Your path to Canadian immigration with an ECA
Credibility is the common term used by immigrants intending to study in Canada to prove that they are qualified to study in that country about their education level attained in their home countries relative to Canada’s education systems.
Educational Credential Assessment, or ECA, is important in evaluating the Academic Assessment of Foreign Qualifications and assisting the Canadian employer in better understanding the candidate’s academic qualifications with the Canadian Education System. In addition to determining immigration admissibility, there are even more aspects of cases covered by ECAs.
Understanding the ECA
An ECA is a document that assesses the learning accomplishments of an immigrant in the foreign learning system and maps them to the Canadian education system. Newcomers can obtain ECAs from organizations approved by Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, commonly known as the IRCC.
These organizations provide all kinds of ECAs, ranging from licensure to employment, education, and immigration purposes. Selecting the right ECA is crucial to ensuring you get the desired results.
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What Immigrants Need to Know About Their ECA?
While details may vary among service providers, an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) for Canadian immigration typically contains the following information:
- Check your posted results as per the instituted academic qualifications.
- Canadian equivalency of your credential and any other course certificate taken.
- Identification and description of the assessed credential, including:
- Type of credential along with the year in which the credential was issued
- The prerequisites for entry into the programs and the standard length of each program.
- Issuing institution and its status and name
- Program or concentration of the credential
How an ECA Affects Your Immigration Prospects
While an ECA may determine your admissibility to Canada and other immigration categories, getting one can also help improve your odds in the system.
As for the immigration system of Canada, the applicants who have more education, as a rule, become the winners, and the ECAs act as a tool that allows the IRCC to estimate the education levels. For instance, under the CRS, more points are awarded to education levels; increase your score, and you might secure an ITA.
Getting an ECA may help you get an ITA in the Express Entry system if you add the points to your profile.
Exploring Various ECA Types
Some of the candidates may benefit from being given different forms of ECAs, depending on the prevailing circumstances. For instance, a person might secure an ECA for educational documents to meet the admission criteria of a program; at the same time, they might also obtain an ECA for a technical degree or a professional certification for a job. Though a professional certification does not add more education points to CRS, it will help in getting a job in the Canadian job market.
In a situation where the candidate has a college degree that is taken for one year and also a skilled trade certification, Thus, when generating separated ECAs for both credentials, they can enhance their job relevance and obtain employment in Canada, which the CRS considers beneficial.
Besides, for those who study at the university and get into the master of the bridging program to get Canadian credentials in the regulated professions, ECA can also help in this process and, thus, increase the chances in any PNP of the stream. Through PNPs, the provincial or territorial government can select nominees based on education, proficiency, and other human capital assets, thereby enhancing immigration affairs.
Finally, getting an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) is a crucial decision one needs to take towards opening up one’s chances to immigrate to Canada. In addition to verifying your education credentials, an ECA also benefits you in the following ways: it helps you translate your foreign education to Canadian standards, helps you gain the required Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) points, and provides access to the Provincial Nominee Programs. Whether it is as a way of obtaining more points in immigration application processing for employment opportunities or to speed up the process of certification in Canada, ECA is your ticket to successful immigration. To begin your journey now, utilize your IEP experience with an ECA as a starting point.
