An educational credential assessment is a report prepared by a designated company that evaluates an individual’s foreign education and compares it to its Canadian equivalent. It is necessary to be eligible for the Federal Skilled Worker Program, to obtain education points in Express Entry and for some provincial nomination programs.
The designated organizations are:
The Medical Council of Canada has been designated only for applicants who intend to apply with “specialist physician” or “general practitioner/family physician” as the primary occupation in their application.
Case law
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (“IRCC”) will follow what a designated entity declares in its credential assessment (an “ECA”). In Ijaz v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration)2015 CF 67The Federal Court of Canada affirmed that visa officers can simply follow exactly what an ECA is, stating that:
In my view, based on the above, the officer was entitled to interpret the WES education assessment and the IRP Regulations as he did, given that the WES equivalence finding regarding two years of undergraduate studies and two years of professional studies was not the equivalent of a Canadian educational diploma. The WES educational assessment did not indicate that the applicant’s credentials were equivalent to Canadian credentials, and the officer relied on this as conclusive evidence, as required by s. 75(8) of the IRP Regulation. Thus, although the officer had discretion to interpret ambiguous language in the WES, he or she had no discretion as to what points to award once the meaning of the report was established.
For example, as noted in the correspondence below between an immigration representative and the IRCC immigration representative inbox, if an individual completes a one-year program abroad but an ECA indicates that its Canadian equivalent is only one semester, the person will not get credit for a one-year program.
However, as the Federal Court stated in Gill v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration)2021 CF 841, an ECA addresses academic equivalency and does not necessarily indicate whether a school’s programs were withdrawn retrospectively. In this case, the court upheld a visa officer’s decision that an applicant had misrepresented that he held a degree from the Karnataka State Open University, although all distance education diplomas issued by this school had been withdrawn.
Likewise, in Agbhonkese v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration)2021 CF 1065 The Federal Court noted that although World Education Services (“WES”) assessed the equivalence of diplomas, it did not appear to consider whether a diploma was a professional program that granted additional points under Express Entry.
Finally, in Kaur v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration)2024 CF 251Madam Justice Go found that it was unreasonable for a visa officer to state that an EDE indicated that a person did not have a level of education equivalent to one year of post-secondary education when the EDE did stated that the Canadian equivalency was “five years of post-secondary education”. professional studies in dentistry.
High school diplomas with undergraduate credits
An ECA that states that the Canadian equivalent of a foreign diploma is “a high school diploma from a preparatory university with undergraduate credit” will only earn points for high school completion, not for a one-year university program.
Course title or completion
In Gumtang v. Canada (Citizenship and Immigration)2023 CF 758The Federal Court of Canada has ruled that completing years of study without obtaining a credential is not the same as having received an actual credential, such as a diploma or certificate.
Policy
The following ATIP outlines several internal IRCC policy instructions regarding ECAs.