Often, people applying for foreign credential evaluations for their Bachelor or Master Degrees don’t stop to realize that there is a big difference between A and O. Advanced and Ordinary Level secondary exams, that is. In fact, in many countries, Advanced Level exams are equal to an extra year of college education.

Countries such as Norway, the United Kingdom, Spain, Ghana, France, Sri Lanka, and many others offer students ordinary level exams, which is equivalent to US high school graduation. These countries, however, also offer A Level exams, which is equivalent to one year of undergraduate education. Because of this, their three-year Bachelor Degrees can easily be shown to be the US equivalency of a Bachelor Degree, for both education and H1B visa purposes.

Other countries, however, including those in West Africa (including Nigeria, Cameroon, and Sierra Leone) offer both ordinary and advanced level exams. For many of these students, however, the completion of A level exams is equivalent only to graduation from high school – not an undergraduate year of college.

Some people don’t realize the difference, but many other people automatically assume that the credential evaluation service will take these differences into account without having proof of the completion of these exams. This isn’t the case, however. Unless applicants send these exam results, they won’t get credit for this education.

So if you’re ready to apply for an academic credentials evaluation, and your high school education was in a foreign country, send your high school diploma, as well as your ordinary and advanced level exam results. This will save a lot of confusion, and help you get the highest educational equivalency that your academic credentials deserve. Don’t sell your education short – help the evaluators by sending all of your educational documents.

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.

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!

When Career Consulting International began doing foreign credential evaluations for the Chartered Accountancy certification from India, experts Sheila Danzig and John Kersey had their research cut out for them. Few evaluators were even attempting this equivalency, and success rates were quite low.

Thanks to their hard work, however, Ms. Danzig and Professor Kersey have joined forces to offer clients who have passed the CA exams the U.S. equivalency of a Bachelor, or even a Master Degree, in Accounting. In fact, CCI’s success rate with this certification is 100 percent for immigration purposes.

In fact, foreign degree evaluations that show the Chartered Accountancy Fellowship equal to a Master’s Degree are not easy, and few evaluators even believe this is possible. We have been very fortunate to work with excellent attorneys and clients who work closely with the evaluators to provide the necessary information to accomplish this goal.

Thanks to our clients, who work so hard to help us help them. Thanks to the excellent attorneys who, through their outstanding teamwork and collaboration, help their clients so effectively. Showing educational equivalencies for foreign degrees and certifications isn’t always easy, but helping our clients succeed is more than worth the effort involved!

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!