WES ECA for Express Entry

If you finished your studies outside Canada, you need one to qualify as the main applicant in the Federal Skilled Worker Program, or to have that education count for points in Express Entry. A Canadian degree, diploma, or certificate needs no assessment.

If your spouse or common-law partner is coming to Canada with you, their education can earn you points too. You can see how much it adds with our CRS calculator. If you'd like to talk your score through with someone, you can call us (calls may be recorded). We share information, not immigration advice.

If your job is regulated, you will also need a licence to practise from the proper authority in the province where you plan to live. The ECA serves immigration purposes only and cannot replace the licence.

To earn points for your education, your report has to show that the foreign degree, diploma or certificate you finished is valid and equal to a Canadian one. Your Express Entry profile, the online file you create to enter the candidate pool, must include the report and its reference number.

Keep copies handy. If you're invited to apply for permanent residence, you'll need to upload them.

Usually, an assessment is only needed for your top level of education. Say you hold a Master's degree. You need a report for that degree only, not for the ones beneath it.

WES is one of the organizations approved to provide an ECA; the designated options for most people are:

• the Comparative Education Service, run by the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies
• the International Credential Assessment Service of Canada
• World Education Services

Your WES evaluation only moves ahead once your payment and documents are in and accepted. WES specifies the documents needed for your country or territory of education; following those requirements helps avoid delays.

Once WES has your documents, has checked them, and accepts them, how long the evaluation takes depends on the specifics of your case. You can get an official paper report, with delivery fees added on top.

A WES report stays valid for five years after the issue date. Canada also needs the report to be less than five years old twice: when you create your Express Entry profile, and again when you send in your application.

If an invitation has already arrived, make sure the report will still be good on your planned submission date. If no invitation has come yet, it must remain valid for the entire stretch you expect to spend waiting in the pool.

Should it expire before you can apply, reach out to the organization that issued it. An application sent with an expired report gets refused, so check this early.

If you want to claim points for two or more credentials, rather than just your highest qualification, you need an assessment for each foreign credential you claim. To claim every point, one of the reports has to cover a program lasting three years or longer.

The order you finished them in does not affect the points. You can claim secondary-school points if your report confirms that your completed foreign credential is equivalent to Canadian secondary school.

A few professions have to work with a professional body rather than a general one. If your primary occupation for your immigration application is specialist physician or family doctor, you must get the ECA for your primary medical diploma from the Medical Council of Canada.

Pharmacists who must hold a licence to practise, such as those who look after patients in a community pharmacy, a hospital pharmacy, or a long-term care home, must use the pharmacists' professional body. A licence may not be needed if you work for a pharmaceutical company or in a government role that requires a pharmacy degree; in that case one of the general organizations can handle the report. The regulator for your province can tell you whether you need a licence.

Architects who need a licence, such as to use the architect title or to be responsible for designing and building homes or buildings, must use the Canadian Architectural Certification Board. A licence may not be required for someone who manages projects at a firm, and that person can then use a general organization instead; check with your provincial architects' body to be sure. Any valid architect ECA you already hold, issued by another designated organization before 31 October 2024, remains accepted.