Foreign Degree Equivalency: When You Need a Credential Evaluation and How to Order One

When a credential evaluation is needed

Any academic credential earned outside the United States that you are using to establish eligibility — whether for the advanced-degree classification, the exceptional-ability classification, or simply to support the narrative of progressive responsibility or field qualification in your petition letter — needs to be translated into a stated US equivalency before USCIS can weigh it. USCIS adjudicators are not expected to independently assess the standing of a foreign university or the level of a foreign degree; that determination has to be made for them by a credential evaluation service and placed in the record as a discrete document.

Where this applies

• A foreign bachelor's, master's, or doctorate offered as the basis for the advanced-degree or exceptional-ability classification.
• A foreign degree cited anywhere in the petition letter to establish a person's qualification for the proposed endeavor, even if it is not the primary basis of eligibility.
• A foreign bachelor's degree combined with years of documented progressive experience, used together to reach the equivalent of a US advanced degree. Here, the years of experience are documented separately (through employer letters, for example), but the bachelor's degree itself still requires its own equivalency evaluation — the experience does not substitute for evaluating the degree.

The one common exception

If the petitioner already holds a master's degree, doctorate, or other advanced degree conferred by a US institution, and the petition does not rely on any foreign degree to establish eligibility, no credential evaluation is needed for that US degree. An evaluation only becomes necessary again if a foreign degree is introduced elsewhere in the record to support the endeavor narrative or additional claims.

Document-by-document versus course-by-course evaluation

Evaluators offer two distinct products, and ordering the wrong one is a common cause of delay.

A document-by-document evaluation looks at the diploma or degree certificate itself and states its US equivalency as a single credential — for example, confirming that a foreign master's degree is equivalent to a US master's degree. It does not itemize individual courses or credit hours.

A course-by-course evaluation breaks the transcript down term by term, translating each course into a US semester-credit equivalent and assigning an overall equivalency (e.g., "equivalent to three years of a US bachelor's program"). This level of detail is what's needed when a foreign bachelor's degree is being combined with years of progressive experience to reach an equivalency claim, or when the specific evaluator or reviewing officer requires transcript-level granularity.

Which one to order

• If the petition rests on a stated advanced degree (e.g., a foreign master's or higher, standing on its own), a document-by-document equivalency statement is usually sufficient.
• If the petition combines a foreign bachelor's degree with years of documented work experience, order a course-by-course evaluation of the degree itself, even though the experience is documented separately elsewhere in the petition.

Check the specific evaluator's website for current turnaround estimates and fees before ordering.

Choosing an evaluation service

Not every credential evaluation service carries equal weight with USCIS. Before ordering, confirm the evaluator belongs to one of the two associations USCIS adjudicators recognize as maintaining member-quality standards:

• NACES — National Association of Credential Evaluation Services
• AICE — Association of International Credential Evaluators

Verify current membership

Membership lists change as organizations join, lapse, or get removed. Do not rely on a logo displayed on the evaluator's own website — go directly to the association's site and search its current member directory before you pay for anything. Both associations publish these lists publicly; check naces.org and aice-eval.org for the up-to-date roster at the time you order.

Check whether the evaluator has been flagged

Separately from association membership, search for whether the specific evaluator's name has come up in USCIS adjudication material. Two sources to check:

1. AAO decisions — search the Administrative Appeals Office decision database on justice.gov/eoir or uscis.gov for the evaluator's name to see whether any recent non-precedent decision discussed problems with reports from that organization.
2. USCIS Policy Manual — search the current Policy Manual on uscis.gov for language on credential evaluations to see whether general guidance on acceptable evaluation sources has changed.

If you find adverse commentary tied to a particular evaluator, choose a different NACES or AICE member rather than trying to explain the issue away in your petition letter. This check takes a few minutes and should happen before you order, not after you've already paid and received the report.

Gathering source documents before you order

Evaluators work from copies of your academic records, not from your memory of what you studied. Assemble the full set before you create an account, so you are not waiting on your alma mater's registrar mid-process.

What most evaluators ask for

1. Diplomas — a scanned or certified copy of each diploma tied to the degree being evaluated. Some evaluators accept a clear scan; others want a copy certified by the issuing institution or a notary.
2. Complete academic transcripts, original language — every term or year, not just a final summary sheet. Partial transcripts are a common reason evaluations stall.
3. Official English translations — required if the transcript and diploma are not already issued bilingually. Many evaluators offer in-house translation for an added fee; others require a translation from an independent certified translator submitted alongside the original-language documents.
4. Name-change documentation — a marriage certificate, court order, or other legal record if the name on your diploma differs from the name on your passport or current legal name. Evaluators match names field-by-field, and an unexplained discrepancy will hold up the report.

Check submission rules before you contact your university

Some evaluators — particularly for verification-sensitive credentials — require transcripts sent directly from the issuing institution through a third-party verification service (for example, a national student-records clearinghouse) rather than accepted from the applicant. If your evaluator uses this model, requesting a transcript mailed to yourself first will not satisfy their requirement and you will have to request it again. Confirm the exact submission channel on the evaluator's website before you contact your registrar.

Step-by-step ordering process

Once you've selected a NACES or AICE member evaluator and gathered your source documents, the ordering process is largely mechanical. Follow it in order and keep records at each stage.

1. Create an account on the evaluator's website. Use the exact legal name that appears on your passport, since this is the name that will need to match across your diploma, transcript, and eventual I-140 filing.

2. Select the evaluation type. Choose document-by-document or course-by-course based on which one your petition strategy requires (see Section 2). If you're unsure which the online order form defaults to, contact the evaluator's support line before submitting — changing the type after processing has started often means paying again.

3. Upload or mail your documents exactly as instructed. Some evaluators accept scanned uploads for an initial "advisory" report but require mailed certified copies or direct university verification for the final report used in immigration filings. Confirm which tier you need.

4. Pay the fee. Check the current fee schedule directly on the evaluator's site, since prices and rush-processing surcharges change without notice.

5. Track status online using the account dashboard or reference number provided at checkout.

6. Request extra certified copies at the time of ordering — one for the I-140 exhibit set, and additional copies if you anticipate needing the evaluation for state professional licensing.

7. Save the PDF and store the mailed original in your petition document folder, using a consistent naming convention such as LASTNAME_CredentialEval_NACESReportDate.pdf.

Reading the report and catching errors before filing

When the report arrives, treat it as evidence that will be read by an officer alongside every other document in the packet, not as a formality to file and forget. Read it line by line before it goes into the exhibit binder.

Fields to verify

1. Name spelling. The name on the report must match the passport and the diploma exactly, including diacritics, spacing, and order (given name/surname). Transliteration variants between the diploma and a passport issued years later are common and need to be resolved, not ignored.
2. Institution name. Check that the university name is rendered consistently and matches the diploma's official name (including any subsequent renaming of the institution).
3. Degree title and conferral date. These must match the diploma precisely — a report that says "Bachelor of Engineering" when the diploma reads "Bachelor of Science in Engineering," or that lists the wrong conferral year, is a mismatch an officer can flag.
4. The equivalency statement itself. The report should contain an explicit sentence such as "equivalent to a Master of Science degree from an accredited institution in the United States." A report that only describes coursework or credit hours without this statement does not serve the same function.
5. Cross-document consistency. Compare the report's degree description against how the degree is described in the I-140 petition letter and in Form I-140 itself. Any divergence in wording, dates, or field of study should be reconciled before filing.

If something is wrong

Do not cross out, retype, or annotate the report yourself. Contact the evaluator's customer service line and request a formal correction or reissue; most evaluators will amend a report at no charge or for a small fee if the error is theirs. File only the corrected version.

Common mistakes that trigger RFEs

The errors below recur often enough in adjudications that they are worth checking against your own file before you file anything.

1. Using an evaluator with no NACES or AICE membership, and no explanation. If you used a non-member evaluator for any reason — cost, speed, a prior relationship — the petition should not simply include the report and hope no one asks. An officer who cannot verify the evaluator's standing has grounds to question the equivalency outright.

2. Ordering a document-by-document evaluation when the claim depends on combining a bachelor's degree with progressive experience. This mismatch is a frequent RFE trigger because the document-by-document report does not give the transcript-level detail an officer expects for a combined-education-and-experience claim.

3. Mismatched name spellings across the passport, the diploma, and the evaluation report — including transliteration differences, missing middle names, or order-of-names swaps common in some naming conventions. Any inconsistency invites a request to reconcile identity documents.

4. An evaluation citing outdated or superseded equivalency standards. Evaluators periodically revise the framework they use to assess a given country's degree structure. A report generated under a retired standard can be challenged as no longer authoritative.

5. Omitting the evaluator's organizational credentials from the exhibit list. Simply attaching the report without a cover exhibit noting the evaluator's NACES or AICE membership and accreditation leaves the adjudicator to do that verification independently — or to ask you to do it in an RFE.**

Check your assembled packet against each of these before submission.**