WES assessment question...is it wrong?

[Olubusayo]

My God! I have been waiting for them to send my transcript for a month now. Yeah. I know about the verification issue. Makes the whole process longer but they haven’t even sent it at all!
One more question please, do you know if I can claim two or more degrees with a Bsc from Nigeria and an Associate degree from the US?
And thank you for your quick reply

Na their way. U mite have to rub their palms before they take action. I dont know about associte degree from the US, but you should be able to, as long as it is a year or more.
You are already evaluating law school and your bachelors of law, right? You already have 2 degrees there.

 

[Oluwabukolami]

Na their way. U mite have to rub their palms before they take action. I dont know about associte degree from the US, but you should be able to, as long as it is a year or more.
You are already evaluating law school and your bachelors of law, right? You already have 2 degrees there.

Right!!! That’s what I’m thinking too.

 

[bairn7]

Hi everyone, sorry to reignite this old post but I have a similar issue. As I understand it on the express entry, a batchelor of Law is equivalent to a professional degree and therefor for the purpose of EE it is considered masters level. I have an LLB and Bar Vocational Course from U.K. universities and my WES assessment has come back as a 4 year batchelors degree and a postgraduate 1 year diploma. Has anyone successfully managed to get their WES assmentmemt amended to say Professional degree in these circumstances?
Any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi Loulou

It is frustrating. Do you need the extra points? Thankfully the extra points weren't an issue for me in the end.

I have read on here that IQAS can often classify a LLB as a professional degree. Can't say for definite though. Might be worth a search through the forum for that.

 

[evenoka]

I got an additional document request.
So it might be good to show salary deposits in your account if you dont have pay slips. Employment letter can be added too.

Dear Busayo,

Congrats on your PR. I guess the additional document requirement was for your Work Experience - if so, what additional document(s) did they request or did you provide besides the traditional Work Reference letter from your employers?

 

[bgwrig]

I have exactly the same problem i that I have a law degree from the UK (LLB, 3 year full time study) which I was under the impression (from the various official guidance) would qualify as a professional degree needed to practice in a licensed profession.

I currently have my degree in with WES for evaluation, however their equivalency tool suggests that it will be classified as a Bachelors Degree (four years). This seems to go against the guidance given but, I assume, means that I have to enter the WES result on my EE. This is a real problem for my application as it will lose me a lot of points which I was relying on.

Assuming that WES do only classify it as a Bachelors Degree (four years). I'm unsure whether to follow what I think is the correct guidance from the official immigration pages and claim it as a professional degree, then explain at (hopefully) ITA stage that it is a law degree.

I really don't know what to do with this, but it seems to be a common problem.

 

[BillyWescott]

Same problem here.

I am an attorney in New York.
I have a French Bachelor of Laws, a French Master of Laws and a U.S Master of Laws.
I passed the French bar exam and will be sworn in soon. Quebec has an equivalency with the French bar so I can be admitted in Quebec by taking a simple ethics exam. But I’m still far from there due to all the paperwork.

I work as a non-admitted lawyer in Europe and have experience as corporate lawyer (non-admitted) in Europe which is totally legal.

My question: should I file in NOC 4112 (Lawyers) or 4211 (Paralegal)?

Do you know if we can file in NOC 4112 and ask that our application be reconsidered as a NOC 4211 if they deem that we don’t qualify as NOC 4112?

I don’t understand the issue with the WES certification. For me I thought that we only had to show that we have experience in the NOV 4112 equivalent in the foreign country where we for our experience. Obviously, the educational requirements are different everywhere.

I don’t see why one could not qualify under NOC 4112 if he is fully admitted in another jurisdiction. Besides, in my mind the PR allows you to live like a regular Canadian citizen other than the right to vote, so you are not restricted to only work as a lawyer.

Ang thoughts?

 

[BillyWescott]

I have exactly the same problem i that I have a law degree from the UK (LLB, 3 year full time study) which I was under the impression (from the various official guidance) would qualify as a professional degree needed to practice in a licensed profession.

I currently have my degree in with WES for evaluation, however their equivalency tool suggests that it will be classified as a Bachelors Degree (four years). This seems to go against the guidance given but, I assume, means that I have to enter the WES result on my EE. This is a real problem for my application as it will lose me a lot of points which I was relying on.

Assuming that WES do only classify it as a Bachelors Degree (four years). I'm unsure whether to follow what I think is the correct guidance from the official immigration pages and claim it as a professional degree, then explain at (hopefully) ITA stage that it is a law degree.

I really don't know what to do with this, but it seems to be a common problem.

I feel your pain. Or profession sucks. Doomed ro face crazy nonsense daily.

I would’ve thought your LLB would be fine.
It’s probably worth trying to explain, but what is the consequence of a denial of your filing? Are they automatically going to reclassify your degree from a professional degree down to a Bachelor?

 

[Loulou96]

I asked this question via the CIC Facebook messenger and got the following response:

“please note that no immigration decisions are made based on our social media answers. If WES evaluated your law degree as a four-year Canadian bachelors degree, you should be eligible for the extra points for holding a "professional degree." Professional degrees, by IRCC's definition, are programs and academic courses of higher theoretical and technical content which can be applied towards a degree, or which focus on preparation for further research, or on entry into professions with high skill requirements.”

I am going to claim professional degree on the EE form and then explain if I get an ITA.

 

[BillyWescott]

I asked this question via the CIC Facebook messenger and got the following response:

“please note that no immigration decisions are made based on our social media answers. If WES evaluated your law degree as a four-year Canadian bachelors degree, you should be eligible for the extra points for holding a "professional degree." Professional degrees, by IRCC's definition, are programs and academic courses of higher theoretical and technical content which can be applied towards a degree, or which focus on preparation for further research, or on entry into professions with high skill requirements.”

I am going to claim professional degree on the EE form and then explain if I get an ITA.

Great news. As stated before, and I read somewhere, that for the purpose of Express Entry, we need to prove that our foreign education and foreign experience corresponds to NOC 4112 in the foreign country. Our history doesn’t have to 100% match the NOC requirements (e.g. admission to a Canadian bar).

Once we get a PR, we should legally be able to seek any type of work, not necessarily that of lawyer. So it shouldn’t matter if we’re admitted in Canada.

 

[bgwrig]

I asked this question via the CIC Facebook messenger and got the following response:

“please note that no immigration decisions are made based on our social media answers. If WES evaluated your law degree as a four-year Canadian bachelors degree, you should be eligible for the extra points for holding a "professional degree." Professional degrees, by IRCC's definition, are programs and academic courses of higher theoretical and technical content which can be applied towards a degree, or which focus on preparation for further research, or on entry into professions with high skill requirements.”

I am going to claim professional degree on the EE form and then explain if I get an ITA.

That’s super helpful, thanks. Judging by that response it’s not an uncommon problem. I think (assuming WES classify it as a 4 year Bachelors Degree) then the way to proceed is to ‘self certify’ it as a professional degree in the section where you are asked for your porcelain if education and then to give WES’s classification when asked later in the form. That should (I think) hopefully give the chance to explain the situation when asked at ITA stage.

 

[bgwrig]

*porcelain of education should read ‘level of education’. Autocorrect!

 

[bgwrig]

Quick update - I also got an message through the CIC Facebook messenger confirming that, even if it is classified by WES as a 4-yr Bachelor's Degree, a LLB Law/Bachelors of Law is counted by immigration as a professional degree and so, if you have a law degree, you can 'self-certify' it as a professional degree and claim the associated points regardless of the WES result. I assume you can then (if you receive an ITA) highlight this in the explanatory notes.

So.....good news!

 

[Pandora18]

Hi guys, please does anyone have clues as to how long the verification process between WES and an institution in Nigeria takes—basically we are looking at a Nigerian University and Nigerian Law school here? I had no idea about the whole verification process till I git the mail from WES today to that effect. I was a bit taken aback because I was already estimating how long the actual evaluation process would take. It wasn’t funny at all. Thanks in anticipation of your response!

 

[Olubusayo]

Hi guys, please does anyone have clues as to how long the verification process between WES and an institution in Nigeria takes—basically we are looking at a Nigerian University and Nigerian Law school here? I had no idea about the whole verification process till I git the mail from WES today to that effect. I was a bit taken aback because I was already estimating how long the actual evaluation process would take. It wasn’t funny at all. Thanks in anticipation of your response!

There's no set time frame. It all depends on how long it takes your university and law school to send your transcript. After this WES still confirms from both institutions if the transcript came from them (time frame also dependent on when they reply). Once Wes get this confirmation, they issue your ECA after 21 days.

I really dont understand why WES still sends verification requests to schools from Nigeria after making them send official transcripts directly to them.

 

[Pandora18]

There's no set time frame. It all depends on how long it takes your university and law school to send your transcript. After this WES still confirms from both institutions if the transcript came from them (time frame also dependent on when they reply). Once Wes get this confirmation, they issue your ECA after 21 days.

I really dont understand why WES still sends verification requests to schools from Nigeria after making them send official transcripts directly to them.

Thanks Olubusayo! You just happen to capture my thought perfectly, I mean why demanding for official transcript sent directly from the school if you are still gonna do a secondary verification. Actually, both of my official transcripts had reached WES, it’s the verification process that is ongoing. And I was wondering how long that could you take bearing in mind the strict fact that it’s supposed to be a ‘communication between WES and the institution’ alone.
Anyway, thanks for the response, I appreciate!