Recognition of a foreign diploma in Montenegro: the ENIC centre, the fee and the deadline

Recognition of a foreign educational document for employment purposes is handled by the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation through its ENIC centre. The deadline for a decision is 30 days from filing, the administrative fee is 100 euros, and the resulting decision goes into the file for the temporary residence and work permit, except for unskilled posts.

Who decides, and under what procedure

The ENIC centre is the national information centre for the recognition of qualifications and sits inside the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation. The procedure runs under the Law on the Recognition of Foreign Educational Documents and the Equivalence of Qualifications. The request is filed with the Ministry directly or through the eUprava portal, where the service is listed separately.

The law separates two purposes. Recognition for employment establishes the level of the qualification and its value on the labour market, and the Ministry decides it. Recognition for continued study is decided by the institution the candidate is enrolling in. An employer needs the first, and it is the only form worth requesting when a permit file is being prepared.

The request carries the original educational document or a certified copy, the diploma supplement or transcript where one exists, proof of identity and proof that the fee has been paid. Documents from the country of origin normally require an apostille and a certified translation into Montenegrin by a sworn court translator. A translation done by anyone else is the most common reason a file is returned for completion, and a request for completion stops the clock.

The deadline, the fee and the payment account

The 30 day period runs from a complete request. A file missing a translation, an apostille or a diploma supplement does not start that period. It produces a call for completion instead, so employers counting a month from the day they posted the documents receive the decision later than planned.

The fee of 100 euros is charged per request, and every worker is a separate request. A group of twenty welders from the same corridor means twenty requests and twenty payments, because the decision is issued for one specific document belonging to one specific person. In group hiring this is a line that belongs in the budget next to the permit fees, not an afterthought.

When the procedure is not needed

The law exempts two groups of documents, and that saves both time and money. The first covers documents obtained in the former republics of the SFRY before the date those states were internationally recognised. The second covers documents obtained in Serbia before 25 January 2008. Such documents are not subject to the recognition procedure and have the same effect in Montenegro as domestic ones, so they are filed directly.

A third case is not an exemption in the law but one in the nature of the job. According to the guide published on the biznis.gov.me portal, the recognition decision forms part of the file for the temporary residence and work permit, except where the worker is employed in unskilled posts. For auxiliary work in construction, tourism or agriculture, proof of the level of education obtained is enough, with no ENIC centre procedure.

The line between skilled and unskilled work is drawn by the job description in the contract and in the permit application, not by what the worker actually knows. An employer who names an occupation that requires a qualification and then attaches only the diploma, without the recognition decision, receives a call for completion from the Ministry of the Interior. At that point the recognition procedure has not even started, and its 30 days land on top of the permit timeline.

Regulated professions are a separate layer. In healthcare, education, construction and other fields where a specific law requires a licence or authorisation, the ENIC decision establishes the level of the qualification, while the right to practise the profession is granted by the competent chamber or authority in that field. The two procedures run separately and one does not substitute for the other.

The practical sequence for an employer looks like this. Documents are collected and translated while the worker is still in the country of origin, the ENIC request goes in before the permit application, and the start date is planned at least six weeks after the first filing. Permit fees and the rest of the budget are set out in the review of the cost of hiring a foreign worker, the procedure itself in the guide to the temporary residence and work permit, and the duties that follow issue in the post on employer obligations. Which of these steps we run on the employer's behalf is set out on the employers page.