I keep reading conflicting things about whether my degree/professional qualification needs formal recognition here or whether employers just… accept it. How did you find out what applied to you, and how slow was it?
For regulated professions (medicine, law, teaching, some engineering) recognition is usually mandatory and slow — start it before you move if you can. For everything else it's often lighter than you fear.
Mine didn't need formal recognition, but employers wanted a credential evaluation — cheaper and faster than full recognition. Worth knowing they're different things so you don't over-buy.
Academia recognised mine fairly informally on the strength of the institution; friends in stricter fields had a very different, more bureaucratic experience. It really is field-by-field.
This is genuinely profession- and country-specific: whether recognition is required, and how, depends on your field and destination and changes. The Qualifications and Jobs sections flag which professions are regulated — check yours there before assuming either way, because the answer for a nurse and a marketer is completely different.
"Credential evaluation vs full recognition" was the distinction I didn't know existed. That alone probably saves me months. Cheers.