WES rule changes for India: How to tackle this change

[nitz19arg]

My life was going smoothly till I heard about the 1 Dec notification from WES.
I am applying along with my wife and was chasing 3 universities in 3 different cities to get the transcripts along with my IELTS prep and office workload.

Now I see on WES website:
Required Document Update: WES has changed our required documents as of December 1, 2018. We only accept documents in sealed envelopes that are mailed directly by the institutions themselves. This means that WES will not accept documents sent by colleges, students themselves, third party agents, or anyone else.

I need to ask:
1. Its confusing, WES will accept from universities and not from colleges?

2. How does WES verify that courier is sent via university and not student?
Is it a viable option to courier the envelope yourself through a Bluedart/DTDC near the university and write univ's address in the from column?

3. Now,what should be included in the envelope by universities other than:
inside: transcript + degree copy of one university and
outside: WES reference number

4. Is it okay if the 3 envelops from 3 different univ belonging to a single WES reference number are sent with a gap of certain days/months?

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[mr.preetsingh]

My life was going smoothly till I heard about the 1 Dec notification from WES.
I am applying along with my wife and was chasing 3 universities in 3 different cities to get the transcripts along with my IELTS prep and office workload.

Now I see on WES website:
Required Document Update: WES has changed our required documents as of December 1, 2018. We only accept documents in sealed envelopes that are mailed directly by the institutions themselves. This means that WES will not accept documents sent by colleges, students themselves, third party agents, or anyone else.

I need to ask:
1. Its confusing, WES will accept from universities and not from colleges?

2. How does WES verify that courier is sent via university and not student?
Is it a viable option to courier the envelope yourself through a Bluedart/DTDC near the university and write univ's address in the from column?

3. Now,what should be included in the envelope by universities other than:
inside: transcript + degree copy of one university and
outside: WES reference number

4. Is it okay if the 3 envelops from 3 different univ belonging to a single WES reference number are sent with a gap of certain days/months?

Any help would be appreciated.

1. Any transcripts be it college or university, should be sent by institution only.
2. If they found, they will reject your application without refund. So do not try that.
3. From a long time, the process is, get transcripts and Degree copy (attested) from university in an envelope. Before requesting transcripts, submit WES account and pay fee. The transcript form should be inside the envelope, so you can request your university to do that. EVERY UNIVERSITY AGREES TO THAT.
4. Yes, its fine if 3 envelopes from 3 different univ. are reaching WES. They will wait for all those educations which you have mentioned in your WES account.

 

[nitz19arg]

1. Any transcripts be it college or university, should be sent by institution only.
2. If they found, they will reject your application without refund. So do not try that.
3. From a long time, the process is, get transcripts and Degree copy (attested) from university in an envelope. Before requesting transcripts, submit WES account and pay fee. The transcript form should be inside the envelope, so you can request your university to do that. EVERY UNIVERSITY AGREES TO THAT.
4. Yes, its fine if 3 envelopes from 3 different univ. are reaching WES. They will wait for all those educations which you have mentioned in your WES account.

Thank you @mr.preetsingh for prompt response.
I believe that the univ. will also have to mention clearly the WES reference number on envelope. Any idea how much these univ. charge on postage fees on average basis?

 

[Vishal Sharma TOI]

I got my B.com Hons transcript from DU and PGDM transcript on 1 Dec’18. And thanked god for successful reciept of it but one fine day on 3 Dec when I was making Wes account, I realized all rules have been changed over night like 8 Nov demonetisation by Mr. Modi without a notice!

This is quite un professional on WES end, they should have had given atleast 15 days notice so that applicants could had planned accordingly.

Really disappointed and frustrated now!

 

[maheshmit]

I got my B.com Hons transcript from DU and PGDM transcript on 1 Dec’18. And thanked god for successful reciept of it but one fine day on 3 Dec when I was making Wes account, I realized all rules have been changed over night like 8 Nov demonetisation by Mr. Modi without a notice!

This is quite un professional on WES end, they should have had given atleast 15 days notice so that applicants could had planned accordingly.

Really disappointed and frustrated now!

Hi Vishal,

I'm also in similar situation. I got both my Bachelors, Masters transcripts but before I could get to create my WES profile, the document requirements had changed. I even called WES to see if there is an alternate way but they clearly stated that documents not sent by institutions will be rejected.

However, everything's not lost. There are other ECA agencies which accept transcripts sent by applicants provided that the envelopes are properly sealed and stamped. University of Toronto's CES and IQAS accept transcripts mailed by applicants. Given that IQAS processing time is almost 20 weeks, CES might be a good bet. Even I'm thinking of applying through CES. Let me know what you decide.

All the best!

 

[Vishal Sharma TOI]

Hi Vishal,

I'm also in similar situation. I got both my Bachelors, Masters transcripts but before I could get to create my WES profile, the document requirements had changed. I even called WES to see if there is an alternate way but they clearly stated that documents not sent by institutions will be rejected.

However, everything's not lost. There are other ECA agencies which accept transcripts sent by applicants provided that the envelopes are properly sealed and stamped. University of Toronto's CES and IQAS accept transcripts mailed by applicants. Given that IQAS processing time is almost 20 weeks, CES might be a good bet. Even I'm thinking of applying through CES. Let me know what you decide.

All the best!

IQAS WOULD BE COMPLETE WASTAGE F TIME!
Will research about CES and also will connect with consultant tomorrow to decide. Do you think CES will be able to do evaluation in 4 weeks time? And will they accept transcripts from students?
Please let me know,, if you have researched on these things.

Cannot even sleep now, so much confusion and tension created by this non sense illogical overnight move without any notice!

 

[maheshmit]

IQAS WOULD BE COMPLETE WASTAGE F TIME!
Will research about CES and also will connect with consultant tomorrow to decide. Do you think CES will be able to do evaluation in 4 weeks time? And will they accept transcripts from students?
Please let me know,, if you have researched on these things.

Cannot even sleep now, so much confusion and tension created by this non sense illogical overnight move without any notice!

Agree on IQAS - hence even I'm not considering it. The usual evaluation time for CES is 12 weeks and they are closed for vacations between Dec 21 to Jan 6, so that might extend it by two weeks.

CES does accept transcripts from students. It's mentioned in their document requirement and I even confirmed by calling them.

 

[Noramoda]

IQAS is really good, I specially got mine and my husbands degree assessed after careful research and I know a lot of people who regret approaching WES and are redirecting to IQAS.. they also tend to give you the best equalancy for your degree, unlike WES, who'll lower it.

 

[maheshmit]

IQAS is really good, I specially got mine and my husbands degree assessed after careful research and I know a lot of people who regret approaching WES and are redirecting to IQAS.. they also tend to give you the best equalancy for your degree, unlike WES, who'll lower it.

Yes, they are fair in their assessment but the processing time is very long. Can you please let me know how long it took to get your assessments?

 

[Noramoda]

Yes, they are fair in their assessment but the processing time is very long. Can you please let me know how long it took to get your assessments?

Well i wouldn't be so concerened about the time.. what if WES gave you a bad evaluation for your degree, thats what they are doing to your degrees from India and people are spending money and time again to have it re-evaluated from from other assessing authorities.. also your university will take a lot of time to send it directly to WES.. whereas for IQAS you can pick it and send it yourself, that saves about 2 months already.. it took us about one and a half months

 

[Noramoda]

WES id a good idea when you know your degree will for sure get such and such equalancy and that your university will send it to them on time and also respond to WES's mail enquiring about your degree.. if you think your UNI wont, please dont waste your time.. youll spend longer time with WES in that case, i know people who've not got their assessment for 5 months now... how does that come in fast ?

 

[krishnaindia]

Well i wouldn't be so concerened about the time.. what if WES gave you a bad evaluation for your degree, thats what they are doing to your degrees from India and people are spending money and time again to have it re-evaluated from from other assessing authorities.. also your university will take a lot of time to send it directly to WES.. whereas for IQAS you can pick it and send it yourself, that saves about 2 months already.. it took us about one and a half months

On their website it says 20 weeks. Do you anyone else also got it done in short time?

 

[maheshmit]

Well i wouldn't be so concerened about the time.. what if WES gave you a bad evaluation for your degree, thats what they are doing to your degrees from India and people are spending money and time again to have it re-evaluated from from other assessing authorities.. also your university will take a lot of time to send it directly to WES.. whereas for IQAS you can pick it and send it yourself, that saves about 2 months already.. it took us about one and a half months

wow! one and half months is quite fast for IQAS. I see people in other threads who have been waiting for IQAS reports for more than 4 months. Hence thought of asking.

 

[Noramoda]

wow! one and half months is quite fast for IQAS. I see people in other threads who have been waiting for IQAS reports for more than 4 months. Hence thought of asking.

Really ?! I don't know.. although we weren't expecting it this fast ourselves but we still got it.. me and my husband sent our sealed envelopes in one courier packet.. his assessment was done in one and a half months and mine, almost touching 2 months.

 

[krishnaindia]

Really ?! I don't know.. although we weren't expecting it this fast ourselves but we still got it.. me and my husband sent our sealed envelopes in one courier packet.. his assessment was done in one and a half months and mine, almost touching 2 months.

That is nice.. good for you. Now that wes has changed process i am checking other options.