WES Evaluation: What It Is, Cost and Types

What WES is

World Education Services (WES) is an organization that evaluates international educational credentials for recognition in North America. A WES report tells a school, employer or licensing body what your degree or diploma is, how long the program was and its U.S. equivalent. WES is also designated by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to provide Educational Credential Assessments (ECA).

Who needs a credential evaluation?

Universities, employers and licensing bodies that do not recognize your foreign degree directly often ask for one. Whether you need it, and from which organization, is decided by the institution or program, so check their instructions first. Many applicants to U.S. and Canadian schools are asked for a WES report; others accept different evaluators or none at all. Use our list of universities that accept TOEFL when you plan your applications.

Document-by-document vs course-by-course

WES lists these evaluation types:

• Document-by-Document: the credential name, entry requirement, program length and U.S. equivalency, without course detail.
• Course-by-Course: everything in the Document-by-Document report, plus each course with U.S. credit and grade equivalents, a GPA on the 4.0 scale and course level.
• Evaluation for Canadian immigration (ECA): the IRCC-designated service.

Which one you need is set by the school or employer. If their instructions do not say, ask them before you pay.

What WES costs

Prices on the WES evaluations page, read 3 October 2026 (WES states that fees are subject to change; check wes.org at checkout, as the page notes a 3% increase from 1 January 2026):

Extra costs listed on the same page include standard delivery (US$14 / CA$14), international courier (US$86 / CA$97) and duplicate reports. Check wes.org for the current total.

WES and Canadian immigration (ECA)

An Educational Credential Assessment is the report IRCC asks for to confirm a foreign credential is equivalent to a Canadian one. WES is one of the designated organizations. If you are also building a Canadian profile, you will need an English test result expressed as a CLB level; see our IELTS to CLB conversion table. Confirm ECA rules on the IRCC website.

Common mistakes

• Buying a report type your school did not ask for (Course-by-Course vs Document-by-Document).
• Starting late. Turnaround is not guaranteed on our sources: check wes.org for current processing times before you plan around a deadline.
• Forgetting delivery: the report must be sent to each institution that requires it, and extra copies cost extra.
• Sending documents in a format WES does not accept. Check wes.org for the document requirements of your country.
• Paying through third parties. Use wes.org directly.

Do not forget the English test

A WES report covers your education only. Most programs also ask for TOEFL or IELTS. Practise with our free mock test while your documents are in processing.

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