Recently, we were able to help a client who had a foreign degree and extensive work experience. Through documentation from her employers, we were able to combine her education and work experience equivalencies to show that her foreign education credentials were the U.S. equivalency of the degree she needed for employment.

We were glad to hear from her and know that she had been able to secure employment based on the educational evaluation she had received. Sometimes, combining work and education can be tricky, and if it is not done right, employers and USCIS will reject the evaluation report outright. Thanks to our academic expert, we were able to meet your client’s needs and accurately document her credentials at the same time.

If you have had a foreign credentials evaluation through Career Consulting International, we invite you to write and share your story. Because we specialize in difficult evaluations and RFEs, we especially appreciate hearing the success stories. We don’t want to miss sharing a little of your joy!

We promised to keep you posted on how the U.S. military responded to the challenge issued by Career Consulting International. It must have taken a little while for the word to get out, because we had no responses in August. With that in mind, here is an update on the foreign education evaluations for September.

So far this month, we have been asked to evaluate foreign degrees for two members of the U.S. armed forces. We are hoping to have the privilege of completing an educational evaluation for a third individual this week. Although this does result in a 200 percent increase in our results from last month, we are still far short of our goal.

In early August, Ms. Danzig released a statement to the press offering U.S. equivalency evaluations free of charge to members of the U.S. military. She authorized her company, Career Consulting International, to complete 50 evaluation reports free of charge each month. So far, we are 48 - or perhaps 47 short of meeting her challenge to the American military.

So if you know anyone who received a foreign diploma or degree and is a member of a branch of the United States military, please encourage them to contact CCI for a free evaluation of their educational credentials. Don’t let them miss out on this valuable opportunity because they didn’t hear about it in time. Help us thank them for serving so bravely!

If you completed your education in a different country, showing that your degree is the U.S. equivalency of a degree earned in the United States may be very simple or quite challenging, depending on many factors. Some of these factors include the number of years you attended school, and the country in which you obtained your foreign diploma. The university you attended also may play a significant role in whether your degree is recognized in the United States.

Another important consideration in having your foreign credentials evaluated is the purpose for which they will be used. For example, equivalency evaluations that are performed for employment purposes can often be completed with more flexibility than evaluations that are performed for immigration visas or university admission. Likewise, people seeking H1-B visas do not have evaluation requirements as strict as those who are seeking I-140 visas. 

Sometimes, a great deal of evidence or expertise is required to show that certain foreign credentials are equivalent to U.S. degrees. These evaluation reports may be expensive, and sometimes prospective immigrants question whether the evaluation is worth the expense. If the evaluation is provided by a reputable agency, however, it is almost always well worth the cost.

The only way to determine whether your education is equivalent to a U.S. degree is to have an educational evaluation performed by a foreign credentials evaluation agency. Often, these consultants can quickly inform you, after performing a brief pre-evaluation, whether your foreign education credentials will be recognized in the United States. Although the evaluators who perform complete these evaluation reports, no evaluation can be 100% guaranteed to be successful.

If you received a foreign degree and decided to enter the U.S. for education, employment, or immigration, you will probably need a foreign education evaluation to determine the U.S. equivalency of your degree. Although finding a foreign credential evaluation agency isn’t too difficult, finding a good one can be extremely tough, and knowing exactly what type of educational evaluation you need is important too. Just how easy is it to choose between the different types of evaluations?

In reality, a good agency will be able to tell you upon examining your application whether or not you’ve made the right choice. While certain types of evaluations may be acceptable for work, you may need a more specific type of evaluation, such as a course-by-course evaluation, for university admission. The difference can be even more critical if you are planning to apply for an immigration visa such as an H1-B or I-140 visa.

Most applicants have some idea of what type of evaluation they need. Most reputable agencies, however, know exactly which type of evaluation will work for a specific purpose. For example, some people are unaware that educational degrees cannot be combined when filing for an I-140. Occasionally, clients become frustrated and seek other alternatives when a good agency refuses to provide them with an educational evaluation that will not help them.

In a few instances, clients seek foreign credential evaluations, only to demand the kind of evaluation they believe will be best for them. They don’t understand the details of immigration visa requirements, and are sure that their opinion regarding their educational equivalency is correct. Rather than trust the experts, they would prefer to make their own decisions - even if they waste hundreds of dollars of their own money doing so.

Foreign credential evaluation agencies can be expensive, and paying the cost of a professional translator may seem like an added, unnecessary expense. It may seem just as convenient to have a “friend” translate, or find someone who agrees to translate it for a very small fee. After all, what difference can one or two little words make?

In fact, even a single word or letter can be critical to a favorable educational evaluation. For example, the misalignment of a single column can result in the wrong grade for a course, or the wrong number of credits being assigned to a course. Likewise, being unfamiliar with advanced terms in course subjects, an inexperienced translator could assign a key mathematics course as algebra rather than calculus, which could be very detrimental for the student with a foreign degree.

Many immigration attorneys and foreign education credential evaluation services, such as Career Consulting International, work with translator services on a regular basis. While these agencies do not require people seeking U.S. equivalencies for their diplomas to use a particular translator, they are able to recommend high quality companies that have historically offered high quality translations. Furthermore, their professional reports leave no room for clerical errors.

The visa application process can be expensive and time-consuming. Frequently, people are in a hurry to have their visas approved for employment or education reasons. They have little time for making multiple corrections to evaluation reports that contain multiple errors as a result of erroneous translations. Taking a moment to carefully select a good professional translator can save a lot of future time and trouble. Spend the extra time with your family and friends, rather than making corrections and fielding the hassles caused by poor translations.

If you are considering attending university in the United States, or have been thinking about emigrating to the United States, you may require a foreign credentials evaluation. This will help to ensure that your foreign degree or diploma is recognized as a valid educational document.  If you are able to get these documents before leaving your home country, this can save you a great deal of time and trouble.

Important documents to keep on hand for submission to a foreign credentials evaluation agency such as Career Consulting International include copies of your passport, driver’s license, and marriage certificate. Transcripts or mark sheets, as well as degrees or diplomas, from your native country are also important.

Women who are submitting their foreign credentials for evaluation often wish to include their married name on the educational evaluation. In order to do this, they should submit a copy of their U.S. state-issued driver’s license, their passport with their married name, or their marriage certificate. This will greatly facilitate the credential evaluation process.

The process of locating foreign evaluation services can be difficult. One of the best ways to find a reputable service is to check with an immigration attorney or official translating service. These agencies often work with companies on a regular basis and know which companies will offer the most timely and accurate immigration evaluations.

Recently, Career Consulting International was very pleased to receive feedback from a new customer: “Thank you so much for helping me obtain my educational evaluation in such a short period of time. I will be referring you to my friends as well.” We were pleased to be able to help this person with an evaluation report that offered the U.S. equivalency for their foreign degree.

We enjoy helping people, and we all enjoy reading the letters and comments from students and individuals who desire to obtain immigrant visas. Knowing that we have been able to help people achieve their goals and dreams is rewarding to all of us. So please, don’t hesitate to share your story.

If you or someone you know has been helped by TheDegreePeople through a foreign credential evaluation, write and let us know. We are always working to improve our process as well, so any suggestions for making the process easier for future customers are welcome as well.

Please stop by the guest blog and offer your input. Is there anything else that we can do to make the evaluation of your academic credentials any easier? Stop by and help us help you even more effectively!