You give people their smile back every day. Practising in Spain should not wipe yours off.
Homologación of your foreign dental degree before the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, with a file built to avoid requerimientos. We also handle the work permit and registration with the dental council, so you can join a practice or open your own.
Spain needs dentists. The only thing between your degree and the chair is a properly assembled file.
The Ministry does not count how many root canals you have done. It assesses your file. And one error sets it back months.
A badly apostilled degree, a syllabus that does not evidence the clinical placement hours, a translation that was not done by a sworn translator recognised by the Foreign Ministry, an incomplete transcript: any one of these turns a nine-month homologation into a twenty-four-month one, or into a refusal. And in the meantime you cannot register with the council or practise dentistry at all.
We do not file loose documents. We build a file the Ministry has no reason to stop.
You are a dentist, but the paperwork is keeping you away from the chair.
- You have been waiting months for a decision and do not know whether your file is even complete.
- You are not sure which documents need an apostille and which need a sworn translation.
- Your syllabus does not set out clinical placement hours the way Spain wants them.
- You do not know whether certain procedures need something beyond homologation of the degree.
- A requerimiento arrived from the Ministry and you do not know how to answer it without damaging the case.
- You were refused, and you think your career in Spain ended before it started.
The worst part is that almost every one of these blockages is avoidable before the file is submitted — if somebody reviews it properly first.
From your degree to the practice: the stages
Homologación
Online application to the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades to have your degree treated as equivalent to the Spanish Grado en Odontología. Currently 9 to 24 months depending on the file.
Work permit
Residence and work authorisation, whether you are employed by a practice or working for yourself.
Colegiación
Registration with the Colegio Oficial de Dentistas of your province. Without it there is no lawful practice.
Practice and specialisation
With the degree homologated you can practise general dentistry; specialisation in orthodontics, implantology and the like is taken afterwards through postgraduate training.
What almost nobody explains about homologating a dental degree
This is what separates a file resolved in nine months from one that drags on for two years and comes back with one requerimiento after another.
Worth knowing
- Why two dentists from the same country wait completely different lengths of time.
- Why evidencing clinical practice is the most delicate part of a dental file.
- Which universities are exempt from supplying the course syllabus.
What you gain
- A file submitted in a state that minimises the chance of a requerimiento.
- Knowing from the outset what homologation entitles you to do, and what it does not.
- Council registration prepared in advance, ready the moment the credential arrives.
Mistakes that delay your case
- Translating without a sworn translator recognised by the Foreign Ministry.
- Confusing a Hague Apostille with consular legalisation.
- Submitting a syllabus that does not set out the practical workload.
- Answering a requerimiento without a strategy, and burying the file.
What you need to know
- Exactly which documents the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades requires today.
- Whether your nationality means you need a Spanish C1 certificate (DELE or SIELE).
- What sits between the credential and actually working in — or opening — a practice.
Requirements for dental homologation in 2026
The file is submitted online to the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades. These are the pillars.
Legalised dental degree
The original, apostilled under the Hague Convention — or legalised through consular channels if your country is not a signatory — and scanned correctly as a PDF (format, colour, file size all matter).
Transcript and syllabus
Subjects, marks and a syllabus evidencing the theoretical workload and, above all, the clinical placement hours, duly legalised.
Sworn translation
For anything not issued in Spanish, a translation by a traductor jurado recognised by the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Documents from Spanish-speaking countries do not need one.
Identity, fee and language
A valid passport, payment of the official fee and, for nationals of countries where Spanish is not an official language, a Spanish C1 certificate (DELE or SIELE).
We audit your file, put it in order, and submit it without gaps.
We review your degree, transcript, syllabus and translations before touching the system. We tell you what is missing, what needs an apostille, what needs translating, and in what order. If you already have a requerimiento or a previous refusal, we take the case over and redirect it.
We stay with you to the credencial de homologación and then set up the council registration and the work permit, so you can join a practice or open your own.
And it does not end with the homologation: we treat it as the first step of your career in Spain, not as a formality that quietly ages in a drawer.
The questions people ask before they start
How long does dental homologation take?
The current range runs from roughly 9 to 24 months, depending on the country that issued the degree, the university, how complete the file is, and how any requerimientos are answered. A well-prepared file tends towards the lower end of that range; one with errors tends towards the upper end, or beyond it.
Do I need to be in Spain, or hold legal residence?
Not to start. The procedure is online and can be filed from your home country, so you do not need to be in Spain to begin. Legal residence becomes necessary later, when it is time to register with the dental council and practise — which is why the two are worth planning together rather than one after the other.
Once homologated, can I perform any procedure?
Homologation makes your degree equivalent to the Spanish Grado en Odontología, which entitles you to practise general dentistry once you are registered with the council. Training in areas such as orthodontics or implantology is acquired afterwards through postgraduate study; it is not part of what homologation of the degree decides. Worth knowing before you plan a practice around a particular specialism.
Homologation, convalidation, revalidation — are they the same thing?
It depends on your country. In Spain, homologación means declaring your foreign degree equivalent to the Spanish one; convalidación is the partial recognition of individual subjects, not of the whole degree. What Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Argentina or Mexico call convalidación, revalidación or reválida corresponds, for the purpose of practising here, to homologación. If your aim is to work as a dentist in Spain, homologation of the degree is the procedure you need.
Which documents do I need?
In essence: the dental degree apostilled, or legalised through consular channels; the academic transcript and the syllabus showing the clinical placement workload; a sworn translation of anything not in Spanish; a valid passport; and, for countries where Spanish is not an official language, a Spanish C1 certificate. We check them one by one before filing.
What does it cost to homologate a dental degree?
The cost combines the official Ministry fee, the expense of apostilles or legalisation and sworn translation, and our fees for preparing and defending the file. There is no single tariff: it depends on the country of origin, the state of your documentation, and whether you are carrying a requerimiento or an earlier refusal. Once we have studied your case we give you a fixed quotation. Official amounts are set by the rules in force at the time of filing.
Not a doctor? We homologate all twelve regulated healthcare professions.
Each has its own ministerial order, its own professional body and its own traps. Pick yours and we will tell you how yours actually works, not “homologation” in the abstract.
Medicine
Medical degree homologation, plus work permit, colegiación and the MIR.
See detailsNursing
Nursing degree homologation, registration, and access to the EIR.
See detailsDentistry
Dental degree homologation and the registration you need to practise.
You are herePhysiotherapy
Physiotherapy degree homologation and professional registration.
See detailsPsychology
Careful: the degree itself is not homologated. What is, is the Psicólogo General Sanitario.
See detailsPharmacy
Five years and 3,000 hours of clinical training: the two numbers ANECA looks at.
See detailsVeterinary medicine
Clinical work, yes. But also animal health and food safety.
See detailsSpeech and language therapy
If your country called it fonoaudiología, this is it: the same profession.
See detailsOptics and optometry
An optometrist is not an ophthalmologist: two different homologations.
See detailsPodiatry
In Spain this is a university healthcare profession, not a technical trade.
See detailsOccupational therapy
Four years and 1,000 placement hours. Plenty of demand, little competition.
See detailsNutrition and dietetics
Only the university degree is homologated. Nutrition courses are not.
See detailsEvery month of delay is a month not sitting at your own chair.
We study your file, put it in order, submit it without gaps, and stay with you through to council registration and clinical practice.
+34 667 77 02 19·+34 667 78 20 85
infoglobalextranjeria@gmail.com
Camino de Coín 14, 29640 Fuengirola (Málaga)
P.S. like a restored painting, your work can be museum quality and still face the wall for want of a document. The difference between practising this year and practising in three is not your hands — you already have those. It is submitting the file the way Spain requires. That is the part we do.
Content reviewed by a lawyer
Reviewed by Alberto García López
Immigration lawyer · bar number 11.441 · ICA Málaga
We review every page against the rules currently in force. This information does not replace an individual assessment of your case.
The content of this page is for information only and does not constitute individual legal advice. Every immigration case requires its own assessment.
Globalium is an independent law firm: we are not a public administration and we are not affiliated with one. Homologation, equivalence and the recognition of qualifications are granted exclusively by the competent Ministry, and you may apply to it directly yourself. Our fees pay for legal advice and representation, and are separate from official fees and public charges.