If you received a foreign degree and are seeking the U.S. equivalency, you will need a foreign credentials evaluation. These may be relatively inexpensive, or quite costly, depending on the degree of complexity your educational evaluation requires. Document evaluations are typically available for less than $100, while evaluation reports requiring expert opinions may cost over $1,000.

When you are ordering, it’s helpful to know what type of evaluation you need. To determine this, you may discuss with your potential employer whether a document evaluation is sufficient. If you have extensive experience but less formal education than your new boss would like, ask the consulting agency whether you qualify for a work credentials evaluation.

If, however, you are applying for admission to a university, and have already completed some postsecondary education, you will probably need a course by course evaluation. This type of evaluation lists your course work, your grades, the number of semester credit hours you have earned, and your grade point average. Be sure that your credits are reported in terms of semester credit hours if you are interested in college, because this is the way most colleges calculate credits.

If you have questions about what you are ordering, contact the consulting agency before you order. A good foreign credentials evaluation agency will always have a knowledgeable representative available to assist you with ordering the right evaluation. Make sure you know that the evaluation you are ordering meets your requirements, so you know that you can accomplish your goals by having the right evaluation.

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!

It’s November, and the professionals at Career Consulting International are waiting to see whether the U.S. Armed Forces can meet the challenge. We’re looking for 50 foreign academic credential evaluations needed by active members of the armed services. So far, it looks even more promising than last month.

We have had two educational evaluations for military professionals since the first of this week, so we only need 48 more. In case you’ve missed out on our patriotic efforts, we are offering free document evaluation reports to the first 50 members of any person who is in active military service. Finding personnel who are willing to help us out with this goal has been a challenge.

Just to review, if you know someone who is serving in the U.S. military who received a foreign degree, or high school diploma, this person may benefit from a foreign credential evaluation. If they can show their degrees to be the U.S. equivalency of postsecondary education, they may be eligible for a promotion.

Do you know anyone in the military who was born or went to school in a different country? Have they had their education evaluated by a foreign credentials evaluation agency? If not, help them get their promotion or advancement today!

You’ve earned a foreign degree at the Bachelor or graduate level, and want to apply for an immigration visa to the United States. To apply for an employment-based visa, you must prove that your education is the U.S. equivalency required for the labor certificate. How do you know if your degree will hold up to examination?

First, check the UNESCO database at  http://www.unesco.org/iau/onlinedatabases/list.html . If your university is listed here, your degree will probably be recognized as accredited education by the U.S. Department of Education. This is the educational authority recognized as well by USCIS. Some universities, such as some accredited institutions within the United Kingdom, can be located at other websites as well.

Sometimes, a private educational institution or university operating within a particular country will be recognized as accredited education as well. These foreign academic credentials may be issued by a private university or by that country’s department or ministry of education. For example, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is an educational institution established by that country’s statutes and passing those examinations can yield the U.S. equivalency of a degree as well.

Determining whether some foreign diplomas, such as certain postgraduate diplomas offered in some countries, are accredited can be a difficult process. For this reason, many foreign academic credentials evaluation agencies, including Career Consulting International, offers pre-evaluation reports. These can be used to offer students an idea of whether their education can indeed be evaluated as the international equivalency of an accredited degree.

Not all diplomas do meet U.S. requirements for accredited education, and extenuating circumstances apply. For this reason, the USCIS generally requires persons who have obtained their degrees outside the U.S. to have an educational evaluation performed before an employment-based visa is issued. Do your homework, and get your degree evaluated so you will know whether your diploma will make the grade!

Last year, the USCIS warned that it was tightening requirements for approvals for employment and immigration visas. Consequently, 3-Year Degrees are undergoing more intense scrutiny than ever before. Many clients with 3-Year degrees from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have reported RFEs and even denials of their employment visas.

As a result, Career Consulting International has made a conscious effort to specialize in providing detailed foreign credentials evaluations to these clients. It’s not always easy to measure success, because the agency often hears from only those who receive RFEs or denials. On rare occasions, we do hear from clients with denials, and stand by our guarantee to advise them regarding the appeals process.

This week, however, we received another note from a client that his I-140 visa had been approved. He had a Bachelor Degree and a Master Degree from India, and we were able to demonstrate that his foreign degree was the U.S. equivalency of a Master Degree. We’re grateful for his input, because it tells us that our process for these educational evaluations is effective.

Have you had an evaluation report from CCI that resulted in a work or immigration visa being approved? Let us know how we’re doing, so that we can make the process easier and better for our clients. Share your story with our readers today - we won’t use your name unless you tell us it is ok.

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!

Looks like the word is getting out a bit about Ms. Danzig’s challenge concerning foreign academic credentials evaluations for the U.S. Armed Services. Today we received another inquiry from a recruit who needed a U.S. equivalency evaluation for her foreign diploma from high school.

That brings the total of evaluation reports to three so far this month, and, since we are only 1 day past the middle of the month, I am projecting that the number of foreign degree evaluations will be up from last month (4). If you know of anyone in the U.S. military who needs an educational evaluation, remember that Career Consulting International is offering free document evaluations to anyone who is an active member or who needs a foreign credentials evaluation to qualify for enlistment.

Although most people only require document evaluations, a few people do require more extensive evaluations, such as course by course evaluations. It’s important to check with your recruiting or commanding officer to be certain exactly what type of evaluation you need before ordering, so that we can best help you.

Once again, our hats off to those of you who serve. For those who have come to CCI for help with foreign degree evaluations, our thanks for letting us show our appreciation for your hard work and dedication!

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.