WES for Canada PR in 10 Steps: Best ECA for Canada Immigration

If you have been planning on immigrating to Canada through a PR, one of the very first things that you need to get done is to get the ECA for Canada by getting your credentials evaluated and you need to zero in on an approved agency that would do it for you.

If you use the Express entry route, you can’t even start without this. And a lot of PNP streams use it as well. When starting the ECA process for my credentials evaluation in Canada, I have done my homework on this. I have talked to several immigrants to understand how the process went for them.

And I will keep on updating the article as and when I come across any new information.

So most of the times, no ECA = no Canada PR.

In any case, if you want to immigrate to Canada, definitely read the article on visas for Canada.

What is Canada Educational Credential Assessment & Why Do I Need it?

In a fair world, there would be no need for an educational credential assessment. But the thing is Canadian authorities have no idea whether what you have studied for in your college or university has an equivalent in Canada.

So they need to ensure that. And they need to ensure that whatever certificates and transcripts you have are legitimate and not from some phony university or something that you just bought from the internet.

Farmington university, anyone?

Now as an ECA compares your education to its Canadian equivalent, you don’t really need an ECA if you have studied in Canada. That’s obvious, right?

But if you are an immigrant trying to immigrate to Canada, then getting an ECA is a must.

How to Get Your ECA for Canada?

There are many organizations that you can use for educational credentials assessment in Canada.

But no matter which organization you choose, the evaluation process will begin only after you make the payment and they receive the necessary documents from you or your university. 

ECAs are not needed for Canadian credentials.

You can get ECA reports from multiple ECA agencies like bachelors from one and Masters from another one.

The credentials evaluation process itself can also take several weeks to several months.

Another factor is that the evaluation criteria can change from time to time. So if you are expecting a certain kind of evaluation as per your credentials, you might apply with a different evaluating body, if you don’t get it from the first one you apply with.

At the end of the day, the ECA outcome depends on the evaluating body. While you can follow the guidelines and expect an outcome, no one can really predict it for you.

1. World Education Services – WES

WES website: https://www.wes.org/

ECA Fees:-
200 CAD for any number of credentials and 100 CAD for upgrade + Courier charges

Canada ECA Processing Time:-
35 days from the day all the documents are accepted.

WES Degree Equivalency Tool:-
https://applications.wes.org/ca/degree-equivalency-tool/

You can use the WES degree equivalency tool to check what your degree is equivalent to.

2. International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS)

IQAS Website:

http://work.alberta.ca/immigration/international-qualifications-assessment-service.html

ECA Fees:-
200 CAD for any number of credentials and 100 CAD for upgrade + Courier charges

Canada ECA Processing Time:-
23 weeks from the day all the documents are accepted.

3. International Credential Evaluation Service (ICES)

ICES Website: https://www.bcit.ca/ices/eca/

ECA Fees:-
200 CAD for each credential.

Canada ECA Processing Time:-
20 weeks from the day all the documents are received.

4.  Comparative Education Service (CES)

CES website:  https://learn.utoronto.ca

ECA Fees:-
210 CAD for each credential + Courier charges/Order for softcopy or free of cost for pickup at university of toronto office option

Canada ECA Processing Time:-
90 days from the day all the documents are accepted.

5. International Credential Assessment Service of Canada (ICAS)

ICAS Website: https://www.icascanada.ca/home.aspx

ECA Fees:-
200 CAD for any number of credentials + Courier charges

Canada ECA Processing Time:-
30 weeks from the day all the documents are received.

6. Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada (PEBC)

PEBC Website: https://www.pebc.ca/index.php/ci_id/3116/la_id/1.htm#FSWP

ECA Fees:-
100 CAD for any number of credentials + Courier charges

Canada ECA Processing Time:-
8 weeks from the day all the documents are received

7. Medical Council of Canada (MCC)

MCC Website: https://physiciansapply.ca/services/educational-credential-assessment/

ECA Fees:-
111 CAD for any number of credentials + Courier charges

Canada ECA Processing Time:-
14 business days for the soft copy and 8 weeks for the hard copy from the day all the documents are received

So, Why WES is the Best ECA for Canada Immigration?

Believe me, I am not saying this because I used WES for my Canada ECA or because I have a special place in my heart for them. If you ask around, most immigrants would tell you that WES is the best ECA for Canada immigration.

WES is by far the most popular organization to get an educational credential assessment in Canada. The reason is simple: They have the most efficient processing time, and they don’t charge any more than the other agencies.

Unless you are a doctor or pharmacist, WES should be your first choice. So if you have been wondering about the best ECA for Canada immigration, then it will be WES without any doubts.

Now, of course, there might be scenarios where you should consider other agencies so that you can accumulate more CRS points for Canadian immigration.

In this article, I will tell you how to do a WES evaluation for credentials along with how I did it.

Here is the procedure to apply ECA for Canada on WES.

1. Create an Account on WES Portal

Create your account on WES’s official website by visiting it. Make sure to choose Canada as the country where you will use your evaluation since WES also does ECA for the United States.

After choosing Canada, you would further be prompted to choose the purpose.

WES Standard Application

This is for people who want to study in Canada and get a Canadian license and as such. So if you want to get a study visa for example, you would need this.

ECA Application for IRCC

This is the most common one used by people who want to immigrate to Canada using express entry or PNP route. IRCC Canada is the Government entity handling all these. Most of you would be choosing this option.

ECA Application for Agri-Food Pilot:

You need to used this only for Agri-Food Pilot project

In my case, I chose ‘ECA Application for IRCC’ and click on ‘Start Application’.

You will be prompted to fill in your personal details, date of birth etc on the next page, after which you can create the account.

2. Provide Mailing Address to World Education Services

Once you create WES account, you would need to provide the mailing address and phone number. This address is where WES would send your ECA hard copy. While the hard copy is not necessary to have, it can be useful in many scenarios.

3. Provide Education for WES Evaluation

This is the most important step where you would need to provide your educational details.

Now, IRCC Canada only asks applicants to submit only their highest completed credential for an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA). However, this doesn’t apply to Indians. Check the section on Indians for the details

This means if you have a Masters and Bachelors, you would want to get the Masters evaluated and not the Bachelors. But for certain countries like India, this comes with a caveat.

If you have Master of Education, Master of Engineering, Master of Philosophy, or Master of Technology in India, then you don’t need to evaluate the Bachelor. In all other cases, you do.

Click on ‘Add Credential” to fill out your educational qualifications. Have your certificate in front of you when you do this step so that you don’t make any mistakes.

In my case, I had done a Bachelors only, so I chose that. I filled out the name of my institution, and name of the certificate as well as the years I attended the degree.

If your institute is not listed, you can enter it manually.

Once you complete adding one credential, you can add any other credential. So after adding bachelors, you can add the Masters as well.

Usually, most of the people would choose University Education and then Bachelor’s or Master’s or Ph.D.

The type of education would have different options depending on where you finished your education.

For many countries like the Philippines, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, United States of America, you would choose ‘Higher Education’, rather than ‘University Education’.

Name of Diploma/Certificate

The name of Diploma/Certificate should be exactly as your certificate says.

Common examples:-

• Bachelor of Technology
• Bachelor of Arts
• Bachelor of Philosophy
• Master in Business
• Master in Science

4. Confirm the Recipients for Credential Assessment in Canada

Once you finish adding your educational details for Canada ECA on WES, you can select the recipients who would receive the ECA. By default, WES would send the educational credential assessment report to

• you, the applicant
• IRCC Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC)

Now if you want, you can add more recipients from the approved list of WES. For example, if you want the New Brunswick Provincial Nominee Program to receive your ECA, you can select it there. There are various state governments that you can choose as well.

So, if you plan to apply to a Provincial Nominee Program (PNP) in Canada, do add the program as a recipient. In any case, you can also add PNP recipients later.

This will cost you extra.

Once you confirm the list of recipients, you can see what all WES would provide.

It will provide

• A PDF soft copy of education evaluation for Canada immigration to you
• ECA report for IRCC Canada electronically
• Official paper report for you
• Electronic storage for your report

After this, you can choose Standard Mail through Canada Post or International Courier that comes with tracking. If you ask me, choose Standard Mail since the hard copy again is not necessary and it costs significantly less.

5. WES Requirements for Evaluation of Degree in Canada

Pay extra attention to this page to understand what documents are exactly needed and how they should be submitted for the WES evaluation in Canada.

The document requirements and submission will greatly vary depending on where you finished your education.

• You might or might not need to upload a copy of your certificate.
• You might be able to get the official transcripts from the university and courier them to WES in a sealed envelope.
• Your university would need to courier the official transcripts to WES and not you.
• Your university would email or send the transcripts electronically for WES evaluation and there won’t be any need for the hard copies to be couriered.

In my case, I had graduated in India. WES needed me to upload my degree certificate and my university to send the official attested transcripts.

Upload Degree Certificate

Upload a clear, legible photocopy of the final or provisional degree certificate in ‘My Account’.

Send the Official Attested Transcripts from the University

Here is the thing. The official transcripts are not college-issued mark sheets/result cards. An official transcript would include

• all subjects/papers taken
• marks earned for each year of study
• your university student identification number

Your university would need to attest these documents, and send them directly to WES in a sealed envelope that is signed or stamped across the back flap by the appropriate authentication officer of the university.

If the documents are being sent by standard Mail or courier, make sure to

• include the WES reference number that you would get after paying WES evaluation fees.  This reference number should be on each envelope and document that you submit to WES.
• not to send your original documents unless they are specifically requested by WES.

All documents must be mailed to WES. WES does NOT accept documents delivered in person. 

Before making the payment, you can verify all your information and check the WES evaluation fees.

In my case, it was $230 CADs.

6. Pay WES Evaluation Fees

There are three ways to pay WES evaluation fees.

• Credit card
• Cheque/money order
• Western Union Money Transfer

Now, credit card is definitely the fastest way to make the payment.

Once you submit the payment, you would see the success message with the WES reference number. They will also send you a confirmation email.

7. Upload Documents for WES Evaluation

For me, the first step was to upload a copy of my certificate for credential assessment in Canada. Skip this step if you don’t need to do it.

For this, you would need to visit the ‘My Accounts’ section and upload it there.

Before you upload, here are the rules.

• Upload only PDF or JPEG files. Do not password-protect your PDF.
• The maximum file size is 10 MB.
• You can upload a total of 20 files. Please consider combining several pages into one file if they are related.
• Only upload correct, clear, legible documents. Your documents cannot be deleted once they are uploaded.
• Do not upload academic transcripts or mark sheets, upload is available only for degree certificates and translations.

8. Transcript Submission WES Degree Evaluation

This is where things get tricky. Especially if your university doesn’t have a mechanism to send the documents electronically or for you to ask them to send the transcripts.

News flash: A lot of the universities don’t, especially the ones in developing countries.

So, in this case, you would need to make a trip to your university or college or both, fill out some forms, get some signatures, pay the fees and possibly pull some strings for the university to send the transcripts in a sealed envelope.

WES sealed envelope

This is how a WES sealed envelope looks like. It should always have the WES reference number and the return address of your university, and contain the official transcripts.

9. WES Receives Your Transcripts

Once WES receives your transcripts, the status of your application would change. And you will receive an email from WES on the same.

Here is the email I received from WES.

10. Receive the ECA from WES

Once the evaluation is complete, you can see it in the WES portal.

You would see the notification that they have sent Canada evaluation report to IRCC and view it electronically and download it as well.

Here is mine.

WES Address in Canada

You or your educational institution would need the WES address in Canada when sending your official transcripts. Here is the address.

World Education Services
Attention: Documentation Center
102-2820 14th Avenue
Markham, ON L3R 0S9
Canada

Make sure to mention the WES Reference No. above the address when sending transcripts.

How Long is WES ECA Canada Processing Time ?

WES usually takes 35 business days or less to complete the credential assessment in Canada. And this is after the receipt, review, and approval of all documents, and payment in full.

If additional research, correspondence, or verification is required, the degree evaluation in Canada will take longer.

That being said, people have received it in a week or two as well.

How Long is Canada ECA Valid?

ECA for Canada is valid for 5 years.

Does WES Refund after Payment?

So there are some cases where WES can refund your evaluation fees, especially when they haven’t received the transcripts from your university and haven’t initiated the real evaluation.

For example, let’s say you thought they would give you Master’s equivalency for an MBA and you made the payment. Then you realized that you would get a Bachelor’s only and you are better off with CES or IQAS.

In this case, you might a successful refund from WES as long as they haven’t received the transcripts.

Upgrading Your ECA for Canada

It is possible to upgrade your ECA to reflect a new degree. So for example, if you got your bachelors evaluated and then two years later, you did a Masters, you can upgrade your credentials assessment so that you get the CRS points for the Masters.

This will cost you extra and the university or you need to send the transcripts of the new degree.

ECA for Cananda in India

If you are planning on doing ECA for Canada from India, then there are certain things that you need to take into consideration.

Any Indian applicant who is sending in a master’s degree or postgraduate diploma to get assessed also has to send their bachelor’s degree.

Exceptions:

Indians with a Master of Education, Master of Engineering, Master of Philosophy, or Master of Technology degree. Also, Indians who have a Ph.D. do not need to send a bachelor’s or master’s degree for evaluation.

ECA for Masters in another Country + Bachelors in India

If you have done your Masters from a western country like the United Kingdom, United States, Germany etc, and your Bachelor’s from India, in that case you need to get the Master’s evaluated only.

In this case, there is no need to mention about your Bachelor’s.

However, note that whether you will get a Master’s from a foreign university would entirely depend on the course you have studied and your university. The only difference is that you don’t need to get your Bachelor’s evaluated.

ECA for Indian MBA

If you have done MBA in India (distance or full-time), then doing the credential evaluation through WES is probably not the best idea unless it is from IIM or IIT.

Is MBA considered a Master Degree in Canada?

WES assesses all Indian MBAs as PostGraduate Diploma of one year (Since June 2018) apart from PGDM from IIMs and IITs.

So if you have done your MBA from any university other than IITs/IIMs, then try to use CES or IQAS or any other agency (not WES) for your evaluation, since a Masters assessment gives you more CRS points.

Is Integrated MBA valid for Canada PR?

Yes, it is. If you have done an integrated MBA like B.Tech+MBA for 5 years, I would strongly recommend you to use IQAS for your evaluation to get a Masters.

Is Distance MBA considered Masters in Canada?

Yeah, Canada doesn’t really care if your MBA is in Masters like some other countries. So don’t worry about it.

Indian Masters Degree Equivalent in Canada

If you have done your Masters in technology or arts or any other streams ( not MBA), in that case, your evaluation will vary depending on the Canada credentials evaluation agency.

Masters in India	Canada Degree Evaluation
M. Tech, MCA, M.E., M.Ed.	Masters
M. Sc/M. Com/M.A	Masters by ICES & IQAS. Other agencies might consider it Post Graduate diploma or Bachelors

Canada Evaluation for MCA

MCA or Master of Computer Application is treated as a Masters for Canada. But keep in mind that you need to get the bachelor’s evaluated in this case as well. So for example, if you did BCA and then MCA, you need them both to be evaluated.

Diploma Degree Equivalent in Canada-Lateral Entry

A common questions is how the Canada credential evaluation will look like if you have done a diploma(usually 3 years) and then got into degree on the basis of that diploma. This is common with lateral entries to Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) or Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.).

You would need to evaluate both diploma and degree in this case, not just degree, which means you need to send the transcripts for both separately.

If you are applying on WES, you can choose technical education for Diploma and university education for bachelors.

Usually, the Canadian equivalency, in this case, would be a 2-year diploma + 4 years degree.

And you would get points for two or more degrees.

Post Graduate Diploma Equivalent in Canada

If you have done a Post Graduate or Post Graduate Diploma after the Bachelors, then it will be considered as a PG diploma only.

BALLB – Professional or Not?

An LLB followed by B.A. or B.Com. is usually considered as a professional degree only, although there have been reports of WES evaluating it as a dual bachelors.

Blacklisted Indian Universities by ICES

ICES maintains a list of universities that are blacklisted due to non-compliance, lack of quality measures and fraudulent practices and more, even though they might be recognized by the UGC.

Here is the list of blacklisted Indian universities by ICES.

What to Do if Your University is not Listed?

As all the evaluating bodies are different, if your university is not listed in one of the evaluating bodies, you can check whether it is there in any other. For example, if your university doesn’t show up on WES, check on CES or IQAS etc.

WES Evaluation for Indians

WES is definitely one of the most preferred agencies to use for your credential evaluations. But you do need to understand a few things before going for WES evaluation.

Indian Degrees That Are not Evaluated by WES

WES does not evaluate education in

• Ayurveda
• Unani
• Siddha indigenous medical systems.

Dual Bachelors Degree

In some cases, you might receive a dual bachelor’s, especially with law degrees. For example, if you did two bachelors at the same time.

However, in IRCC, you would need to fill out Bachelors only. You cannot select 2 degrees.

Indian Degrees with Lateral Entry

If you were a lateral entry into the second year (or third semester) of a Bachelor of Technology or Bachelor of Engineering, in that case you must also provide documentation for prior study, e.g. Diploma in Engineering from a State Board of Technical Education.

You Can’t Send Transcripts, the University Can.

From Indians, WES only accepts official transcripts issued, attested and sealed directly from the university. You, the applicant or third-party agents can’t send these documents.

College-issued mark sheets/result cards are not accepted by WES unless from an autonomous college.

You can check the official list of autonomous colleges in India here.

IQAS vs WES: Which is Faster & Better?

If you are talking about which is faster, then WES is no doubt faster than IQAS or any other agency.

But if you are talking about getting the best bang for your buck, there are situations where IQAS surely trumps WES.

For example, if you have done an MBA or PGDM, your chances of getting a Master’s equivalent are way better through IQAS or any other agency, but WES.

WES is quite picky when it comes to Master’s and MBA, so you really need to find alternatives if you want to get a Master’s equivalent for your Master’s or MBA or PGDM.

People have been able to get their MBA evaluated in IQAS within 60 days or less without any followups.

And coming to Indians, in most cases, except for an MBA from prestigious institutes like IIMs and IITs, WES will evaluate it as PGDM.