning for anyone who wants to follow this path.
Not valid throughout Europe
One of the biggest mistakes that many professionals make when seeking diploma recognition in Portugal is believing that, by validating their diploma in the country, they will automatically have the right to practice their profession in any other country in the European Union. Daiane, who now lives in Italy, explains that, even after obtaining her diploma in Portugal, she still needed to go through validation processes to be able to work in the country.
“It’s not automatic. I had to send all my documentation to the Italian Ministry of Health, which took three months to accept my diploma. Furthermore, I had to pass an Italian exam and an interview with the director of the order here”, he reports. She highlights that, although the diploma obtained in Portugal is valid in the European Union, each country has its own regulations and validation process, which may include exams, interviews and even proof of proficiency in the local language.
Daiane reinforces the importance of being adequately informed before starting the recognition process. “I knew from the beginning that recognition in Portugal would not give me the automatic right to work in Italy. The consultancy explained this to me very well. I decided to follow the academic path, as I knew it would be faster than working for three years, another option to have my diploma validated in Italy”, he explains.
She believes that one of the biggest problems for those who want to recognize their diploma in Portugal is the lack of uniform criteria for the process. “Each university has its own rules. I had colleagues who were placed in the fourth year of the course, while others, with the same training, went directly to the final year. There is no regulation and this creates insecurity”, he criticizes.
