WES & NACES Foreign Degree Evaluation Guide (2026)

Informational guide to WES credential evaluations, Document-by-Document vs Course-by-Course reports, three-year Indian degree policies, transcript verification, and the use of foreign education evidence for universities, employers, licensing bodies, and immigration filings.

Executive Credential Evaluation Overview

Foreign academic credentials may need to be evaluated depending on the requirements of the university, employer, licensing board, or immigration filing. There is no universal U.S. rule requiring every foreign credential to be evaluated by WES, NACES, or AICE. In H-1B cases, a professional education evaluation can be used to establish the U.S. equivalency of foreign education, but USCIS does not universally require a WES report. The receiving institution or agency determines what evidence it accepts.

Credential-evaluation organizations such as WES and other NACES or AICE members evaluate foreign academic records using their own methodologies. Their reports are advisory: the university, employer, licensing board, or government agency receiving the report decides whether the evaluation satisfies its requirements. NACES and AICE membership should not be described as a universal federal accreditation requirement.

Evaluation Report Types: Document vs. Course-by-Course

Evaluation Type	Report Content	Typical Processing Cost	Best Used For
Document-by-Document (Basic)	Lists degree title, institution accreditation, and equivalent U.S. degree level (e.g. U.S. Bachelor's degree).	Starts at $118 USD	Employment, immigration, or other purposes when the receiving organization accepts a Document-by-Document report.
Course-by-Course (Detailed)	Lists every individual course, credit hours, U.S. grade conversion, cumulative 4.0 GPA, and degree title.	Starts at $186 USD	Graduate/undergraduate admissions, transfer, licensing, or other purposes when the receiving organization requires course-level evaluation.

3-Year International Bachelor's Degree Rules (India, UK, Australia)

Standard U.S. Bachelor's degrees require 4 years of study (120 semester credit hours). 3-year degrees (e.g., Indian B.Sc, B.Com, B.A, or UK/Australian 3-year degrees) require specific evaluation rules:

WES India Three-Year Degree Policy: WES states that certain three-year Indian bachelor's degrees may be evaluated as equivalent to a U.S. bachelor's degree when the degree was earned in Division/Class I and the awarding institution was accredited by NAAC with a grade of A or better. The final equivalency is made by WES after evaluating the specific credential.
Three-Year European Degrees: A three-year European degree, including one within the Bologna framework, is not automatically equivalent to a U.S. bachelor's degree for every purpose. Equivalency depends on the credential, country, institution, evaluator methodology, and the requirements of the receiving organization.
H-1B Education-and-Experience Equivalency: Under 8 CFR § 214.2(h)(4)(iii)(D), certain combinations of education and experience may be used to establish equivalency to a U.S. bachelor's degree for H-1B purposes. The regulation does not create a blanket rule that every three-year degree can simply be converted by adding three years of work experience; the equivalency analysis depends on the applicable regulatory criteria and the beneficiary's education and experience.

Official Transcript Submission Guidelines

WES requires official academic records to be submitted according to its current, country- and institution-specific document requirements. The exact accepted channel depends on the issuing institution and the applicant's evaluation requirements:

Approved Submission Channels:

Electronic Delivery: Academic records sent directly through an electronic channel approved by WES for the issuing institution. Do not assume that every third-party platform or Registrar email is automatically accepted; use WES's current Required Documents instructions.
Postal Delivery: Where WES's instructions require paper delivery, the academic records should be sent in the manner specified by WES, generally using documents prepared and sealed by the issuing institution.
Applicant Uploads: WES may allow applicants to upload certain degree certificates or translations when those items are listed in the applicant's requirements, but academic transcripts generally must be sent through an approved institutional channel. Do not submit documents in a manner contrary to the country-specific WES instructions.

Official References & Authorities

🏛️ World Education Services (WES): WES Credential Evaluation Portal & Degree Equivalence Tool
🏛️ National Association of Credential Evaluation Services: NACES Member Evaluator Directory
🏛️ USCIS H-1B Guidance: USCIS guidance on H-1B specialty-occupation evidence and degree equivalency

Frequently Asked Questions

WES is a credential-evaluation organization and a member of NACES. WES evaluates academic credentials and provides an advisory U.S. or Canadian equivalency for the credentials submitted. The amount of detail depends on the report type: a Document-by-Document report describes the credentials and their U.S. or Canadian equivalents, while a Course-by-Course report provides course-level information, credits, grades, and a calculated GPA in the applicable system. The receiving university, employer, licensing body, or agency decides whether it will accept the evaluation.

A Document-by-Document evaluation describes each submitted credential and provides its U.S. or Canadian educational equivalency. A Course-by-Course evaluation also provides course-level information such as credits, grades, and a calculated GPA. Which report is appropriate depends on the requirements of the university, employer, licensing body, or immigration filing. Neither report type is universally required for every H-1B, I-140, university, employment, or professional-licensing case.

WES states that it may evaluate certain three-year bachelor's degrees from India as equivalent to a U.S. bachelor's degree when the degree was earned in Division/Class I and the awarding institution was accredited by India's National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with a grade of A or better. This is a WES evaluation policy, not a universal U.S. legal rule, and the receiving university or organization can apply its own requirements.

WES requires academic documents according to the country- and institution-specific instructions shown in its Required Documents tool. Academic transcripts generally must be sent by the issuing institution through an approved electronic channel or in a properly sealed envelope. WES allows applicants to upload certain documents, such as degree certificates and translations, when those documents appear in the applicant's specific requirements. An applicant should not assume that every institution's email address, third-party platform, or document format is automatically accepted.

NACES (National Association of Credential Evaluation Services) is a professional association of credential-evaluation organizations. Its membership includes organizations such as WES, Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE), SpanTran, International Education Research Foundation (IERF), and Josef Silny & Associates. NACES membership is not the same thing as U.S. government accreditation, and there is no universal rule requiring every U.S. university, licensing board, employer, or immigration filing to use a NACES member. The receiving organization determines which evaluators it accepts.

WES states that its standard Document-by-Document and Course-by-Course credential evaluation reports do not expire. However, a university, employer, licensing board, or government agency can impose its own recency or report-delivery requirements. WES ICAP also provides transcript-storage features, but applicants should distinguish storage of academic records from the receiving organization's acceptance requirements.

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