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!

Last week, one of our clients wrote to us, requesting urgent assistance in evaluating his foreign academic credentials. Though he had held his job for some time, recent economical problems were resulting in cutbacks at his place of employment. He required an evaluation of his foreign degree in order to remain employed.

This person’s problem is not at all unusual in these recent months. People are returning to work after spouses have been laid off, or are working to keep jobs they already hold. Current or prospective employers are requesting or requiring evaluation reports that demonstrate that these persons hold degrees that are the U.S. equivalency of a Bachelor or Master Degree.

If you’re worried about keeping your job, or are seeking a work or immigration visa to the United States, learn more about what type of education evaluation you need. Be aware, though, that some degrees are easier to evaluate than others. People who received their foreign education credentials from countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union or the Eastern Bloc often find it easier to demonstrate that their academic credentials are equal to a US degree because of the enormous number of lecture and classroom hours required (sometimes more than 5,000 to 10,000.)

Although people who attended school in India or many European countries also have a great number of lecture and classroom hours, these degrees are completed in three years. The USCIS often requires greater documentation that these 3-year degrees are the U.S. equivalency of a Bachelor Degree, and so these evaluation reports can be more expensive.

What kind of evaluation do you need? That depends on many factors. Let The Degree People review your credentials, and help you select the type of report that will best help you. Take advantage of the extensive experience and expertise of top evaluators Sheila Danzig and Professor John Kersey. Don’t lose your job or get your employment visa denied tomorrow because you didn’t know what you needed today!

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!

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!

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.

I promised to keep you updated, and the word is starting to get out, but I don’t think the U.S. Military is going to meet Ms. Danzig’s challenge. Not this month, anyway. They are making headway, but they are going to have to keep working at it.

This weekend we were able to do another foreign education credentials evaluations for a young man entering military service. He had received a foreign high school diploma, and wanted to join the U.S. Armed Services. Our evaluation report was issued as quickly as possible, and the young man was able to present it to his recruiter for enlistment.

In September, four soldiers have requested educational evaluations from us for the purposes of serving their country or in advancing their career after their service. Document evaluations are free of charge, and for the most part, serve to prove high school completion or the U.S. equivalency of a foreign degree, including a Bachelor Degree or Master Degree.

We promised to try to help serve 50 soldiers each month, and we have been able to help all who have come to us for this service. We are still looking for more. Can you help us find more young men and women serving their country who need to have a foreign degree evaluated?

We promised to keep you informed about the U.S. Military’s response to Ms. Danzig’s offer of 50 foreign education credential evaluations each month to members of the United States Armed Forces. We recently had the pleasure of receiving another response from a proud member of this elite service. That brings our September total to 3 so far.

If you don’t happen to be a member of the U.S. military who received a foreign degree or diploma before entering this country or while stationed abroad, remember to share this offer with someone you know who does fit that category. Spread the word so that these brave people can receive the benefits they deserve.

This free evaluation report is for document evaluations. The most recent educational evaluation for a military person was done for a course by course evaluation, which is almost twice as expensive as a document evaluation. Thanks to the patriotism of Sheila Danzig, CCI was able to offer this evaluation at less than half the cost.

Thanks to all of the brave people who serve, and to those at home who do their part as well. To the brave members of the U.S. military, we salute you! If you know anyone who qualifies for this free degree evaluation, don’t forget to spread the word!

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!

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.