Sometimes, it’s hard to establish an educational equivalency between a foreign degree and a U.S. Bachelor Degree. Many countries in Europe, as well as in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and many South American Countries, offer 3-year Bachelor Degrees. Some, although not all, of these degrees are considered the international equivalency of a U.S. Bachelor Degree.

Sometimes, as in the case of many European universities, students attend a 13th year of high school, which is as advanced as the first year of an undergradute university degree program in the United States. One example of this is a recent evaluation for a client with a five-year Master Degree from Italy. He  offered kind words of praise regarding the agency’s speed, efficiency, and courtesy. We were very glad to be able to help him with the document evaluation he required for educational purposes.

We recently received another response from a client who wrote to thank us for our work:

“I’m so glad I chose the right people to do it! You guys saved me a lot of money, now can I get right into my masters! You did a wonderful  job! I was looking for an agency to do my evaluation for quite some time I called and researched about probably most of the agencies in the country, and I found the Degree People the most professional one.Thank you for such great work!”

We appreciate the kind words of feedback from all our clients, and look forward to hearing how we can help you with your evaluation needs.

It’s February, and thank goodness we are starting over. The U.S. Military was starting to catch up with us last month. During January, we are glad to be able to report that we were able to help with foreign credential evaluations for 10 members of the armed services. This equals more military education evaluations than we have ever done in a single month to date!

Whether this increase in foreign credential evaluations is a result of the economic problems our country has been having, or the fact that word is just getting out, we are glad to be able to help. In fact, we’ve been experiencing a significant increase in the number of evaluation reports lately. In addition, more and more of our clients, both military and civilian, have been writing us back to let us know the difference our evaluation reports have made in their lives.

It’s nice to know when you’ve been able to make a difference, and we are glad to hear from those who tell us of the difference we have made. The most recent response we received was from one of our clients who was happy to be able to tell us that she had received word that her I-140 had been approved without an RFE or denial. She had a three-year degree, and many clients have come to us after an RFE or denial, requesting our assistance. She chose to use our foreign credential evaluation agency first, however, and was so happy to get through the process without the difficulties her colleagues had experienced that she wanted very much to write and tell us about her approval.

To the U.S. Military: Thank you for making a difference by serving our country!

To our clients: Thank you for letting us make a difference by serving you!

“I have a dream.” That sentiment is shared by most people wanting to immigrate to this country and experience a safe life for themselves and their family, but without foreign degree evaluations, many are unable to make this dream come true. Foreign credential evaluation agencies like Career Consulting International were founded by Americans whose parents or grandparents had arrived in this same country seeking to fulfill this same dream.

The USCIS, which is the part of the United States government that deals with immigration, does recognize that many people wanting to immigrate have foreign degrees, such as high school diplomas or college degrees, from their home countries. Because of the wide variations in education, though, the agency has to ensure that these degrees are the U.S. equivalencies of high school graduation, Bachelor degrees, etc. For this reason, people wanting to obtain immigration visas to the U.S. usually need a foreign degree evaluation to demonstrate their educational equivalencies.

One of the problems with this requirement is that foreign credential evaluations are expensive. A document evaluation is the least expensive, but these can cost up to $100. Other foreign degree evaluations, such as expert opinions, can cost hundreds more. Many of the people who want to come to the United States hardly have enough money to make the trip, find a place to live and food to eat, and all of these things are much more immediately important than having their degrees evaluated.

These people all have a dream, and their dreams are similar to those of our fathers or grandfathers or great-grandmothers. They dream of a better future in a safe land, and the directors of CCI are working to help them make that dream come true, guaranteeing the best possible price for foreign degree evaluations. Are you ready to make your dream come true?

Last July, Career Consulting Agency’s executive director, Ms. Sheila Danzig, issued a press release announcing her policy of free foreign degree evaluations for military personnel. She offered up to 50 free foreign credential evaluations each year. Although we haven’t yet reached that benchmark, we have had between two and ten foriegn degree evaluations for the military each month. As of January 15, we had 4 for this month, so there are 46 more free ones out there!

We regularly receive calls from recruiting sergeants, as well as inquiries from service professionals themselves about whether a person’s foreign education credentials can be evaluated for employment or enlistment purposes. We are always happy to help people get their foreign degrees evaluated. CCI offers free document evaluations, and a discount on other evaluation reports to military professionals.

One thing our consulting agency does not do, however, is translate documents with foreign degrees into English, or work with untranslated documents. We do recommend Accurate Translator Services for translating these educational evaluations, but we do not do the translations directly through our agency.

Military persons who need foreign degree evaluations can call the toll-free number, or email a request to thedegreepeople to have their degrees evaluated. Our goal is to complete these evaluation reports as quickly as possible. It is one way that we can thank the brave people who have chosen to serve our country, and we are glad to be able to do so!

It’s true! For a number of years, Career Consulting International (CCI) has been offering free document evaluations for military professionals. Every month, we have a few recruiters or service personnel email or call to inquire about evaluation reports. January has so far brought only two persons from the military with foreign degrees that required educational evaluations.

Document evaluations, for example, are very helpful for students who need to show that their foreign high school diploma is the U.S. equivalency of high school graduation, or that they have a Bachelor degree from another country. These evaluations help people prove that they are eligible to enlist or to gain a promotion. Sometimes, recruiters contact the agency to request an evaluation report for someone who is about to enlist. Often, however, the service people have read or heard about the agency’s policy and contact us seeking to have their degrees evaluated. Either way, we are happy to serve!

Some persons require course by course evaluations or expert opinions, and we cannot offer these free because of the expense involved. We are able, however, to deduct the cost of the free document evaluation from the fee and offer that reduced rate to the military person. If you are in the military and have a foreign degree, or if you know someone who does, their career may benefit from one of these free foreign degree evaluations!

Every time I open a paper or browse the Internet, the economic crisis stares me in the face. It’s impossible to avoid. Businesses filing bankruptcy, foreclosures in the neighborhood, and continuous updates about how the American economy is negatively impacting the world’s economic markets. Taking these factors into consideration, it may be difficult to see how employment-based and immigration visas could positively affect the American housing market.

In reality, though, the people who enter the U.S. with EB visas have foreign degrees that are the U.S. equivalency of Bachelor or Master Degrees. They are well-educated, have excellent incomes, and possess good credit histories. Those workers holding EB visas who want to remain in the US have applied for permanent residency, and most have been in the country for at least five years, allowing them ample time to become familiar with the American culture and lifestyle.

These people aren’t taking American jobs, either. They hold foreign education credentials required to fill jobs in U.S. businesses that are not currently being filled or cannot be filled by American workers. These academic credentials are carefully documented through foreign credential evaluations performed by reputable evaluation agencies within the United States.

This only makes sense. Encouraging foreign workers who want to remain in the United States to buy a home allows them contributed to the American economy while living in the U.S. This also provides educated, financially responsible people who want to purchase homes and settle in family-centered neighborhoods in the United States. No Americans are losing their jobs as a result, these upstanding individuals are already in the U.S. working, and applying to stay here permanently.

Hopefully, the USCIS and American financial institutions can also see the good sense in this kind of a win-win arrangement. Everyone benefits, no one loses, and perhaps we can find a way to impact the world economy in a positive way!

If you’ve ever visited a foreign country, you know that finding your way around is challenging at first, even if you know the language. Imagine, however, that you leave your country with a solid education and job experience, and emigrate to a new country hoping to find freedom, opportunity, or peace. You don’t know the language, and you know only a few people there.

Many people who enter the United States from other countries have completed high school diplomas or foreign degrees. Not all educational systems are the same, however, and determining the U.S. equivalency of these foreign degrees often requires a foreign degree evaluation. This is sometimes true even for high school graduates.

Often, employers require the assistance of professional foreign credential evaluation agencies to determine whether an applicant’s foreign credentials are indeed equivalent. Many students with 3-year degrees, such as those who graduated from universities in India and some European countries, have had more classroom hours and more intensive education than students from the U.S.

Despite this, however, many educators and immigration experts continue to focus on the “time served” rather than the intensity of the education during the time in which it was obtained. Hence, establishing equivalency for these degrees can sometimes be difficult, although not impossible. Career Consulting International has been fortunate to have an unparalleled level of success in evaluating these 3-year degrees as equivalent to a U.S. Bachelor Degree.

Helping people obtain foreign degree evaluations is often a crucial step to getting a job or advancing their education so that they can succeed and take advantage of the opportunities available in this country. If you know someone who graduated from a university or high school in another country, direct them toward a foreign credentials evaluation agency that can help make this dream come true. Let CCI help!

Even through the holiday season, the professionals at Career Consulting International have been rushing to complete last minute orders for foreign credential evaluations from client. Despite the rush, we always try to take time to make sure that we are able to help people with special details on their evaluations. Some of these special details including mailing instructions, sending along shipping and tracking notices, and even multiple attempts to reach clients whose documents have not yet been received.

Now and then, clients respond with kind words of thanks or encouragement. Recently, one of our clients wrote “I am extremely happy that I found your website on the Internet. I will always be grateful for your honest and professional advice. My evaluation cannot be better. . . I will recommend your service very highly. You are outstanding!”

Notes like these from our clients make completing the sometimes difficult evaluation reports very rewarding, and we are very honored to receive comments like these from our clients. Sometimes, finding a U.S. equivalency for the foreign degrees issued to persons who completed their education in another country can be challenging. Some degrees are not directly comparable to a U.S. degree.

Occasionally, we encounter degrees or diplomas obtained by persons in another country do not have an educational equivalency in the United States, or are not equal to accredited education in the United States. This isn’t something that our clients like to hear, but we strive to remain completely objective and to strictly follow the UNESCO rules for international equivalencies for degrees and diplomas.

Our goal is to issue educational evaluations that maintain our reputation and credibility with our clients, U.S. universities, and of course, the USCIS. While we cannot make every client as happy as the one who wrote us, we strive always to do our best to remain as helpful and objective as possible, and to issue the highest quality evaluations possible.

Last week, one of our clients wrote to us, requesting urgent assistance in evaluating his foreign academic credentials. Though he had held his job for some time, recent economical problems were resulting in cutbacks at his place of employment. He required an evaluation of his foreign degree in order to remain employed.

This person’s problem is not at all unusual in these recent months. People are returning to work after spouses have been laid off, or are working to keep jobs they already hold. Current or prospective employers are requesting or requiring evaluation reports that demonstrate that these persons hold degrees that are the U.S. equivalency of a Bachelor or Master Degree.

If you’re worried about keeping your job, or are seeking a work or immigration visa to the United States, learn more about what type of education evaluation you need. Be aware, though, that some degrees are easier to evaluate than others. People who received their foreign education credentials from countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union or the Eastern Bloc often find it easier to demonstrate that their academic credentials are equal to a US degree because of the enormous number of lecture and classroom hours required (sometimes more than 5,000 to 10,000.)

Although people who attended school in India or many European countries also have a great number of lecture and classroom hours, these degrees are completed in three years. The USCIS often requires greater documentation that these 3-year degrees are the U.S. equivalency of a Bachelor Degree, and so these evaluation reports can be more expensive.

What kind of evaluation do you need? That depends on many factors. Let The Degree People review your credentials, and help you select the type of report that will best help you. Take advantage of the extensive experience and expertise of top evaluators Sheila Danzig and Professor John Kersey. Don’t lose your job or get your employment visa denied tomorrow because you didn’t know what you needed today!

If confirmed, Janet Napolitano’s nomination as Director of Homeland Security is likely to have a significant impact on the H1B visa process and  possibly even be a significant factor in increasing the cap on these employment visas. Of course, in order to get confirmed, she will have to face committee chairman Joseph Lieberman, her sometime ally. Although she could not singlehandledly raise the visa cap, she is likely to be very influential in making some major changes to the H1B program.

One challenge that Napolitano will inherit if she is confirmed is the current problems inherit in the system. A recent examination of a small percentage of approved applications revealed that aspects of more than 20 percent of H1B visa applications were in violation of federal laws and regulations. Examples of these included fraudulent foreign degree evaluations (some applicants submitted degrees from fake universities), signature forgeries, and applications from nonexistent companies.

Ms. Napolitano has been a strong advocate of increasing the H1B Visa cap. Her stance on welcoming the technological skills of persons with foreign degrees offers great potential benefit for U.S. companies and businesses. It remains to be seen, however, what kind of approach she intends to take to minimize fraudulent or erroneous foreign credential evaluations.

This could be done by making the foreign credential evaluation agencies responsible by penalizing them for evaluation reports that offer U.S. equivalencies for fake degrees. Agencies like Career Consulting International and Wes maintain high standards for corroborating degree equivalencies, and should have nothing to fear from this type of approach. Financially penalizing agencies that, knowingly or unknowingly, engage in this behavior should help to significantly reduce the incidence of failing to verify that a foreign country’s university education is indeed equivalent to that of an accredited U.S. university.

President-Elect Barack Obama’s governmental appointments will most likely have a major impact on immigration visas and foreign workers in the United States. The degree to which things will change remains to be seen. Hopefully, some of these abuses will be corrected, and the cap will be increased, so that America can regain her place as technological leader and innovator within world markets. The current U.S. economy sure could use that boost!