Document · Credential assessment
Your three-year degree is worth the same as a four-year one
One row on IRCC's points grid covers both, and a good deal of money is made in Gujarat from graduates who have not read it.
The short answer
A three-year Indian bachelor's degree earns the same Comprehensive Ranking System points as a four-year degree. IRCC's grid has one row for a bachelor's degree or any programme of three years or more, worth 120 points without a spouse. No separate row or deduction exists for a three-year programme.
The row, quoted
Everybody paraphrases this row. Here it is as IRCC writes it.
“Bachelor’s degree OR a three or more year program at a university, college, trade or technical school, or other institute”
The word doing the work is "or". A bachelor's degree and a three-or-more-year programme are the same row, worth 120 points to a candidate without a spouse and 112 to one with. A B.Com from Gujarat University and a four-year engineering degree score identically on this factor.
What the top-up year is actually being sold to you as
Coaching centres and consultancies in Ahmedabad and Surat sell a one-year top-up on the basis that a three-year degree is "not equivalent" to a Canadian bachelor's. Nothing on the grid supports it. Before paying for a year of anything, get your profile scored and see what the change is worth in points.
When a second credential genuinely helps
There is a real fact next to the myth, and it is worth separating them carefully. Holding two credentials, where one of them ran three years or more, is a different row on the same grid.
| What you hold | No spouse | With spouse |
|---|---|---|
| A three-year degree, on its own | 120 | 112 |
| Two credentials, one of them three years or more | 128 | 119 |
That is a gain of 8 points without a spouse. It is worth claiming if you already hold a diploma alongside your degree, because the only cost is a second assessment fee. It is not a reason to go and acquire one.
Where the same money usually buys more points
A language retest. Moving from CLB 8 to CLB 9 across all four abilities is worth far more than 8 points, costs a fraction of a year of tuition, and can be done in a month. Score the profile before choosing what to spend on.
Who is allowed to assess it
Five organisations are designated for general applicants. Any of them is acceptable and there is no ranking among them, though they differ in cost, turnaround and how they want your transcripts delivered.
Comparative Education Service, University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies
International Credential Assessment Service of Canada
World Education Services
International Qualifications Assessment Service
International Credential Evaluation Service, British Columbia Institute of Technology
Most Indian applicants use World Education Services, largely because most Indian universities already have a route for sending transcripts to it directly. If you are an architect, a doctor or a pharmacist, you go to the designated professional body for your occupation instead of to any of the five.
An agency is not an assessing body
Transcript agencies advertise heavily in Gujarat and charge several thousand rupees to collect documents from your university and post them. They are couriers. They do not assess anything, they are not designated by IRCC, and a report has to come from one of the organisations above. Most universities will send transcripts themselves, usually for a small fee.
A credential assessment is a Canadian instrument, and it is worth not confusing it with the other thing done to Indian degrees. Most European destinations do not want an assessment at all; they want the degree legalised, which is a different procedure with a different authority and a different fee.
Getting an Indian degree apostilled, for a country that is not Canada
How long the report stays good for
Less than 5 years old, and it is checked twice: when you create your Express Entry profile, and again when you submit the application after an invitation. An assessment that expires between those two moments causes a refusal.
This matters most to the people it is least likely to occur to. A candidate who has sat in the pool for two or three years on a modest score, waiting for a category draw to come their way, is exactly the candidate whose report is quietly ageing. Check the date on it before you accept an invitation, not after.
Questions graduates ask
Is a three-year Indian degree valid for Canada PR?
A three-year Indian bachelor's degree is valid for Canadian permanent residence and earns the same Comprehensive Ranking System points as a four-year degree. IRCC's points grid has a single row reading "Bachelor’s degree OR a three or more year program at a university, college, trade or technical school, or other institute", worth 120 points for a candidate without a spouse and 112 with one. There is no separate, lower row for a three-year programme, and no adjustment applied to it. The belief that a three-year degree is somehow deficient is a sales position rather than a rule, and it is used to sell a top-up year to people who do not need one.
Do I need an ECA for both my diploma and my degree?
You need an assessment for your highest credential only, in the ordinary case. IRCC's own wording is that "You only need an assessment for your highest level of education." The exception is if you want points for holding more than one credential: to claim that, each credential has to be assessed, and at least one of them must have been a programme of three years or more. That claim is worth 128 points rather than 120 for a candidate without a spouse. So a second assessment is worth paying for only when you already hold the second credential, and never as a way of repairing the first.
Should I do a one-year top-up to convert my three-year degree?
A top-up year does not convert anything, because there is nothing to convert. Your three-year degree already sits on the same grid row as a four-year one. What an additional credential can do is move you from the single-credential row to the two-credential row, which is 128 points against 120 without a spouse, a difference of 8. Weigh that 8-point gain against a year of fees and a year of your life before anyone sells you the course. For most candidates a language retest is a cheaper and much larger gain.
How long is an ECA report valid?
An ECA report must be less than 5 years old at two separate moments: when you complete your Express Entry profile, and again when you submit your application after an invitation. An assessment that expires between those two points will cause the application to be refused, which is a real risk for anybody who sat in the pool a long time on a modest score. Check the date on your report before you accept an invitation rather than after.
Which organisation should assess my Indian degree?
IRCC designates five organisations for general applicants: Comparative Education Service, University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies, International Credential Assessment Service of Canada, World Education Services, International Qualifications Assessment Service, International Credential Evaluation Service, British Columbia Institute of Technology. Any of them is acceptable and there is no ranking among them, though they differ in cost, turnaround and how they want transcripts delivered. World Education Services is the one most Indian applicants use, largely because most Indian universities already have a route for sending it transcripts directly. Architects, doctors and pharmacists are the exception and must use the designated professional body for their occupation instead.
Where this comes from
Your credentials
Before you buy a top-up year, have the score checked.
We score the profile you have, show what each change is actually worth in points, and say plainly when a course somebody is selling you would move your score by less than a retest would.
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