Every month, Career Consulting International offers free foreign credential evaluations to the first 50 members of the US Armed Forces who apply. So far this year, though, the US military has yet to meet this monthly challenge.

Many people seek careers in the military, hoping for opportunities to advance their careers and earn a good living. Many of these people are immigrants, or the sons and daughters of immigrants. They have earned foreign degrees or high school diplomas in the countries of their birth, before emigrating to the U.S.

Most of the time, employers or educators want to confirm that these academic credentials are the U.S. equivalent of the degree or diploma these individuals earned in their previous country. To determine this, foreign credential evaluation agencies such as Career Consulting International complete educational evaluations to establish equivalency.

Sometimes these foreign education evaluations can be very expensive. The cost ranges from $70 to over $1,000. Most of the time, however, employment education evaluations can be completed with a simple document evaluation.

CCI’s Executive Director, Sheila Danzig, and her staff, have great respect for those who choose to serve their country by enlisting or applying to join the U.S. Military. To help make this possible, Ms. Danzig offers free foreign credential evaluations to the first 50 military persons who apply each month.

These evaluations are accepted by all major branches of the U.S. Military, including the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Each month, we receive a variety of requests from recruiters and soldiers across the country enlisting our assistance, and we are proud to be able to help.

So far this month, we have had requests from three military servicepersons for educational evaluations. We have room for 47 more, so call today to find out how to reserve your slot and get your free foreign credential evaluation!

“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?

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!

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!

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.

For many of us who attended high school in the United States, it is hard to imagine our diplomas not being recognized. For prospective college students or immigrants from other countries, however, having foreign credentials such as high school diplomas from other countries can be a hardship, and may even delay or jeopardize their immigration visas. For these students, a foreign degree evaluation is required to assess whether their foreign degrees can be demonstrated as a US equivalency to a high school diploma.

For example, some countries distinguish between pre-university diplomas and vocational diplomas. Students with vocational diplomas cannot be shown to have a U.S. equivalency to a high school diploma from an accredited secondary institution in the United States. Because these diplomas are not equal, a foreign credential evaluation cannot offer evidence that a student is eligible to attend university in the U.S. based on their foreign degrees.

Many students, however, do have the international equivalency of a U.S. high school diploma, but have trouble proving this academic equivalency. Foreign credential evaluation agencies can be very helpful if they have a detailed understanding of the level of education experienced by foreign students. Without a complete understanding of these international equivalencies, however, the agency can do more harm than good.

The professionals at CCI work hard to remain up-to-date on the latest information concerning USCIS requirements and international education assessments. We have been able to help a number of prospective university students who otherwise would have been unable to attend college in the United States. Our focus is to help you be the best you can be – just let us help!