Do your foreign qualifications transfer to Israel?
Israel treats your diploma and your licence to practise as two separate questions, answered by two different sets of officials. One is an academic evaluation that says what your foreign degree is worth in Israeli terms. The other is a professional licence, issued by whichever ministry regulates the work you want to do. Clearing the first does not clear the second, and for several professions the licensing body runs its own assessment of the same diploma.
The academic side moved recently. Authority for evaluating the degrees of olim arriving from 1 January 2025 was transferred to the Department for Evaluation of Academic Degrees from Abroad at the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration. Anyone who immigrated before that date, or who filed a pre-aliyah application with the Ministry of Education before it, continues the process with the Ministry of Education.
Step 1: the academic degree evaluation
The Department for Evaluation of Academic Degrees from Abroad compares a foreign degree with the equivalent degrees awarded by recognised Israeli institutions. It covers degrees from institutions abroad and from satellite campuses of foreign institutions operating in Israel under a Council for Higher Education licence. Applications are filed online through the personal area on the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration website, and the service is free of charge for olim.
For a bachelor's degree the Ministry asks for:
- A copy of your ID card, including father's name and both sides of a biometric card
- The degree diploma
- The official transcript, showing academic credit points and the years of study for that degree
- A "certified true copy" stamp on every page, from an Israeli attorney or, free of charge, from an absorption advisor at the Ministry. Bring both originals and copies to that meeting.
A master's application also needs the bachelor's evaluation certificate, or a parallel request to evaluate the bachelor's degree. A doctorate is heavier again: the Ministry describes the process as lengthy, a doctorate holder files three separate requests (one per degree), all doctoral documents must be submitted in English, notarised translations have to follow by post, and under the May 2005 rules an interview before an expert committee is a condition of the evaluation.
If the request is approved, an official evaluation certificate is issued through the online system. It carries a digital signature, it is the original, and it is accepted in the Israeli public sector for ranking and salary purposes. A decision you disagree with can be appealed through an "Appeal" button inside the request in your personal area.
What extra requirements do regulated professions have?
- Medicine: anyone who wants to practise medicine in Israel needs a licence from the Ministry of Health. Graduates who studied abroad submit a licence application by post, with supporting documents, to the Medical Professions Licensure Division; if the application is approved they are sent an invitation to sit the state licensing examination in general medicine. The Ministry runs separate routes for foreign graduates who have not completed an internship and for those who have already worked in the profession. In February 2025 it published regulations cutting the seniority threshold for exemption from the licensing exam from 14 years to 10: a doctor with 10 or more consecutive years of experience in their home country is exempt from the exam, but still has to complete a period of clinical practice.
- Engineering and architecture: registration runs through the Register of Engineers and Architects at the Ministry of Labor. A holder of an overseas diploma brings the original diploma, an official grades transcript signed by the institution, a photocopy of an identity card and, for documents in a foreign language, an original notarised translation into Hebrew or English, and also files an online application. Applications go to the advisory committee to the Registrar. Certificates and institutions the Registrar has recognised before are reviewed without calling the applicant in; an academic track the Registrar does not know goes to a committee that may summon you to present your final project, or, if you have none, to answer planning and engineering questions by drawing sketches during the meeting.
- Teaching: the Ministry of Education requires two separate recognitions. The academic degree goes to the degree evaluation department; the teaching certificate goes to the Teaching Diploma Evaluation Committee in the Division of Internship and Teacher Induction, which compares it to its Israeli counterpart. Those documents must be translated into Hebrew and notarised by an Israeli notary, with translation help available free of charge through the absorption ministry. The Committee recognises a teaching certificate that is recognised in the country where the studies took place; a teacher arriving without an academic degree is referred to complete one, and a teacher whose certificate is not recognised is referred to a college to complete the requirements.
Teaching then adds an internship year before the licence. A new immigrant teacher's first year in a post of at least one-third time counts as the internship year, and it has four components: personal mentoring, a 30-hour peer workshop, a 120-hour Hebrew language course and a summative evaluation. The teaching licence is conditional on all three pieces together: a recognised academic degree, a recognised teaching certificate and a completed internship year. The Hebrew course can be waived for an Israeli matriculation certificate, a Hebrew-studies diploma from a recognised academic institution abroad, confirmation of ulpan at level Dalet, or a pass on the YAEL Hebrew proficiency test.
What the evaluation certificate is actually for
It is worth being precise about what the degree evaluation buys, because the Ministry is precise about it. The comparison to Israeli degrees is made for the purpose of salary ranking, and the certificate is required in two respects: determining the academic salary grade by Israeli standards, especially in government ministries, municipalities and government companies, and access to tenders in the public service. Both are public-sector mechanisms. The Ministry of Education's booklet for immigrant teachers puts it in one line: the department compares foreign degrees with their Israeli counterparts solely for purposes of determining pay grade.
Starting early
The Ministry's own guidance is to open the evaluation application within the first few days of ulpan, so that the documents and authorisations are in hand by the time you start looking for work, and for doctorate holders to file the doctorate request at the same time as the master's request because the doctoral process is a long one. On the licensing side, the Ministry of Labor allows an application in principle for the Register of Engineers and Architects to be filed while you are still in the country of origin, with the original documents produced at the end of the process.
Two pieces of help are free and easy to miss. Absorption advisors at the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration will apply the "certified true copy" stamp to your documents at no cost, instead of paying an Israeli attorney for it, and the absorption ministry provides free translation assistance for the documents a teaching-certificate evaluation needs.
Israel handles a foreign degree and a foreign professional licence separately. The degree is evaluated by the Department for Evaluation of Academic Degrees from Abroad, which moved to the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration for olim arriving from 1 January 2025 (earlier arrivals continue with the Ministry of Education). That evaluation is free, is filed online, needs the diploma, the official transcript with credit points and years of study, and an ID copy with a 'certified true copy' stamp on every page, and it produces a digitally signed certificate whose stated purpose is academic salary ranking in the public sector and access to public-service tenders. A licence to practise is a separate application to the regulating ministry: the Ministry of Health licenses doctors and invites approved foreign graduates to the state licensing examination in general medicine, with an exam exemption since February 2025 for 10 or more consecutive years of experience abroad plus a period of clinical practice; the Ministry of Labor's Register of Engineers and Architects assesses engineering diplomas through an advisory committee and can recognise two years of foreign experience against one year of Israeli specialisation and a licensing test; and the Ministry of Education requires a recognised degree, a recognised teaching certificate and a completed internship year before issuing a teaching licence.
No. The two questions are handled separately and by different bodies. An academic evaluation states what your foreign degree is worth in Israeli terms; a licence to practise is a separate application to the ministry that regulates the profession, and that ministry runs its own assessment. Clearing the academic evaluation does not by itself let you practise a regulated profession.
The Department for Evaluation of Academic Degrees from Abroad. Authority for olim arriving from 1 January 2025 was transferred to that department at the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration; anyone who immigrated before that date, or who filed a pre-aliyah application with the Ministry of Education before it, continues with the Ministry of Education. The department compares the foreign degree with the equivalent degrees awarded by recognised Israeli institutions, and also covers satellite campuses of foreign institutions operating in Israel under a Council for Higher Education licence.
For a bachelor's degree: a copy of your ID card including father's name, the diploma, and the official transcript showing academic credit points and years of study. Every page needs a "certified true copy" stamp from an Israeli attorney, or free of charge from an absorption advisor at the Ministry, and you bring both originals and copies to that meeting. Documents in English, Spanish, French, Russian or Ukrainian do not need translating; other languages must be translated into Hebrew or English. The service itself is free of charge for olim.
The Ministry states two purposes: determining the academic salary grade by Israeli standards, especially in government ministries, municipalities and government companies, and access to tenders in the public service. The certificate is issued through the online system, carries a digital signature, counts as the original, and is accepted in the Israeli public sector for ranking and salary. A decision can be appealed through an "Appeal" button inside the request in your personal area.
Doctors need a licence from the Ministry of Health. Graduates who studied abroad apply by post to the Medical Professions Licensure Division, and approved applicants are invited to sit the state licensing examination in general medicine; separate routes exist for those who have not completed an internship and for those who have worked in the profession. Regulations published in February 2025 cut the seniority threshold for exemption from that exam from 14 years to 10, and an exempt doctor still completes a period of clinical practice. Engineers and architects register with the Register of Engineers and Architects at the Ministry of Labor, bringing the original diploma, a signed official transcript, an ID photocopy and a notarised Hebrew or English translation where needed; the advisory committee to the Registrar reviews the file, and an unfamiliar academic track can mean a committee that asks you to present your final project or to answer planning questions by sketching during the meeting.
Two recognitions and then an internship. The academic degree goes to the degree evaluation department; the teaching certificate goes to the Teaching Diploma Evaluation Committee in the Division of Internship and Teacher Induction, with documents translated into Hebrew and notarised by an Israeli notary (translation help is free through the absorption ministry). The Committee recognises a certificate that is recognised in the country of study; without a degree you are referred to complete one, and without a recognised certificate you are referred to a college. A first teaching post of at least one-third time then counts as the internship year, made up of mentoring, a 30-hour peer workshop, a 120-hour Hebrew course and a summative evaluation. The licence requires all three: recognised degree, recognised teaching certificate, completed internship year.
The Ministry of Aliyah and Integration advises opening the evaluation application within the first few days of ulpan, so documents and authorisations are ready by the time you look for work, and it advises doctorate holders to file the doctorate request together with the master's request because the doctoral process is lengthy. Engineers and architects can go further: the Ministry of Labor allows an application in principle for the Register to be filed while still in the country of origin, with the original documents produced at the end of the process.