World Education Services (WES) is authorized by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to offer to applicants Educational Credential Assessments (ECA) for degrees and diplomas obtained outside of Canada.
The ECA is one of the basic requirements when applying for certain IRCC immigration programs, this is done solely to verify that applicants’ foreign degrees, diplomas, and certificates have a valid Canadian equivalent.
Recently, WES did an announcement stating that immigration applicants are now only required to submit their highest earned credentials.
This change kicked off in November 2020, consequently, those applicants with PhD would not have to submit either their bachelor’s or master’s degree for evaluation.
The same rules apply to both individuals with a master’s or bachelor’s degree.
These new rules were aimed at increasing processing time as submitting all of your academic credentials would slow down the process under the new rules.
WES has appealed to applicants not to submit any additional credentials for assessment.
Educational Credentials Assessment
ECA is mandated for foreign nationals who completed their education outside Canada and desire:
- To gain eligibility as a principal applicant for the Federal Skilled Workers Program under the Canadian Express Entry, program or;
- To acquire the avialable points for the education they obtained outside of Canada.
These applicants can also get more points from their spouse, common-law, or conjugal partner’s education if they are accompanying them to Canada.
Currently, WES only notes four exceptions on their website. The aforementioned exceptions are for people with a master of education, master of philosophy, master of engineering, or master of technology degree.
With your WES ECA you can:
- Meet the IRCC’s requirements for Educational Credential Assessment (not for pharmacists or physicians).
- Earn recognition for your education obtained outside of Canada so you can chase your dreams in Canada.
- Lastly, save your final assessment report and already verified educational documents for use in the future.
For professionals who fall under the regulated occupations in Canada and are coming to Canada with the desire to get licensed to practice in Canada would need to have their credentials assessed by their respective regulatory professional organizations in Canada.
For example, the body responsible for carrying out ECAs for physicians is the Medical Council of Canada, While the regulatory body in charge of Pharmacists’ ECAs is the Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada.
Note: WES doesn’t assess occupational or trade qualifications. For more recent information about immigration programs of the IRCC, visit the official website of the IRCC.
Applicants who do not need to obtain an ECA
There are some applicants who don’t need to get an ECA done from organizations authorized by the IRCC for the purpose of immigrating to Canada, these exceptions are for applicants who:
- Obtained a post-secondary education credentials from a Canadian Institution for a minimun of one year or;
- Could verifiably show their personal net worth of at least $50 million CAD gotten lawfully, through private sector business or several investment activities and consequently have applied for exemptions.
What should my WES ECA have for immigration?
All ECAs ought to:
- Firstly, be lesser than 5 years old as at the date that the IRCC receives the application.
- Secondly, have a date it was issued on and that date compulsorily must either be on or after the date where the organization was given authority by IRCC.
- Thirdly, literarily show that the completed foreign educational credential equates to a Canadian post-secondary credential that is completable of at least one year.
- Lastly, ought to be mandatorily issued from an IRCC authorized organization or professional body.
Note: ECA’s submitted for the purpose of immigration should not have exceeded five years of age as at the time of submission to Express Entry profile or application for permanent residence by the applicant.
Fees and payment for WES ECA
The standard price for WES ECA is $220 CAD as at the time of writing this article, this price, unfortunately, doesn’t include fees for delivery, additional fees, or the 13% Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).
The standard delivery option for WES ECA is $10 CAD, this option doesn’t include tracking. If you wish to use courier service, you would be paying $85 CAD for addresses outside Canada and $25 CAD for addresses in Canada.
For those who need to update their completed WES ECA, they would need to pay $100 CAD to add a new credential, and for conversion to document by document or course by course evaluation, they’d be paying $50 CAD and $100 CAD respectively.
Finally, depending on the category, each duplicate report costs about $30 – $50 CAD.
The available option for payment for your WES ECA is:
- Visa, MasterCard
- American Express
- Debit
- Interac
- Cheque
- Money order
- Western Union (Instructions are provided during the payment process)
The corresponding payment for your chosen ECA ought to have been received before WES would begin your evaluation process.
After the final submission of your application, WES would send you a reference number. Ensure to keep it safe, preferably write this down, and don’t forget to include it on all the documents, envelopes, and correspondence sent to WES. This enables seamless tracking of your records to avoid delays in service.
WES Canada Form
Since WES offers different types of evaluation, it is best to ensure you choose the right one for you and pay the corresponding fees. So to help you avoid mistakes we not only differentiated them but we also left a link to download the forms.
This is for applicants aiming for licensure, higher or continuing education, and employment, the WES Standard Application is for you.
This is solely for immigration purposes which we are discussing today, kindly select the Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) Application for the purpose of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).
Note: It is important to bear in mind that any degree or diploma not fully completed cannot be evaluated for an IRCC application. WES does not concern itself with evaluating occupational or trade qualifications.
WES Canada Login
After the completion of your registration, only then can you enter your account with the WES Canada Login (https://applications.wes.org/createaccount/login/login).
WES Canada Required Documents
WES has a country-specific tool to show you the requirements needed for the evaluation from applicants from your home country, you can check (https://www.wes.org/ca/required-documents/) for that information.
WES Canada Evaluation Steps
For their evaluation, WES uses a three-step process:
Step 1: You submit your application.
Step 2: You submit your documents.
Step 3: WES verifies your credentials, creates your report, and delivers it to your recipients.
The comprehensive evaluation process for WES includes:
- The verification of the authenticity of all your credentials.
- Thoroughly analyzation of your coursework.
- Quality checks carried out routinely on each report.
- A digital badge provided by WES for you to use for displaying your verified credentials on social sites like LinkedIn.
The aforementioned process is carried out to ensure your WES evaluation is universally accepted and preferred by over 2,500 business, educational, licensing, and governmental institutions all through the United States and Canada.
Proccesing time
WES aims to works swiftly in other to finish your assessment in record time and they also offer several delivery options which have been outlined above to make sure your report arrives in due time:
- They have a standard seven-business-day evaluation completion time only after you apply and all the necessary documents has been received and accepted by WES. But for ECA evaluation for immigration purposes it takes a grand total of 20 business days.
- See fees and payments for the WES express delivery options for your report.
Validity
Your WES ECA is valid for five years from the date of issue, and you can continue using your ECA when you submit a new Express Entry profile.
An ECA validity spans five years, that start of the five years count begins on the day the applicant submits their Express Entry profile and also their date of permanent residence application after receiving the invitation to apply.
It is crucially important to keep this in mind because an ECA which was valid during the creation of your Express Entry profile but at the time of your Permanent Residence application is more than five years old might lead to complications and consequently delays in your Canada immigration plans.
WES Canada Contact
WESs’ contact centre is always open from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. (Eastern time) from Monday to Friday to answer your calls and reply to email messages.
