Evaluation of Foreign Educational Credentials

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why do I need my educational credentials evaluation?

(a) Usually if you want to attend university in the United States, you will in many cases need your educational credentials evaluation submitted with your application.

(b) If you wish to come to the United States as a professional, for example on H1B visa or J-1 visa, you will need your educational credentials evaluated and submitted with your visa application.

(c) If you apply for a 'Green Card' on the basis of your professional status you would need to include educational credentials evaluation in the application package.

If you plan to seek licensure or certification to practice in a particular state in the United States (e.g. teacher, engineer, physical therapist), you will probably need your educational credentials evaluated.

When you apply for a job a prospective employer often want to know whether you have the equivalent of appropriate US education.

2.Who evaluates credentials in the US?

In the US, credential evaluation is done by universities and by private organizations such as International University Line (IUL). Many universities and colleges employ staff who evaluates foreign educational credentials. Many others require that foreign credentials be evaluated by a service such as IUL. Employers and INS generally require that credentials be evaluated by a service such as IUL. There is no US government agency that evaluates foreign credentials.

3.Will the INS accept your evaluation?

Yes. Our educational credential evaluations and education+experience evaluations are meet INS regulations. The Immigration and Naturalization Service have always accepted them. We have a number of successful stories where our customers received H1B visas or Green Cards using our evaluations of educational credentials.

4. Do you provide educational credential evaluations to be used for university admission purposes?

Yes. We prepare educational credential evaluations that are accepted by majority of Universities. An evaluation report includes a general statement of educational equivalence, a calculation of the US credit hour equivalence, a calculation of the US grade equivalence, and a calculation of the American GPA (Grade Point Average) and typically costs $150. You should contact each school to which you wish to apply to confirm that an evaluation from International University Line will be accepted by the school. At that time, you will also need to confirm what type of evaluation the school requires. We reserve the right to charge more for particularly lengthy or complex transcripts.

5. Will US colleges and universities accept your evaluation?

Many colleges and universities use our evaluation services. But you have to remember that all evaluations by credential evaluation companies (including our company) are advisory to US colleges and universities. Each school makes its own policy regarding the evaluation of foreign applicants' educational credentials. These policies can be very different You should contact the college or university to which you intend to apply to determine (a) whether it accepts evaluations from credential evaluation companies or performs its own in-house evaluations and (b) whether it will accept an evaluation from International University Line.

6. Can you translate my documents?

Yes. We provide translations of documents from the majority of foreign languages.

7. Would you accept my own translation of the educational documents?

Mostly no. Unfortunately, customers often use incorrect educational subjects and terms in their own translations. Often these terms are misleading and never used in US system of Education

8. If I do not have a document (diploma) of higher education but have a substantial work experience in the field of my education can my education and experience be evaluated as corresponding to US bachelor degree.
Yes. We can determine educational equivalency for education+experience evaluation including all your education, apprenticeships and professional work. This evaluation can be used only for immigration purposes and in some cases for job applications.

9. Can I get an H-1B visa if I have no university-level education?

Yes. According to INS regulations, for every year of university education that a foreign national lacks, he/she may substitute three years of relevant professional-level work experience (the three-for-one rule). Thus, if an individual has no university level education, he/she needs to prove at least twelve years of professional-level work experience relevant to the job he/she wishes to take in the United States.

10 Can you reference my work experience in my educational credential evaluation?

No. This is expressly forbidden in the INS regulations. In such cases we prepare Education+Experience Evaluation (Work Experience and Educational Evaluation). The Immigration and Naturalization Service currently allows foreign nationals seeking an H-1B non-immigrant visa to prove three years of relevant professional-level work experience for every missing year of university. The Education+Experience Evaluations we prepare are a much more extensive and costly process than an educational credential evaluation. You should consult an immigration attorney before retaining us for one. We can send you information that you can share with an attorney or send it directly to him/her.

11. How long does it take to obtain an evaluation?

An evaluation can be prepared in 10 working days (2 weeks) or less depending on the type of service you request. However, if there is additional research or correspondence required, it may take longer. We recommend you start the process as early as possible to give yourself plenty of time to get the evaluation completed.

12. What does an evaluation contains?

An evaluation contains a description of the credential that you present including its name, the year it was awarded, the name of the institution attended and your major field of study. It gives the US equivalent for each credential. We call this a document-by-document evaluation. If you need to show courses and credit, you can obtain a course-by-course evaluation lists all the subjects that you studied together with their US semester credit and grade equivalents. Grade-point average is also calculated in such report. We have also other types of evaluation. You can find their description in our application materials.

13. Do you evaluate all higher education diplomas as equivalent to bachelor degree?
No. In a number of cases 5- and 6-years education can be evaluated to US master degree.

14. Do you evaluate graduate schools diplomas for equivalence to Ph.D.?
Yes. But we will need a number of specified documents other than diploma to do that.

15. Do you evaluate diplomas and certificates for equivalence of associate degrees?
Yes. We evaluate diplomas of technical colleges (technikum, proftehuchilishe) to equivalency to US associate degrees.

16. Do you evaluate documents of middle and high school students for corresponding placement them in US schools?
Yes we do that. In many cases such an evaluation helps to save one or two years of study.

17. Are you a member of any professional associations related to evaluation of educational credentials?
Yes. We are a member of NAFSA – Association of Foreign Educators. NAFSA is a collective member of National Council for Evaluation of Foreign Educational Credentials and participate in development of methodology of evaluation of foreign educational documents.

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