Software developer profession data by country
Where software developer is a regulated profession, how foreign qualifications are recognised and which shortage lists name it, country by country, from official registers.
38 countries have an official record for software developer: 18 regulate it and 16 name it on a shortage list. Comparable country-level profession salaries are not published here, so a best-paying destination cannot yet be named.
- Countries
- 38
- Regulated in
- 18
- On a shortage list in
- 16
Country by country
Open a country for its full record and sources. A dash means the register has no entry for that field.
| Country | Regulation | Recognition route | Shortage list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | Regulated | Where an ICT occupation requires an ACS migration skills assessment, applicants use the eligible ACS pathway matching their qualification and work experience; General Skills is one pathway and its criteria vary.Australian Computer Society (ACS) for migration skills assessment of eligible ICT occupations. | — |
| Austria | Not marked regulated | No formal profession recognition for ordinary employee role; qualifications are assessed from documents in selected RWR/Blue Card route.No profession-specific recognition authority for ordinary employee work; immigration authority assesses documents for the chosen work route. | — |
| Belgium | Not marked regulated | No statutory professional diploma-recognition or registration procedure applies to the ordinary software-developer role on the federal non-regulated-professions page.No professional-recognition authority applies to the ordinary software-developer role listed as non-regulated. | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| Bulgaria | Not marked regulated | Employer assesses the foreign professional qualification for the generic non-regulated role. NACID academic-degree recognition may be requested separately where a foreign degree needs equivalence; it is not a professional licence.For a non-regulated profession, NACID says the employer is competent to recognise the foreign professional qualification; no profession-wide national recognition authority is identified. | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| Canada | Not marked regulated | — | — |
| Croatia | Regulated | — | — |
| Cyprus | Not marked regulated | — | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| Czechia | Regulated | — | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| Denmark | Not marked regulated | No mandatory occupational recognition route for the generic title. A voluntary assessment of a foreign educational qualification may be requested from UFSN; the employer decides whether the applicant fits the job.There is no general licensing authority for this generic non-regulated title. UFSN can provide a voluntary assessment of foreign educational level; it does not license professional practice. | — |
| Estonia | Regulated | — | — |
| Finland | Not marked regulated | For a generic role the employer assesses skills; apply to EDUFI only if the post has a statutory degree-level eligibility condition.For generic roles the employer assesses qualification; EDUFI decides only where a post has statutory degree-level eligibility. | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| France | Regulated | For general software-development employment, the employer assesses qualifications; an ENIC-NARIC level statement, if needed, is not legal equivalence or a professional licence. | — |
| Germany | Not marked regulated | No mandatory professional licensing/recognition process is required for the generic role. Optional qualification assessment may be requested; a ZAB Statement of Comparability evaluates a university degree and does not grant a professional licence.There is no mandatory profession-specific recognition authority for this non-regulated occupation. If a foreign university degree needs formal comparability, use anabin first or apply to the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB) for a Statement of Comparability. | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| Greece | Regulated | — | — |
| Hungary | Regulated | Where a foreign higher-education credential needs formal recognition for work, OH-MEIK can determine qualification level and professional qualification; activity-specific legal authorisation, if any, remains a separate check.For foreign higher-education credentials used for employment or professional purposes, OH-MEIK in the Educational Authority is the official diploma-recognition authority; any activity-specific practice authority remains separate. | — |
| Iceland | Regulated | — | — |
| Ireland | Not marked regulated | — | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| Italy | Regulated | — | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| Latvia | Not marked regulated | — | — |
| Lithuania | Not marked regulated | For a non-regulated occupation, the general regulated-profession recognition process is not required; an applicant can apply directly to an employer.No professional-qualification recognition authority is assigned to the broad title as a non-regulated profession; the prospective employer sets job requirements. | — |
| Luxembourg | Regulated | — | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| Malta | Not marked regulated | — | — |
| Netherlands | Not marked regulated | No profession-wide foreign-professional recognition application is required for the title where the Dutch RegProf catalogue does not list it. Optional IDW diploma valuation compares an academic credential but is not a practice licence.No profession-specific recognition authority applies to the broad title when it is not listed as regulated; an optional academic credential evaluation can be requested through IDW/Nuffic/SBB. | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| New Zealand | Not marked regulated | No profession-wide statutory foreign-recognition application is identified for software-development jobs; employers may assess qualifications and experience.No profession-wide statutory foreign-recognition authority is identified for the broad software-developer title in Appendix 16. | — |
| Norway | Not marked regulated | No profession-wide foreign professional-recognition application is identified for this broad title in the checked official list. Voluntary HK-dir education recognition assesses level/credits and is not a licence to practise.No profession-wide professional-recognition authority is identified for this broad title in the checked HK-dir regulated-professions list; HK-dir can voluntarily assess foreign education, which is not a practice licence. | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| Poland | Regulated | — | — |
| Portugal | Regulated | — | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| Romania | Regulated | — | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| Saudi Arabia | Not marked regulated | — | — |
| Slovakia | Not marked regulated | No professional-qualification recognition application applies to the generic unlisted software-developer title; voluntary education recognition is not a practice license.No professional-qualification recognition authority applies to this generic unregulated title under the CRD rule for unlisted professions. | — |
| Slovenia | Regulated | — | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| South Korea | Regulated | — | — |
| Spain | Regulated | — | — |
| Sweden | Regulated | — | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| Switzerland | Not marked regulated | Ordinary software-development/IT work in the cited ESTI scope does not require foreign-qualification reassessment or a profession-specific exercise permit.No professional licensing authority is named for ordinary software development in ESTI’s unregulated-IT scope; the foreign qualification need not be reassessed for that activity. | ListedEURES labour shortages and surpluses dashboard — National Coordination Office submission |
| United Arab Emirates | Not marked regulated | — | — |
| United Kingdom | Not marked regulated | — | — |
| United States | Regulated | Contact the prospective employer for its credential-review instructions. The employer may evaluate credentials itself or request a private credential evaluation; where a legal license applies, follow the relevant state or territorial board process.For ordinary employment, the prospective employer is the competent authority for reviewing foreign qualifications. If the particular job legally requires a professional license, the appropriate state or territorial licensing authority in the intended work jurisdiction controls that license. | — |
How this list is built
The list holds the 38 countries with at least one official record for software developer: a regulated-professions register entry, a recognition record or a shortage-list row. National occupation names are joined to this profession through a reviewed crosswalk, country by country; a name the crosswalk does not match is left out rather than guessed. Salaries are not shown until a profession-level salary is collected for the country.
Cite this page
Open a format to select or copy this ImmigrationDB compilation citation. The native disclosure and text fallback work without JavaScript.
APA citation
ImmigrationDB. (2026, October 25). Software developer profession data by country [ImmigrationDB compilation; version 6f122bc140a3b53466cc114b4362b860]. ImmigrationDB. https://immigrationdb.com/move-as/software-developer/ Retrieved 2026-10-25. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/BibTeX citation
@misc{immigrationdb_immigrationdb_software-developer-profession-data-by-country_de2caff8c1db,
author = {ImmigrationDB},
title = {Software developer profession data by country},
publisher = {ImmigrationDB},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-10-25},
version = {6f122bc140a3b53466cc114b4362b860},
url = {https://immigrationdb.com/move-as/software-developer/},
note = {Retrieved 2026-10-25. ImmigrationDB compilation. Compilation license: CC BY 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/},
}Markdown citation
[Software developer profession data by country](https://immigrationdb.com/move-as/software-developer/) — ImmigrationDB; ImmigrationDB; version 6f122bc140a3b53466cc114b4362b860; retrieved 2026-10-25; built 2026-10-25.This citation identifies the ImmigrationDB compilation/page. Underlying source publishers and datasets retain their own terms; inspect the Sources section and cite those records separately. View the underlying source records.
Sources
- Australian Computer Society (ACS)
- ILO
- Official Platform for Migration to Austria
- Austrian Federal Government, migration.gv.at
- Eurostat
- Business Belgium / Belgian federal government
- European Labour Authority / EURES
- Walloon Public Service, Employment and Vocational Training
- Council of Ministers / NAVET
- Eurostat