Attention Attention!! The Canadian Ticket – Worldwide Transcripts

Canada, the one-stop destination for a million young minds who aspire to explore the world for education. Also, it is a known fact that Canada has been ranked as one of the topmost countries for education and immigration in the world. So for those who are interested in making a career in Canada, this is a good piece of information to grab!

The article will give you an in-depth detail regarding 2 important aspects that would help transform your dream at a Canadian university come alive:

1. The ECA- Education Credential Assessment

2. The WES- World Education Service

Let’s take a look at how the functioning happens!!

1. The ECA- Education Credential Assessment

The ECA is an exclusive assessment that has been initiated to reduce the hassle that one has to go through while authenticating your foreign educational credentials. And for those who require an express entry, ECA is used as a leverage to make sure that your foreign degree, diploma, the certificate is valid and equal to that of a Canadian one.

The ECA validation is essentially marked as the first step for permanent residency &assessing your ranking or eligibility for Canada’s Express Entry program. The ECA process will help determine if a completed foreign educational credential is authentic and equivalent to a completed credential in Canada and to see what the foreign degree is worth in Canada.

Applicants who have Canadian educational credentials do not need to get an ECA unless they are also submitting a foreign educational credential in support of their application. You will have to submit an Educational Credential Assessment, or ECA in order to assess the validity of your foreign degree, diploma, or certificate for Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC, formerly Citizenship and Immigration Canada or CIC).

Note the following before going any further

Evaluating Bodies

You must use one of these designated organizations:
a. World Education Services (WES)
b. Comparative Education Service (CES)
c. International Credential Assessment of Canada (ICAS)
d. International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS)
e. International Credential Evaluation Service (ICES)
f. Medical Council of Canada (MCC)
g. Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada (PEBC)

• You don’t need an ECA for your 10th and 12th-grade certificates. If you have a bachelor’s degree then get an ECA done only for your bachelor’s. For PG applicants, it is mandatory to get your bachelor’s evaluated even if you have a Masters. A master’s degree will help u increase your CRS scores.
• The only credentials for which your bachelor’s degree documents are NOT required are the
  Master of Education, Master of Engineering, Master of Philosophy, and Master of Technology degrees.
• If your master’s degree was obtained from an Indian institution and does not fall into the categories listed above, you MUST also submit your bachelor’s degree documents. WES cannot evaluate the master’s degree without a bachelor’s degree.
• If your master’s degree was obtained outside of India, your bachelor’s degree is generally not required. WES or other ECA body will contact you if they require further documentation for your evaluation.

2. The WES- World Education Service

A non- profit organization started in the year 1974, for the evaluation of academic credentials earned outside Canada and the United States that would eventually give way for the mobility and integration of international students. It provides an extensive and free set of on-line resources in international education and credentials which includes a grade conversion guide, profiles of education systems, links to universities and government education departments worldwide. WES is recognized by the Government of Ontario.

CONTACT DETAILS-

Canada-

USA address–

1. Do your assessments by the following tool available on the WES website
   https://www.wes.org/ca/wes-tools/ which will help you understand the equivalency; although this is not an ECA report, it is just a tentative indication of the same.
2. Complete the online application form by clicking here- ECA. You will receive a reference number which you must keep with you.
3. Review the document requirements for your country of education. For example, for those educated in the Philippines, and if you have attended a higher Education Institute, you will need an Academic Transcript listing all the courses taken and grades earned for each year of study. If you have attended more than one institute, the last Institute attended must send the transcript. If you have a doctoral degree, you will need an official letter confirming the awarding of your Ph.D. Follow the link for document requirement at WES – Documents Required
4. Create an account in WES and make the payment. This is a very easy process; just follow the steps on the site. Check out the below link. WES – Create Account –Here you may get options like a hard copy of your ECA report/ a soft copy that you can access online/ CIC will be able to check your ECA report online. Although the cost may vary for types of reports. Go here for more information on fees.
5. Send the documents to WES/have your institution send it to them directly. Also, download and print an Academic Records Request Form and if necessary a Doctoral Degree Conferral Request Form and send them to your educational institute to enable them to send the transcript directly to WES. Remember not to send original documents unless specifically requested by WES. Once WES receives your documents and the status will change from “Waiting for required documents” to “Documents received – Review in Progress”.
6. To procure transcripts, Degree or marks memos from University you will require to visit personally or hire an agency that can procure on your behalf.
7. After reviewing your documents, WES will either accept those documents or change the status to “Evaluation in Progress” or they will request you to send more documents (if need be). If the documents were not received by them in the format specified, they will reject your documents and you will have to start from Step 1 again. So, be careful while sending the documents. Try to get it right the first time.
8. After WES completes an evaluation (The standard processing time is 20 Business Days), they will send out an e-mail that says “Evaluation Completed” and dispatch the hard copy of your report to the address mentioned in your account. You will be able to view the report online. You will also receive electronic storage of your report and verified transcripts for future use. Upon payment of delivery fees, you may also receive a paper report. The below image shows how your online account would look once the Evaluation is completed.

What are the different WES report types?
WES typically recommends Document-by-Document reports for employment or licensing purposes and Course-by-Course reports for education purposes. 

How much is the Validity of WES ECA report?
Please note that an ECA done for the purpose of Canada Immigration is valid for 5 years. Convert your ECA report that has expired to the standard evaluation report, you will need to log into your WES account and order an “additional report” for IRCC. Ordering an extra copy will extend the expiry date for another five years.

To obtain an ECA report with no expiry date, log into your WES account and “upgrade” your ECA report to either a Document-by-Document or Course-by-Course evaluation report. It costs $50 CAD to upgrade to a Document-by-Document report and $100 CAD to upgrade to a Course-by-Course evaluation report.

How to contact WES?
Their phone is only accessible from within Canada and they do not attend walk-in customers.  They do not provide an email and must be contacted electronically by filling out the appropriate online forms at their website and by mail when you, or your educational institute, mail them the application packages with the appropriate documentation or the official documents. Complete contact detail is mentioned above.

All documents must be mailed to WES. Documents cannot be delivered in person.

Can I send directly to WES or my University has to send?
From 1st December 2018, WES has changed its rule & you have to send it directly from university.

If my university does not have the provision to send or courier then??
In that case, you can collect it with proper seal & signature from university & get it couriered from the same pin code. Please note address should be from university only.

Where can I get the form for WES?
Please click here to download.

WES has asked me to send a document which I missed. Can I fax it to them?
You have to send it by courier/speed post/Registered post.  Mention the same WES reference number on the envelope. Although you can Fax the degree copy by mentioning WES ref number.

If I have done Masters Do I need to send my bachelors, 10th and 12th records as well?
You don’t need an ECA for your 10th and 12th grade certificates. If you have a bachelor’s degree then get an ECA done only for your bachelor’s. For PG applicants, it is mandatory to get your bachelor’s evaluated even if you have a Masters. A master’s degree will help u increase your CRS scores.

The only credentials for which your bachelor’s degree documents are NOT required are the Master of Education, Master of Engineering, Master of Philosophy, and Master of Technology degrees. . If your master’s degree was obtained from an Indian institution, and does not fall into the categories listed above, you MUST also submit your bachelor’s degree documents. WES cannot evaluate the master’s degree without the bachelor’s degree.

If your master’s degree was obtained outside of India, your bachelor’s degree is generally not required. WES or other ECA body will contact you if they require further documentation for your evaluation. Just your transcript, final degree certificate, WES form (optional) will be required.

Can we send only provisional if we don’t have a degree then. Will my provisional certificate be Sufficient?
Yes, if you have not received your final certificate, you can send your provisional certificate to WES. But for transcript purpose as far as we understand many universities does not process transcript without a degree ,so it’s better to first have a degree in hand.

I’m applying WES for Canada Immigration. Which option should I choose?
You should select ‘IRCC’ between Standard and IRCC options.

What is the procedure to change WES ECA to course by course evaluation?
Once they complete your evaluation then you will get an option “Upgrade Report”. Here you can ask them to convert your ECA to the standard course by course evaluation or standard doc by doc evaluation.

Hope all your queries are answered, please leave a comment if you have questions or suggestions!

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