ECA by World Education Services (WES)

There are two basic requirements in migrating to Canada. First, have your English proficiency evaluated thru taking an IELTS exam. Second, have your education / foreign degree assessed that it is valid and equal to a Canadian degree or what is known as Educational Credential Assessment (ECA).

There are 5 designated agencies that can assess your education. To wit:

1. Comparative Education Service (CES)

2. International Credential Assessment Service of Canada (ICAS)

3. World Education Services (WES)

4. International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS)

5. International Credential Evaluation Service (ICES)

In Fritz case, he used the services of World Education Services or WES. Today, I'll be talking more about our experience with WES.

The first step is we need to register and pay their service fee plus the courier amounting to CAD 322.05. Please note that you don't need to pay the additional CAD 85 for courier but the delivery of your ECA result will take longer, maybe 3 months or more.

Fritz registered and paid online thru credit card (thanks to my friend who trusted us and lent us her credit card, she is and was really a great help in this journey) on December 6, 2016. After the payment, he was given a reference number which he will used in all his documents as well as in the envelope and transmittal. There are two documents that need to be sent separately: 1. The applicant will submit the photocopy of his diploma. 2. The school will accomplish the form provided by WES and send it together with the original transcript of records.

On the same day, he went to STI General Santos to have his transcript be processed. He brought with him the printed form to be filled up by the registrar as well as the instructions and labels for the envelope. But unfortunately, the registrar cannot accommodate him right away because she was busy. They agreed that she will just informed him once ready and he will be the one to send it. On December 9, 2016 he was notified to pick up the sealed envelope with the TOR inside and the same day he sent it thru DHL. Here, he paid a total of Php 2,962 for the 2 envelopes.

Based on the DHL tracking system, both envelopes were delivered on 11:48 am Monday, December 12, 2016 Canada time. We expected that the result be made available after 20 working days, as it is posted in their website that it is their standard processing time. But Fritz received thru email the Notice of Completed Report only on January 24, 2017. And the hardcopy was delivered in our address today, January 30, 2017.

We expected that the four year degree of Bachelor of Science in Information Technology will be equivalent to a three year post secondary. But as a result in their evaluation it's only two year diploma. So it is a deduction on our points. All I can say is we should only expect the unexpected :)