Credential Evaluation Frequently Asked Questions

A credential evaluation compares academic and professional degrees earned in one country to academic and professional degrees earned in another. Colleges, universities, employers and governments use credential evaluations to evaluate foreign education as part of the admission or hiring process.

Acquiring a credential evaluation from ECE will ensure your foreign education is fully understood by colleges, universities, and employers within the U.S.

If you're coming to the U.S. from another country and need to convert the academic credentials you earned in that country, you'll need a credential evaluation.  This will help colleges, universities, and employers within the U.S. understand your academic credentials and qualifications. 

The exact credential evaluation report you need will vary depending on the reason you need a report. The Course by Course is our #1 selling report - ordered by 66% of our customers. It will work for most purposes, but we recommend contacting the school, employer, or licensing board to which you are applying to find out which type of report it requires. Visit our Services and Fees page for more detailed information on the types of reports we offer including:

• Pricing
• Sample Reports
• Rush Service
• Copies 
• Delivery Options

The cost of a credential evaluation depends on which type of evaluation you are ordering. Additional fees for rush service, copies and delivery may also affect your evaluation cost.

Visit our Services and Fees page for pricing information.

No, we only evaluate academic work and educational credentials.

Most ECE® orders are completed within 5 business days after we receive all required documents. Some may take longer, as processing times can vary and do not include delivery time, weekends, or holidays.

If you have submitted educational documents to ECE, you will receive an email confirmation of receipt once the documents have been received and processed. We strive to process incoming documents within 1-3 business days. We are currently able to process incoming documents within 3-5 business days; however, the time it takes to acknowledge receipt of documents varies based on the volume of documents we receive. Please be assured that they will be processed as soon as possible. 

If you have a deadline, ECE offers a guaranteed 5 Business Day Rush Service ($80) and delivery options. More information is available on the Services and Fees page of this website.

If the report was completed less than 5 years ago 

If you need a different type of evaluation report, you must complete and submit a new application form, including the applicable fees.  If the previous evaluation was completed within 5 years, ECE can use the documents submitted for that evaluation, you do not need to resubmit those documents.   

Start a new application. 

If the report was completed more than 5 years ago

If you need a different type of evaluation report, you must complete and submit a new application form, including the applicable fees, and educational documents according to current ECE® documentation requirements. Please note that ECE does not have any documents for evaluations that were completed more than five years ago.  

Start a new application. 

If the report was completed less than 5 years ago

If you have new credentials that need to be evaluated that were not previously evaluated and your evaluation was completed within 5 years, you must complete and submit a new application form, including the applicable fees. You must also submit the new documents for the new credential according to current ECE® documentation requirements. ECE can use any documents previously submitted, you do not need to resubmit those documents.   

Start a new application. 

If you have completed your foreign degree or diploma program within 5 years of receiving an ECE^® Evaluation Report, you may be eligible to add your final degree or diploma to the report with our Report Update option.

If the report was completed more than 5 years ago

If you have new credentials that need to be evaluated and your report was completed more than 5 years ago, you must complete and submit a new application form, including the applicable fees, and educational documents according to current ECE® documentation requirements. Please note that ECE does not have any documents for evaluations that were completed more than five years ago.  

Start a new application. 

At this time, ECE only provides academic assessments for individuals interested in studying in Canada. If you need an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) for immigration purposes, please visit the Government of Canada website to learn more.

We understand that your current name is different from the name on your credentials. To request an evaluation, please visit ece.org/ECE/Credential-Evaluations and select “Applying to U.S. institutions” or “Applying to Canadian Institutions” and follow the 3 Steps to Apply.  

When completing our online application, please enter your current name in the “Name” field. The name you enter in the online application is the name we will print on the report.  

In Step 2 - "Educational History" of the online application, when asked, "Does your name appear differently on your educational documents?" please click "Yes" and enter your name as it appears on the documents, and any other previous/additional names. 

After you submit your application, please send a photocopy of a photo identification (ID, driver’s license, passport, etc.) and documentation confirming any name changes (marriage license, legal petition for name change, etc.) with your educational documents. OR you may send scans of these same documents to ecemail@ece.org with your reference number in the subject line. (However, please do not e-mail any questions to that address; it is for document submission only). 

We appreciate your concern regarding the capitalization of your last name. Please be assured that this is not an error. ECE capitalizes the last name on all our evaluation reports and in all ECE correspondence to distinguish the last name from the first and middle names. This is ECE policy, and the capitalization of the last name will not be changed.

The Document Matching Form is generated for you when you submit your application. This helps us match your documents more quickly to your order. If you already submitted your application, and forgot to print the Matching Form, you can find it in your dashboard. Go to "My Report Orders" section, click the "View" button, then "Print Document Matching Form."

However, it is not necessary to print the matching form. You may instead include your reference number on a piece of paper when sending us your documents.

No, we do not have an office that you can apply for in person.  

ECE is available to answer any questions you have about the evaluation report up to five years after it is completed. Follow the links on our website at https://www.ece.org/ECE/About/Contact-Us, and we will direct your question to the appropriate person.

If you log into your account, you can check the status of your report. 

ECE usually processes educational credentials in 1-3 business days. This time may vary depending on the number of items we have to process at any time. If you mailed your credentials and your tracking information says the package was delivered, but you have not received a confirmation from ECE, your mail has not been processed yet. Do not worry. We will process it soon and send you an email update. If you send documents by email, you will get an automated message confirming we have received your email.

Once the documents have been processed, they will be forwarded to an evaluator for review. If additional information is needed, we will notify you, clarifying what is still needed to proceed with the evaluation. If we already have everything we need, we will continue with the evaluation and prepare your report.

We are happy to assist you with any mailing issues you may experience. Please understand that while ECE is not responsible for the mail after it leaves our office, we can still investigate the situation and try to help find a resolution. If the investigation results in the need to file a claim with the delivery service you chose in your application or copy request order, ECE will do that for you and file a claim as the shipper. As the shipper, ECE may have more details needed for the claim. We may require additional information from you to properly file the claim per the courier's requirements.

Please note that delivery services have deadlines for filing claims. Please notify us about any lost, damaged, or missing mail within 60 days from the date ECE sent it. DHL requires notice within 30 days. If you notify us about a mail issue after these time limits, we can still investigate, but we may not be able to file a claim.

The ECE InsigniaTM package is an add-on you can select when you order a report. It provides easy and secure ways to share the outcome of an ECE^® evaluation report via social media or other digital platforms and allows you to purchase discounted copies of the evaluation report.  

The Insignia^TM certificate displays the U.S. or Canadian equivalency of each academic credential included in the ECE^® evaluation report and can be verified by scanning the included QR code. The Insignia^TM badge can be displayed on social media profiles or in email signatures to show that your education has been evaluated by ECE^® and links directly to the certificate. 

Read more about Insignia^TM

Original academic documents are the documents given directly to the student by the institution, usually at the time study is completed or the degree is awarded. Original academic documents are usually printed on the institution’s letterhead, and have a fresh ink stamp, raised seal, and/or official signatures. Original academic documents will be returned with the completed evaluation report..

Official academic documents are documents issued by the institution in an envelope stamped and sealed by the institution.

You must complete and submit your application on our website prior to sending your documents. (Click here to start the application process.) 

Once you have submitted the online application, you will be asked to print the Document Matching Form and follow the instructions provided.

If the documentation requirements for your country of study have 'Photocopy or Scan' for the document type, you may email that document as a PDF attachment to ecemail@ece.org.

If the documentation requirements for your country of study have 'Original' OR 'Official Document issued in a Sealed Envelope', please send them to:   

ECE
101 W. Pleasant Street, Suite 200
Milwaukee, WI 53212-3963

Original documents are important. We must receive complete documentation before beginning the educational credential evaluation process. If you are required to send original documents, do not send copies of the documents as well. It is safe to send original documents to ECE but we suggest that you request a tracking number from the courier service. 

No, we do not review educational credential documents without an application form and complete materials, including payment, for a report order.

All of your educational documents will be returned when the report is complete, unless the issuing institution has specifically stated it cannot be shared with the student.

Depending on your country of study, submit your original degree/diploma or an official degree confirmation issued in a sealed envelope.

Contact our Customer Service if you have any questions.

We carefully research the specific practices in each country, and determine the documentation requirements accordingly. We understand that situations arise where obtaining certain documents might not be possible.  We do our best to be flexible, but in most situations we are unable to prepare an evaluation report.

If one of the following circumstances applies to you, follow the directions listed. If your situation is not listed, or you have any questions, feel free to contact Customer Service, but we may not be able to prepare a report for you.

• My school is closed, and I cannot obtain sealed-envelope documents: Submit your original documents to us and include a written explanation of your circumstances. We will review the situation and prepare a report if possible.
• I cannot obtain a grade report because my master’s or doctoral program did not have coursework: Depending on your country of study, submit your original degree/diploma or an official degree confirmation issued in a sealed envelope.

As more documents are made available online and shareable through secure websites, we research the services and determine if they meet our documentation requirements.

If your school uses one of the following services, you may share your documents with us through the service.

Please do NOT send us any personal login or user information.

We may be able to accept alternatives to our standard documentation requirements. Secure electronic documents should be sent to ECEMail@ece.org directly from a verifiable email address of the institution. Please ask the institution to include your name and ECE reference number when providing us with secure electronic documents. If you have any questions please Contact Us. See also “Do you accept electronic documents?” question above.

If you would like to apply for an evaluation report but have not completed your academic program, you may do so by submitting the required documentation that has been issued to date by your institution. And if you complete your degree/diploma program or complete additional coursework for the same program, you can update the report within five years of ordering the original evaluation report.

Our documentation requirements are different for each country. Please click here: ece.org/ECE/Credential-Evaluations/Documentation-Requirements and choose your country of study to view the requirements. 

Instructions on where to send your documents will be provided to you in the online application.

Please note that ECE reserves the right to request additional information and/or documents to be sent directly to ECE by the issuing institutions and/or to verify your documentation at any time during the evaluation process. If you are not able to submit the required documents, ECE will not be able to complete an evaluation report. No exceptions will be made, and no refunds will be issued.

Finally, please do not send any documents to ECE before completing our online application and be sure to include your reference number. To request an evaluation report, please visitece.org/ECE/Credential-Evaluations and select “Applying to U.S. institutions” or “Applying to Canadian Institutions” and follow the 3 Steps to Apply.  

English translations are required for all documents issued in a language other than English.  
 
Please submit complete, legible copies. You may prepare the translations yourself as long as they are word-for-word, and in the same format as the original document. If you are applying to the NABP, please follow their documentation requirement here.
 
ECE^® Translation Waiver:  For a fee of $50, you do not need to submit English translations. This option is available only for General and GGPA reports.  It is not available for NABP orders.

If the content of the document matches the content of a document in your possession, then you can prepare the translation based on the document in your possession. If you do not know the content of the document in the sealed envelope, then you should request two sets of sealed envelopes from your institution so you can open one set to be translated.

Our trained evaluation staff reviews all educational documents submitted to establish their authenticity.

We reserve the right to contact educational and other institutions to verify the authenticity of any documents received. In the limited cases in which we must contact institutions for verification, the evaluation process may be delayed, sometimes substantially.

Normally, we will wait a maximum of six months for a satisfactory response to our verification requests. During this period we will make two attempts to contact the issuing institution using the best contact information available to us, including email, post, and fax.

Because the verification of documents depends on the responsiveness of third parties in other countries, this process can significantly delay the preparation of our evaluation report and, in some cases, may prevent us from completing a report. We will not issue an evaluation report when substantial concerns about the documents submitted have not been satisfactorily resolved.

Many government-authorized agencies and educational institutions around the world provide services to verify or authenticate educational documents. These services include online databases, internet authentication services, or official institutions or agencies that send authenticated official documents directly to us by mail. Please see the Documentation Requirements for individual countries to determine whether or not a verification or authentication service is required in your case.

Yes.  We encourage the use of verification and authentication services and will determine in each instance whether or not it is acceptable.

You should review the Documentation Requirements by country to determine if original documents are required in addition to a verification or authentication service. In general, it is not necessary to provide original documents for information contained in a verification or authentication response. However, in some cases the verified information does not cover the complete set of documents. For example, if we can verify graduation online through the school but not the content or grades of the subjects studied, then an original grade report would be required along with a photocopy of the degree.

You can download the Academic Records Release Form in the following languages: 

• Chinese
• English
• French
• Italian
• Portuguese
• Spanish
• Ukrainian