A degree is a document until somebody official says what it is worth. Until then, immigration systems cannot award you points for it, regulators will not let you practise, and universities will not admit you.
Credential evaluation is that translation step. It is slow, it is bureaucratic, and it is the item most people start last when it should be first. In several systems nothing else can proceed until it is done.
Here is how it works in each destination, what it costs, and how to avoid the delays that catch most applicants.
Know which kind you need
Three different purposes, three different processes, and the wrong one is wasted money.
For immigration points. Canada requires an Educational Credential Assessment before a foreign degree scores anything in Express Entry. Australia requires a skills assessment by the authority for your occupation.
For professional licensing. Nurses, doctors, engineers, teachers, accountants and many trades go through the relevant regulator, which assesses training content rather than merely degree level.
For university admission. Institutions often do their own assessment, or accept a general evaluation.
An immigration assessment does not license you to practise. A professional assessment is not automatically accepted for immigration points. Identify the purpose before you pay for anything.
Canada
Canada requires an Educational Credential Assessment from a designated organisation. World Education Services is the most widely used, alongside several others including comparative education services and profession-specific bodies for physicians and pharmacists.
World Education Services charges around CAD 329 for the Canadian assessment, with processing around 35 business days once documents are complete.
The bottleneck is almost never the evaluator. It is your institution sending documents.
The United States
There is no single official evaluator. Employers, universities and licensing boards each accept evaluations from recognised member organisations of the two main professional associations in the field.
Costs typically run between USD 100 and 250, with processing anywhere from seven to twenty weeks depending on the service level you buy and how quickly documents arrive.
Check which evaluator your specific recipient accepts before ordering. Boards and universities publish lists, and an evaluation from an unlisted provider is money spent twice.
The United Kingdom
UK ENIC, previously known as NARIC, is the national agency comparing international qualifications to UK levels.
For most Skilled Worker visa purposes the employer needs to be satisfied the role is at the right level rather than needing a formal statement about you. Where one is required, ENIC provides statements of comparability at several service levels.
Regulated professions run separately through their own regulators. Nursing goes through the Nursing and Midwifery Council, medicine through the General Medical Council, teaching and engineering through their own bodies.
Germany
Start with anabin, the free government database. If your institution is rated H+ and your degree type is listed, you can often print those pages as proof and stop there.
Where the entry is ambiguous or an authority asks, the Central Office for Foreign Education issues a Statement of Comparability at EUR 208, with processing of about two to three months once payment and all documents are received.
Germany also formally recognises vocational qualifications, not only degrees, which is unusual and valuable for people from trade backgrounds.
Australia
Australia assesses by occupation rather than centrally. Each occupation has a designated assessing authority, and you must use the one for your nominated occupation.
Engineers Australia for engineering, the Australian Computer Society for information technology, VETASSESS for a wide range of professional and trade occupations, and profession-specific bodies for health and teaching.
These assessments frequently evaluate work experience as well as qualifications, and several will discount years of experience that do not meet their criteria. That discounting can quietly remove points you were counting on, so read the criteria before you submit rather than after.
The step that causes every delay
Evaluators will not accept documents from you.
Transcripts must generally be sent directly by the issuing institution, in a sealed envelope or through a verified electronic channel. Secondary school results usually have to come from the examining board itself, not from a copy you hold.
This is where months disappear. Universities are slow, records offices lose requests, and institutions in countries with paper archives can take a long time to respond.
Request documents the week you decide to emigrate, not the week you start the application. Four months is a realistic planning assumption for the whole exercise, and longer where institutional verification is involved.
Assemble everything at once
Requests that arrive in pieces sit in queues.
You will typically need your degree certificate, full transcripts covering every year, secondary school results, evidence of the content and duration of the programme for vocational or technical qualifications, identity documents, and certified translations.
Translations must usually be done by an approved or sworn translator. A translation done informally at home is a common and avoidable rejection.
Keep certified copies of everything. You will need them again for the visa, the regulator, and possibly an employer.
What the result actually says
Usually that your qualification is comparable to a named local qualification level.
It may be less than you expect. Three-year degrees from some systems are assessed as comparable to something below a local bachelor’s. Professional qualifications sometimes map to a technical rather than a degree level.
If the result is lower than you believed, most evaluators have a review or appeal process, and supplying additional evidence of programme content sometimes changes the outcome. It is worth pursuing where points or eligibility turn on it.
Timing it against everything else
The sequence that works.
Request documents from your institutions first, before choosing an evaluator, because that is the long pole. Order the evaluation as soon as documents are moving. Sit language tests while you wait, since they are independent. Begin professional registration in parallel if your occupation is regulated, because that is slower still.
Doing these in series rather than in parallel adds six months to a process that did not need it.
Mistakes that cost months
- Ordering the wrong kind of evaluation for the purpose.
- Sending your own copies of documents that must come from the institution.
- Using a non-approved translator.
- Starting after the job search rather than before.
- Assuming an immigration assessment licenses you to practise. It does not.
Questions people actually ask
How long does it take? Commonly three to four months end to end, driven by document retrieval rather than assessment.
How much does it cost? Roughly EUR 208 in Germany, CAD 329 for Canada, USD 100 to 250 in the United States, varying elsewhere.
Can I reuse one evaluation? Sometimes across purposes within one country. Rarely across countries.
What if my institution has closed? Most evaluators have a process for this. Contact them before ordering.
Do vocational qualifications count? In Germany and Australia, yes, through defined routes. Less so elsewhere.
Does it expire? Several have validity periods, commonly around five years for immigration purposes.
Do this first
Email your university and your secondary examining board this week and ask what their process is for sending official records directly to an overseas evaluator.
That single email starts the slowest part of the whole migration process, and it costs you nothing to send it today.
Keep the documents usable for years
You will need this paperwork repeatedly, and reassembling it later from another continent is painful.
Keep certified copies of every document you obtain: degree certificates, transcripts, secondary results, syllabi, and every translation. Scan everything at high resolution and store it in two places, one of them not on a device you carry.
Keep the sealed original envelopes where an institution issued them that way, because several authorities will only accept documents that have remained sealed.
Note the validity periods. Several evaluations expire for immigration purposes, commonly after about five years, and language tests typically after two. If your plans slip, the certificate may need redoing before the application does.
And record who you sent what to, and when. Applicants routinely order a second evaluation because they cannot remember whether the first was ever completed, or cannot find the reference number to chase it.
Twenty minutes of filing now saves months later.
Related reading
- Rewriting Your CV for US, UK, Canadian and Australian Employers
- IELTS, PTE and TOEFL Compared: Which Visa Accepts Which Test
- How to Spot a Visa Sponsorship Job Scam
Information only, not legal advice. Evaluator requirements, fees and processing times change. Confirm current details with the specific organisation and with the authority that will receive the assessment.