Permanent Residence in Canada with Express Entry (outside of Quebec)

Educational Credential Assessment (ECA)

An Educational Credential Assessment is mandatory except in the following cases:

• If you were educated in Canada and obtained a degree or certification in Canada.
• If you have at least one year of recent skilled work experience in Canada and are eligible for the Canadian Experience Class (CEC).
  If you have work experience in a skilled trade and are eligible for the Federal Skilled Trades Program (FSTP).

However, even if this assessment is not mandatory for all CEC and FSTP candidates, the IRCC (Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada) believes that obtaining an assessment of your credentials (for those who have not studied in Canada) may be useful to increase your score and therefore your chances of being selected and invited to apply. Depending on your degree level, you could earn up to 140-150 points (over 10% of the 1200 points available)!

Your credentials must be assessed by one of the organisations designated by the Canadian government:

• Comparative Education Service (CES): University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies.
• International Credential Assessment Service of Canada (ICAS).
• World Education Services (WES)
• International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS)
• International Credential Evaluation Service (ICES)
• Medical Council of Canada (for medical professionals)
• The Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada (for pharmacists)

These organisations will require copies of your degrees or diplomas, but also your transcripts and possibly other supporting documents to assess your credentials. Depending on the organisation, these documents may have to be sent directly from your school. Contact the various organisations to find out more:

It can take time to assess your credentials. For one of the organisations named above, the advertised processing timeframe is 35 working days, whereas others offer a 12 to 25-week turnaround. You should ask these organisations about the validity of their assessments as they may be useful for your job search and for validating your foreign credentials in Canada.

The assessments are valid for 5 years from the report date to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC).

In cases where credential assessments are mandatory (for the Federal Skilled Worker Program, if you’re not a Canadian graduate), you must request them BEFORE submitting your application on Express Entry.

Once you have received your assessment of credentials, you will be able to see the number of points you can earn with your degree in relation to the ECA assessment in the conversion table on the IRCC site. You can view the results in the comprehensive ranking system and in the specific Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) selection grid.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the following IRCC page: Assessing your credentials – skilled immigrants.