Evaluation Process

Thank you for your interest in the Center's evaluation services. Please refer to the information below to submit the needed information/academic documents to start the evaluation process:

The Center provides the following types of Evaluation reports:

The General Evaluation Report is a "statement of equivalency," summarizing one's educational background, with U.S. level of equivalency for each program or degree obtained. This type of evaluation is often used for employment, immigration, financial aid, and college admissions.

The Comprehensive Course-by-Course Evaluation Report includes a statement of equivalency as well as courses taken, with U.S. equivalent credits and grades. This type of evaluation is commonly used for university and graduate level admissions, and professional examination/licensing purposes.

The following documents must be MAILED to the Center to start the evaluation process:

1. Application Form. Download and print the Application Form

You must read the Terms and Conditions of Service on the Application Form, complete the form FULLY (especially Part D: Educational Institutions Attended), and sign the form. An unsigned Application Form will not be processed. (NOTE: We request that you also print and fill out the Fee schedule at the as well from the website and send with your application).

If you would like to request the official Evaluation report to be sent directly to the intended institution of your choice (Part E on the Application Form), it is recommended to choose a postage and handling method with tracking.

2. Official or Original Academic Documents

All academic documents (Transcript of Records and Diploma if graduated, for all studies leading up to the highest degree you wish to have evaluated) must be original or official (still in a sealed envelope from the attended institution), for verification purposes. We recommend sending them by mail with a tracking number so you can track your documents until they reach us.

Original documents sent in by the applicant, whether sealed or unsealed, will be returned upon completion of the credential evaluation, along with the official Evaluation Report in a sealed envelope (unless you choose to have it sent directly to an institution), as well as an Applicant's copy of the official evaluation.

If you have official sealed transcripts from the institution, please send them to the Center unopened for evaluation. Sealed official transcripts, especially if sent directly from your institution, will speed up your evaluation process. Please note that official transcripts/documents addressed or issued specifically to the Center will not be returned to the Applicant.

Original documents are required as a part of the Center’s multi-step verification process. Additional methods of verification in a few cases may take longer depending on the issuing institution and their response time, adding to the overall time of the evaluation. Applicants will be notified in these less common cases.

NOTE: If the Comprehensive Course-by-course evaluation is requested, the submitted transcript or marksheet must have credits or total hours of study for each subject listed. If your transcript does not display this information, you will need to send a syllabus showing the credits or hours per subject, OR, complete the Center's Reconstruction Form. In summary, if your transcript or marksheet do not display credits or hours, and you do not have a syllabus showing the credits or hours per subject, then send the completed Reconstruction Form with your application package.

3. Certified English Translations:

Certified English translation for non-English academic documents is required for the evaluation process. Please see below for requirements for translations.

If translated in the United States, English translation MUST be certified and done by an ATA (American Translators Association) Translator, US Court Certified Translator, or US Federal Certified Translator. We will accept all ATA “Certified Member” certified translations (note that there is a difference between ATA “Certified Member” and ATA “Member”), US Court Certified Translator translations, and US Federal Certified Translator translations. We will accept most ATA “Member” certified translations, but reserve the right to require the Applicant to obtain a new translation from a different source if deemed necessary.

If translated outside of the United States, we will accept most certified translations completed by an internationally recognized translation agency/institution from the country where the study was completed (eg. embassy, university, Department of Justice translators, etc.), but reserve the right to require the Applicant to obtain a new translation from a different source if deemed necessary.

At any time there is a discrepancy in translation, the Applicant is responsible to have it verified and corrected by the translation agency, or may be required to submit new translations from a different source.

Notarized-only translations and self-translations are not accepted.

4. TWO (2) copy sets of all the original documents AND translations:

These two (2) copy sets must be submitted in the application package upon applying, and any time new original documents are submitted. If the copy sets of all original documents are not submitted, a document copy fee of $15 will be charged. Submitting copies of documents at a later time after we receive your application package or any original documents/translations will not waive the $15 document copy fee since we would have made copies of your documents if copies were not provided.

The copies must contain all parts of the document, including all edges and the back side of the document. If your document is larger than standard size paper you may choose to scale down the size when copying to fit on standard 8.5" x 11" Letter-sized paper (recommended), or you may choose to print on larger paper. All details must be legible and clear. You must also copy the back of the document if it is not completely blank. Please use a separate sheet of paper for each copy (do not submit two-sided copies).

Copies are not returned.

NOTE: If you have sealed transcript of records, do not open to make copies. The Center will make copies of the official sealed documents upon receiving them, and the document copy fee will be waived for these documents only. All other unsealed documents require copies to be submitted.

5. Fee Schedule and Evaluation Fees:

Please print the Fee Schedule, and mark on the schedule the appropriate fees: evaluation fee, postage and handling fee (required for the secured return of your original documents), and fee for any other optional services you may want, such as GPA, Rush Service, etc. Please note that we do charge a $15 document copy fee if TWO (2) sets of copies of all original documents and translation are not sent in (see prior section for more details).

Sum all fees at the Total Fee Box at bottom of the Fee Schedule and select your preferred method of payment.

Personal check and money orders are accepted for all routine evaluation requests, payable to: CAREE / International Evaluation Service

If you prefer to pay online and/or by credit card, we provide an invoicing service in which we provide an itemized invoice by email which can be reviewed and paid online. To select this payment option for initial application requests, use the corresponding check box at the bottom of our Fee Schedule. For additional official evaluation or revision requests, the invoicing option will be offered during the process, or you can explicitly request for it. Please note that a $5 non-refundable convenience fee applies to all invoices. To avoid an invoice convenience fee at any time, you can choose instead to mail in a money order, cashier's check or personal check payable through a U.S. bank. Please note that personal checks are not accepted for rush requests.

Additional Information

Rush Service (Optional):

Rush services of two (2), five (5), or ten (10) business days are available.

Evaluations with any rush request must be paid by a bank cashier’s check, money order, or an invoice, in U.S. dollars. If the bank check is issued by a bank outside of the U.S., the bank must to be associated with a bank within the U.S., where the check is payable by this U.S. bank. If payment is made by a personal check, rush service will not start until after the personal check has cleared.

Rush service will start when payment is accepted/cleared, and all documents are received and acceptable for an evaluation. If documents have to be further verified by the issuing institution, Rush service will start when verification is received from the institution.

Digital Delivery (Optional):

Request for a copy of the Evaluation Report to be sent by email attachment directly to the intended institution can be accommodated for a service fee of $15. Please request by adding a note on a separate sheet of paper which includes the information requested below, and send this with your application package.

You must provide additional information with this request, including the Name of the Institution, Name and Job Title of personnel (if applicable), and Email Address of the personnel or institution receiving the digital delivery of your evaluation report. Digital delivery will only be sent to verifiable sources in areas such as admissions or human resources or similar. We do not send digital delivery to applicants or anyone outside of these criteria.

Note that once you make this request for us to send a digital delivery to the institution, the intending instition name and address will be displayed on the physical sealed official evaluation.

Timeframe:

Routine evaluation time is 2 to 4 weeks, depending on the completeness of documents and information submitted. Routine evaluation process is done on a first-come-first-serve basis.

Mail your application package to:

      Center for Applied Research, Evaluation and Education, Inc. (OR) International Evaluation Service
      P.O. Box 18358
      Anaheim, CA 92817

If using a Courier Service (such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc.) that does not accept a P.O. Box address, please use this address instead:

      Center for Applied Research, Evaluation and Education, Inc. (OR) International Evaluation Service
      5505 East Santa Ana Canyon Road
      #18358
      Anaheim, CA 92817

Please note that hand deliveries are not accepted at the Center.