Individuals must submit their Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) report with their Express Entry application. It is one of the most important documents for skilled migration. Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) is the process of obtaining an equivalency certificate for non-Canadian education from an IRCC designated ECA organization. IRCC has designated a total of 7 organizations to provide equivalency certificates for non-Canadian education.
Express Entry is an electronic selection system used by the Federal as well as Provincial governments of Canada [to select], as well as designated Canadian employers [to nominate] candidates for Canadian permanent residence under three of its popular economic [skilled] immigration programs:
Candidates eligible for any of the above programs are given a Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) score in the Express Entry Pool. It is based on their Core/Human capital factors such as age, work experience, education, and language ability in English and/or French, etc. And, based on scores, candidates are periodically invited (or nominated) for permanent residence.
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has designated a total of 7 organizations to provide equivalency certificates for non-Canadian education.
Though the average processing time taken by each ECA organization is mentioned in the table below, the actual time required to process an application depends on various factors such as requirement of additional research by the processing officer, requirement of correspondence with the university by the processing officer, additional verifications required, number of credentials to be evaluated, etc.
| Designated ECA organization name | Provides ECA services for | Processing time | Fee | Website |
| World Education Services (WES) | General | Around 7 business days or less | Around CAD 100 plus taxes | https://www.wes.org/ca/eca/ |
| Comparative Education Service (CES) | General | Around 8 weeks | Around CAD 90 plus taxes | https://learn.utoronto.ca/comparative-education-service |
| International Credential Assessment Service of Canada (ICAS) | General | Around 14 weeks | CAD 200 | http://www.icascanada.ca/fsw |
| International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS) | General | Around 14 weeks | CAD 220 | https://www.alberta.ca/iqas-immigration.aspx |
| International Credential Evaluation Service (ICES) | General | Around 7 weeks | CAD 50 | http://www.bcit.ca/ices/eca/ |
| Medical Council of Canada (MCC) | Doctors/Physicians | Up to 3 weeks | CAD 114 | https://mcc.ca/services/repository/educational-credential-assessment/ |
| Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada (PEBC) | Pharmacists | Up to 8 weeks | CAD 100 | https://pebc.ca/ |
In case of married individuals, the spouse [secondary applicant] completing ECA will award more points to the primary applicant. In this case, 2 profiles need to be created and fee paid separately for 2 profiles. However, this is optional. Though not mandatory for the spouse, it is mandatory for the primary [main] applicant.
Contact us today to know if you qualify to migrate to Canada. Check out Owlspriority Immigration’s Canada Settlement Resources to learn about finding employment in Canada, making your initial days stress-free, etc.
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