If you earned academic credentials in another country, you will probably have to have your degree evaluated before getting an education or finding a job in the United States. Several reputable credentials evaluation services, including Career Consulting International, are available. The prices, as well as the service times, of these agencies vary, so check with them before ordering.

Even before you have your evaluation in hand, you can start looking for a job or considering attending a university, if you have some idea of what your degree is equivalent to. Not all Bachelor Degrees are equal to U.S. Degrees. For example, a Bachelor Degree from Pakistan is almost always equal to a U.S. Associate Degree.

Some countries don’t use the word “Bachelor” to describe an undergraduate degree. A common example is the “Licence” used by many Latin-American countries. Although the degree is designated a “Licence” by the univesrity, it is the degree equivalency of a Bachelor Degree in the United States.

Many European countries complete the Bachelor Degree in three years, because students attend elementary and secondary school for a total of 13 years. These Bachelor Degrees are almost always considered equivalent to a U.S. Bachelor Degree for education and employment purposes. Occasionally, the USCIS requires additional documentation that these European degrees are equal, so persons wanting to immigrate and find jobs based on these degrees may need an expert opinion letter to support their academic evaluations.

If one system of education existed throughout the world, foreign credential evaluations wouldn’t be necessary. Europe has worked to accomplish just this with the Bologna Accord, but only about 15 countries participate in this degree-granting system. Until all educational systems adopt a single degree-granting system, students and employees will need education evaluations to have their foreign education properly evaluated.

Many people have heard that it is possible to get college credit for life experience, but few actually know how this works. In many countries, a college degree is not always required to enter certain career fields. This week, Career Consulting International received a message from someone we had been working with on a work experience evaluation.

This individual had sat for an accounting examination in a foreign country more than 30 years earlier. After working as an accountant for many years, this person decided to work in the United States, and had done so for many years. Having received no formal foreign degree, this person required proof of having sufficient education to begin employment in a new position.

He consulted this particular foreign credential evaluation agency because we had been able to help a family member of his in the past. After reviewing his documents, we were glad to be able to help. This is how his education and experience worked:

Work experience is usually given a U.S. equivalency of one year of higher education for every three years worked. Thus, after working for 24 years, he had achieved the educational equivalency of a Master Degree in Accounting. This together with his accounting certificate from his country of origin, was enough to be able to issue a degree equivalency and advance his employment prospects with the new firm.

And our credential evaluation service was glad to know we had been able to help.