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How to Obtain UAE Certificate of

 

Equivalency
Professionals in the UAE are required to equalize their
degrees to obtain certificate of equivalency from the
Ministry of Education
July 1, 2020 by CivilPH

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Professionals working in the UAE are required to secure from the Ministry of
Education (MOE) a certificate of equivalency for their educational degrees earned
outside of UAE. Civil engineers, among other professions, must prove that their
educational qualifications are genuine. The equivalency certificate is also a
mandatory requirement when applying for an engineering card in Abu Dhabi.

MOE’s website enumerates the documents required for the application of the

certificate. However, there are some country-specific requirements that are not
mentioned. The official website of the Philippine Embassy in the UAE lists
the procedure in the application for the certificate of equivalency.

Based on experience, the steps given are not complete as there are additional
documents
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and accounts from other Filipino friends who also managed to get their degrees
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Required Documents Specific to Civil Engineers from Philippines
The following are the documents you need to acquire to complete the process.

1. Diploma and transcript of records authenticated by DFA and attested by the

UAE Embassy in Manila.
2. High school diploma and Form 137 authenticated by DFA and attested by the
UAE Embassy in Manila. If you have graduated from high school 20 or more
years ago, this document this is no longer required.
3. Letter from your high school sent directly to the Philippine Embassy in the UAE
through any international courier (DHL, Fedex, etc.).
4. Letter from your college sent directly to the Philippine Embassy in the UAE
through any international courier (DHL, Fedex, etc.).
5. Civil Engineering certificate from PRC. This does not have to be authenticated
by DFA or the UAE Embassy in the Philippines. You just need to present a copy
to MOE. If you have the original certificate, that would be better.
6. Certificate of Good Standing from PRC. This need not be authenticated and
must be sent directly by PRC to the Philippine Embassy in the UAE.
7. Copy of the page of your passport with the stamp of your first entry to the UAE.

Procedure

A. Prepare Authenticated School Documents

It’s fair to assume that you already have your attested college (or post-graduate)
diploma and transcript of records when you came to the UAE, so that covers Item
1. For the high school documents in Item 2, most of us probably don’t have these
attested. Luckily I did not have to comply with this requirement because I
graduated from high school more than 20 years ago.

If you need to have your high school documents attested but cannot process them
yourself while in the UAE, you can appoint someone in the Philippines who can
take care of this on your behalf. This would require a visit to the Philippine
Embassy in UAE so you could apply for a Special Power of Attorney (SPA)
appointing your friend or relative. A sample template of an SPA is attached which
you can accomplish prior to visiting the embassy. Make sure you enumerate in
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you high school, college, PRC, etc.).
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DHL in the Philippines can facilitate in processing the attestation with DFA and the
UAE Embassy. You can appoint DHL to process your documents via an SPA. The
exact “name of DHL” you write in your SPA should be checked with your local DHL
office in the Philippines. If you are holding the documents with you in the UAE, LBC
Express is offering a similar service. You can check with LBC by calling 800 522111.

B. Send Letters from your School to the Embassy

Your high school and college need to send an official letter to the Philippine
Embassy in the UAE certifying that you have satisfactorily completed all
requirements. The format of the letters is specified in this document from the
embassy’s website. Your school has to write the certification in the exact wordings
as specified in the form.

One of my friends had his letter rejected by the embassy because his school did
not follow the exact wordings. He is currently redoing the process all over again.
For ease, I have prepared a template in Word format which you may fill up with
your relevant details and share with your school if required.

Highschool_Letter.docx (Item 3)

College_Letter.docx (Item 4)

These two letters do not require authentication and should be sent by your school
directly to the Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE, stamped and sealed. Keep a
record of the tracking number for each document sent through international
shipping.

C. Obtain PRC Documents

The civil engineering certificate or board certificate issued by PRC is one of MOE’s
requirements to prove that you are a qualified civil engineer in the Philippines. See
sample of the certificate below (Item 5 in the list).

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 Sample of Board Certificate

According to the MOE reviewer, it is not required to have it authenticated by DFA

or UAE embassy. For my case, I just presented a copy of the certificate and they
scanned it as part of my submission.

For Item 6, you need to request from PRC a Certificate of Good Standing. However,
you can only request this if your PRC registration is valid, i.e. your PRC ID card
should not be expired. Now, this could lead to complications as many OFWs in the
UAE have not had the chance to renew their licenses yet. One controversial issue is
demonstrating you have earned enough CPD credits for the renewal. But that’s a
separate topic on its own.

The certificate of good conduct should be sent by PRC directly to the Philippine
Embassy in the UAE, in a sealed envelope. I initially planned to apply from PRC
main office in Sampaloc but the process there was tedious and they didn’t have the
facility to send the letter directly. So instead, I applied from one of PRC’s regional
offices and it was released on the same day. I was given the choice of selecting my
preferred courier service (DHL or PhilPost) to deliver the certificate to UAE. After
my payment,
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D. Secure a Copy of the First Stamp in your Passport
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Item 7 is easy if you still have your old passport when you first entered UAE. If you
no longer have your original passport, you will need to visit MOE so they can
prepare a letter of endorsement for you, to be presented to airport immigration.

There is a certain criteria when this document is no longer required. It is somehow

related to the year when you enrolled with your degree program. I’ll update this
post once I learn more about the exact criteria.

E. Visit the Philippine Embassy in UAE

You can visit the Philippine Embassy in you have confirmed via tracking number
that all 3 letters (letter from high school, letter from college, and certificate of
good standing) have been received by the embassy.

The authorized embassy personnel will open the letters, inspect them, then
validate whether the MOE-specific formats have been followed. If everything is in
order, they will prepare an endorsement to MOE which you have to pay AED 100
for each letter. The endorsement can be collected after 1 week.

Final Words
The whole process of obtaining the certificate of equivalency could be a daunting
experience. There is also the possibility of discrepancy in the requirements
between one reviewer to the other. If your PRC registration has expired, that
makes things even more difficult.

Hopefully this post can give insight for those who are planning to apply for the
certificate. PICE-UAE Chapter is spearheading workshops with the aim of
educating our fellow Civil Engineers in the process application. If you have
questions or had an experience you’d like to share, please comment down below.

ANNOUNCEMENT: There are companies who might be in need of engineers

registered with Abu Dhabi Municipality to do freelance work on their behalf. If
you are interested, please contact us so your interest can be recorded. If the
opportunity becomes available, we can connect you to these prospective
companies.
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