Two days ago, I had the pleasure of receiving a short note of thanks from a client whose educational evaluation we had completed. He expressed his approval of our evaluation report, stating:

“Thanks a lot for sending my evaluation report. I am grateful for the timely response to my request and cooperation that will help me find a reasonable job. Next week my son will be sending his foreign academic credentials for evaluation, which he requires for educatoin and employment.

Again I appreciate you and your colleagues’ efforts. Thank you and warm regards for a Merry Christmas and New Year.”

It’s always good to hear that a client has been successful or received the promotion or immigration visa for which they were applying, but we all appreciated hearing the kind and encouraging words from this client. We were pleased to be able to help him establish solid U.S. equivalencies for his extensive education.

Establishing equivalencies for foreign degrees isn’t always an easy or an exact process, because of the differing number of years of education required between countries, as well as the different majors awarded by the universities of these nations. We continue to do our best, though, to help each client gain the educational recognition and credentials they deserve.

We send out hundreds of foreign credential evaluations to our clients each month, and most of them thank us or send their approval responses, and we send their evaluations for mailing. Occasionally, though, a client writes back, telling us just how the evaluation report has helped him or her. We hear from customers who have obtained job promotions or received admission into a college or university.

Occasionally, we also receive notes from clients telling us just how they feel about our services, and we are glad to print those as well. This following excerpt is from a client who was pleased with our services:

“I just got my four originals of the evaluation and I feel very proud of you. You are

very professional and  you really help people to success. I wish for you and your

company Happy Holidays. Thank you very much for your great help.”

We are glad to receive notes like this from people whose foreign degrees we have evaluated. The only way we know we have been successful in helping is when clients write to us and tell us that we have made a difference.

So if CCI has been able to offer a U.S. equivalency for your foreign education, we’d love to hear from you and know how the educational evaluation has made a difference – personally, professionally, or educationally.

Please share your story with us!

If you have a foreign degree and are applying for immigration visas, university admission, or employment in the United States, you will need a foreign academic credentials evaluation. How do you decide which foreign education credentials evaluation agency is the best? Here are a few tips to help you choose an agency that is right for you.

First, don’t be afraid to shop around. Find out what guarantees these agencies will offer. For example, Career Consulting International offers a lowest price guarantee and promises to answer your questions at any time after you have had an educational evaluation completed – even ten years later.

While you are shopping, find out what kind of communication you can expect from the agency. Are you going to wait days or weeks for someone to respond to you? CCI has phone lines that are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to answer your questions.

Does the agency offer a free evaluation or pre-evaluation of your credits? Do you know what kind of degree equivalency you are going to get before you review your evaluation? CCI doesn’t ask you to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars before you know what you can expect from your evaluation report.

It’s hard to understand why people want to pay more money for poorer service, but you do have the freedom to choose whatever you want. If you don’t want to waste your time or your money, check with the experts at CCI – you won’t be disappointed!

To all of those who have served or are serving in the U.S. military, the professionals at Career Consulting International salute you. You’ve worked hard for your country, and you deserve our respect and our honor. Let us thank you with something even more tangible: a foreign education credentials evaluation.

Our foreign academic credentials evaluation agency offers free document evaluations, and a significant discount off the cost of our other evaluations, to professionals who are actively serving in the military. Just yesterday, we received another request for a foreign degree evaluation from another service member. 

We were able to show that his completion of secondary school requirements was in fact the U.S. equivalency of a high school diploma. This is the third free evaluation report we have been able to complete for the armed services this month, and we are hoping to be able to help with many more.

It’s a pleasure to find some way to thank our men and women in the military for all that they do to serve. Our hats are off to them, and on this Veterans’ Day, we salute them once again. Thank you for carrying out your duty to your country! Serve bravely and come home safely!

Work and immigration visa requirements for the United States can be very complicated, and many people often find themselves being denied simply because they don’t clearly understand the USCIS requirements for these documents. Read this short survey to test your knowledge about American visas and the necessary paperwork for H1-B visas.

First, for those who are unfamiliar with the H1-B classification, it is a work visa designed for short-term employment of people who are being employed in a specialty occupation. This includes persons with advanced degrees or job classifications that are in high demand. Remember, however, that the USCIS requires a foreign academic credentials evaluation to ensure that persons applying for H1-B are eligible based on the U.S. equivalency of their foreign degree or diploma.

What job occupations are considered specialty occupations?  Persons whose foreign credentials demonstrate professional credentials in medicine, science, engineering, architecture, theology, or the arts may qualify for H1-B visas.

How does a person from another country get an H1-B visa?  First, an American employer has to petition the USCIS to permit the employment of a foreign citizen. Then, the employer must show, through a foreign credentials evaluations, that the candidate’s education is the U.S. equivalency of the desired credentials.

What employment rules affect H1-B visa holders?  First, people with these work visas must be continually employed in the capacity for which they were hired. This does not include medical leave or maternity leave. In addition, people with these visas must obtain educational evaluations each time their visa is renewed. Finally, they must follow special procedures in order to change employers.

If you are a person with a foreign degree who wishes to work in the U.S., the first step in the visa application is to obtain an evaluation report for your foreign degree or diploma. You must clearly demonstrate that your credentials are equivalent to a U.S. degree. Therefore, before you discuss employment with a potential employer, get your foreign credentials evaluated.

Recently, Career Consulting International was asked by a Navy service member to assist with an educational evaluation of his foreign education credentials. His goal is to enter the Navy’s medical service.  This is the fourth evaluation report CCI has completed for military personnel in October.

So far this month, we have equaled the number of foreign degree evaluations we completed for armed services members last month – which was our highest total ever. The word is starting to get out, and I am confident that one day soon, the U.S. Armed Forces will be able to meet Ms. Danzig’s challenge. (If you know anyone who can help them meet that challenge, get the word out!)

To remind you once more, most people who have obtained high school or college educations in other countries usually need their foreign diplomas evaluated to show the U.S. equivalency of their education. These evaluations can be used to help people with employment or educational goals, or even to apply for immigration visas to the United States.

In the armed services, college education can assist with a promotion, while a high school diploma is required for entry. Because these military people have chosen, of their own free will, to help by serving our country, we at CCI try to do our part in helping them by offering free document evaluations to help them get the credit they deserve. So keep spreading the word!

Recently, we had the pleasure of receiving information from a client that his foreign academic credentials evaluation had been accepted by his employer. He proudly informed us that he was wearing his new title.

It’s hard to imagine what it would be like to attend school for four or six years and be successful in one’s home country, only to immigrate to another country and lose that immediate acceptance of one’s foreign degree. Yet, that is exactly what happens for many people who arrive here as a result of immigration visas. They cannot get a job using their skills and knowledge until after their foreign credentials have been evaluated.

Career Consulting International is very glad to be able to help hardworking, educated people who have foreign degrees obtain an accurate evaluation report of the U.S. equivalency of their degrees. Everyone deserves an equal opportunity for success in their careers!

In these hard economic times, a raise or a promotion never hurts. We were glad to know that we had been able to help this person prove that he did have the equivalent of a Master Degree, so that he was able to have the academic and job recognition he deserved.

If you are considering having foreign education credentials evaluated for U.S. equivalency, you may wonder how many credits you are likely to get for each subject. Is there any consistent way to determine this? Do evaluation agencies simply assign a random number of credits to a course?

Although the process may at first seem impossible to figure out or understand, Career Consulting International uses a strictly defined formula to determine how many credits each class is worth. If the number of semester credit hours received by the foreign degree student is listed on the transcript, this number is often used. Many universities in other countries, however, require students to have fewer or greater numbers of contact hours to gain a semester hour of credit, so this must also be factored in.

Some countries, such as those that were once part of the former Soviet Union, require an extremely high number of hours for their courses. Some classes require more than 300 contact hours! In this case, the international equivalency is determined by converting these contact hours to credit hours.

The process of foreign academic credentials evaluations isn’t arbitary, but it can be time-consuming and complicated. Evaluation agencies such as Career Consulting International, however, are committed to offering their applicants the best service possible, and are usually willing to explain how the degree equivalency was reached. If you have questions about your evaluation report, discuss them with the person who completed the evaluation; it is their goal and service to help you.

Sometimes, the process of applying for I-140s or other immigration visas can be frustrating for attorneys, clients, and foreign education credential evaluation agencies. This is particularly true with 3-Year Degrees, which are not always accepted by the USCIS as the U.S. equivalency of a Bachelor Degree. Despite everyone’s best efforts, people with foreign degrees are often denied these visas, because immigration officials argue that these degrees just aren’t equivalent.

This occurs more frequently with 3-Year Degrees from India or Bangladesh than from European countries. This occurs despite evaluators’ bests efforts to show the extensive numbers of contact hours and course work which the client has completed. In these situations, is it ever worth the client’s time and money to appeal a denial?

The answer may surprise you. In fact, denials are sometimes overturned on appeals. This may be because of additional evidence presented, or because the appeals arbitrators have a different perspective on the results of the educational evaluation. In many cases, however, the appeals process does have a positive outcome.

The downside of appealing denials for immigration visas is that it can be expensive. Many clients have spent considerable money on foreign academic credentials evaluations, as well as attorney fees. It may or may not be worthwhile to appeal a denial. Only the client – and his or her attorney – can really decide this. Hopefully, their decision is also based on advise from a professional consulting firm who is experienced in appealing visa denials based on these evaluations.

Recently, we had the pleasure of working with a client who had received an RFE for his I-140 aplication. He was told he needed a second foreign education credentials evaluation, and was unsure to whom he should turn for the educational evaluation. His attorneys recommended one firm, but told him that they were uncertain whether the evaluation report for this firm would get his visa application approved.

He chose instead to search online for himself, and to followup discussion threads at several immigration visa forums to which he belongs. The agency he chose was Career Consulting International, and into our hands he trusted the future of his visa application. He decided upon our agency based on the testimonials from other individuals whom we have helped.

Our foreign credentials expert, Professor Kersey, was able to offer a sound approach with which our director, Ms. Danzig, concurred. This approach differed significantly from the advice offered by the client’s attorney, but the attorney recognized the value of Professor Kersey and Ms. Danzig’s expert recommendation. The client wrote to tell us that his application was approved two weeks after submitting the evaluation report to USCIS.

We are currently in the process of putting together case studies of clients with RFEs, previous denials, 3-year degrees, and other challenging cases involving foreign degrees and visa applications. We want to be able to demonstrate how we have been able to help clients in difficult circumstances gain approval for their visa applications. If you have a specific problem or question about visa approvals, please post a comment or contact us so that we can help.