The World Education Services Canada is one of the IRCC-approved organizations that can evaluate foreign educational credentials to compare their equivalency to the Canadian standards. It is one of the most trusted organizations that conduct international educational credential evaluations.
World Education Services (WES) is a well-known credential assessment organization. It evaluates your credentials to describe them in Canadian education standards. Since 2013, WES has been declared a designated organization for Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). A WES ECA lasts for 5 years from the date it is issued.
Who needs an ECA?
If the majority or part of your studies were completed outside of Canada, you must prove that your studies meet the minimum Canadian equivalency to be eligible for immigration.
To do so, get an ECA from WES. It will evaluate your international educational credentials and provide you with an evaluation. This evaluation is crucial for individuals applying for Express Entry or any other immigration program.
Other than the traditional WES ECA, you may get your ECA upgraded to an ICAP, short for International Credential Advantage Package. Upgrading to ICAP will keep your transcripts and evaluation report stored for future use.
When opting for an upgrade, WES will provide a digital badge that is easy to share with anyone in no time.
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Canada PR Pathways that Accept WES Evaluation
The following Canada PR pathways accept ECAs by WES:
- Federal Skilled Worker Program
- Federal Skilled Trades Program
- Provincial Nominee Program
- Agri-Food Pilot program
- Atlantic Immigration Program
- Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot
- Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot
NOTE: Quebec has its own educational credential evaluation system and does not accept WES ECA.
Requirements to Get WES Evaluation
For a WES ECA, you need to provide your highest completed qualification only, and not all the degrees/diplomas you have.
Later on, WES may need you to submit more documents so they can go ahead with the evaluation easily. Unless WES asks for additional documents, don’t submit them. If you submit additional documents beforehand, it probably will lead to a delay in processing.
Those applying for a WES ECA from India, don’t need to provide other documents if their higher degree is one of the following:
- Master of Philosophy
- Master of Education
- Master of Technology
- Master of Philosophy (PhD)
- Master of Engineering
Documents Required for WES ECA
The documents required depend on your highest completed qualification. You may still need the following documents at the time of evaluation:
- Your mark sheet/transcripts
- Your passport
- Degree or provincial certificate
WES Evaluation Fee and Processing Time
A WES ECA takes 30 business days to get processed once you’ve made the payment, submitted the receipt, and WES reviewed and approved all your documents.
The general WES ECA fee is CAN$248. However, this fee does not contain the delivery fee or any additional fee.
Additional Fees
| Delivery | |
|---|---|
| Standard Delivery (excluding document tracking) | CAN$12 |
| Courier Delivery (document tracking available) a. For U.S and international courier services b. For Canada | CAN$92 CAN$27 |
To get the ECA evaluation updated, the cost depends on your situation:
| Updating ECA Evaluation | Cost |
|---|---|
| add a new credential | CAN$108 |
| convert your ECA to a Document-by-Document evaluation | CAN$54 |
| convert your ECA to a Course-by-Course evaluation | CAN$108 |
For duplicate copies of your document:
| Duplicate Reports | Cost |
|---|---|
| The first report (WES Basic) | CAN$54 |
| The first report (WES ICAP) | CAN$33 |
| Each additional report | CAN$33 |
Complete Process of WES Evaluation
Step 1 – Submit the evaluation application to receive the WES reference number
Step 2 – Send the required documents with the WES reference number you received
Step 3 – WES will create the evaluation report and deliver it to your recipients as well
Let’s discuss these steps in detail below:
Step 1
The first step asks you to submit an application for ECA. Once you do that, you will receive a WES reference number. This WES reference number will be on all the documents sent to WES.
In case a document does not contain a reference number, WES will not take any responsibility for it. Hence, the documents must contain the reference number.
Step 2
In this step, submit the required documents. Only submit the documents required by WES instead of submitting all the additional ones.
WES will contact you if any other documents are needed. As mentioned, all submitted documents must contain the WES reference number.
Step 3
WES will create your report and then send it to your recipients. It will review the documents submitted to check their authenticity. After that, they will complete your report and send it to you as per the processing time.
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