Getting the title back
Hi reader,
I heard that people write to remember things and I don’t want to forget the road life took me to get my Architect title back.
If you have read my blog you may know that I left my life in Mexico behind and moved to Europe in 2014 to study photography and also to find out that Architecture is a regulated profession and that my Mexican credentials would not allow me to call myself an Architect or get registered to be one.
Suddenly, my life became something like this:
My road started in Ireland, where I got a job I loved in a small firm that opened a large door into the architectural practice. This job allowed me to learn all housing-related regulations and made me realise that I needed to find a way to get registered in that country. I wanted to be an Architect again and design hospitals like in my home country.
I contacted the RIAI (Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland) and I submitted a bunch of documents to know if I could apply for degree recognition in order to be able to sit the Part 3 exam (the magic key that allows people to get registered and become Architects).
Their response was NO, my professional degree had no equivalence. There was just one way, I had to go back to school.
Architectural schools in Ireland are expensive for non-European individuals, I could not afford it. This is how I ended up in the RIBA Studio, an affordable option with a high price: going through the ARB Prescribed in the United Kingdom. I won’t write about this examination as I have a couple of posts about it, but going through the Prescribed made me experience something for the first time in my life: failure after working so much.
Yes, I failed the first attempt and I almost gave up but I didn’t (thank god I didn’t). I made it to Oxford Brookes for the first time in 2017, however, my unexpected move to France made me drop for the first time.
I tried to get into the ENSA (National School of Architecture) in France twice but I could not make it. In 2020 I decided to try the UK again and contacted Oxford Brookes to get into the RIBA Studio for the second time. I officially started my Part 2 in 2021. My experience with the RIBA Studio was bittersweet, I loved it but I was struggling a lot. The first year went incredibly well, I learned a lot, I became autonomous and discovered Neuroscience. I could not finish one of the subjects so I had to continue the year 1 in 2022 but BREXIT was pushing my plans away. With all the support of RIBA and the RIBA Studio I tried to get as much information about a possible mutual agreement but things didn’t look good. BREXIT was sending my mental health straight to the unknown.
During all that time I was baking a plan B.
LETS BACK TO 2020
During the pandemic, I met someone interested in Architecture and this is what happened:
LIFE CHANGING CONVERSATION 1
SOMEONE: I heard you can apply for recognition of your foreign credentials to the culture minister if you become French.
ME: I would be surprised, I asked the Ordre des Architectes and the only way is to go back to school.
SOMEONE: I know someone who knows someone who did it and worked.
ME: OK I will call them and ask.
LIFE CHANGING CONVERSATION 2
ME: I was told that French people can apply for foreign credentials recognition through the Minister of Culture.
HUSBAND: You know you will be eligible to become French soon, right?
ME: Can you ring the Minister to ask if that is true?
HUSBAND: OK , I just called them, it is true.
There it was, another possibility, but I still had to look more for that information, at least look for someone who had gone through that procedure.
I quickly found a person who knew someone who went through that procedure and his suggestion was to not even try it as the Minister is strict and I was more likely to be refused.
All along my road, I heard the word impossible so many times and somehow every time I am told things like that my brain understands the opposite. Guys things are not impossible. If the option is there is because it is possible.
I became French but I decided not to apply for recognition as I was not ready. I kept going with the RIBA Studio at Oxford Brookes, I was learning so much I could not stop it. I also decided to change my job and get into healthcare design, a big change after almost 8 years of housing and residential design.
LETS GO BACK TO 2022
BREXIT was looking very bad, and I got a confirmation from RIBA that there would not be a mutual agreement just yet, I would take time. To this date in April 2024, negotiations are still ongoing, and no mutual agreement has been reached.
In October 2022 I started working on my application for the Minister.
On 12th of March 2023 I finally submitted my application.
In May 2023 I decided to drop Oxford Brookes for the second time, BREXIT was driving me crazy. It was a constraint for me to sit my Part 3 (magic key) and also I could not use it in France, so there was no point.
I dropped Oxford Brookes knowing that I was eligible to apply for recognition in France but not knowing that my application was going to be accepted.
Just months after leaving Oxford Brookes I got a beautiful letter from the Minister.
I was in Paris in a RER station Auber, on my way to meet a client for the practice I still work for. I was standing there waiting for the train when my phone made this funny noise (that I hardly recognise as I always put all notifications in silence) it was my husband telling me that there was a letter coming from the Minister. I asked him to open it and send me a picture as soon as possible.
It was accepted.
10 years of fighting to get my title back were over.
I was so shocked that I missed two trains, I started walking without direction and I shed tears.
People write to remember things, now, I want to write down to not forget everything I won by going through this process, my two beautiful daughters, a great French family, a very supportive husband, three languages, new friends, this blog, your invaluable time reading this.
People write to not forget and I will keep writing to remember that I am an Architect again.
Thank you for all your support.
In case you need it, this is the procedure I went through:
https://mesdemarches.culture.gouv.fr/loc_fr/mcc/requests/ARCHI_PROFF_reconnaissance_02/