Translations vs Foreign Diploma Evaluation: What's the Difference?
9 Frequently Asked Questions

Written by Jeremy Yan | 09/16/2024

In 2024, as a foreign born immigrant that did the education in your home country, you’ll often be asked to translate or evaluate your diploma in different situations in USA, like apply for jobs, immigration or further your education.

So, you might be confused about the differences between translations and foreign diploma evaluation in the USA.

In this article, we will answer that question with other commonly asked questions, to help you get a hang of diploma translation and credential evaluation services before you start the process.

You’re also welcome to reach out to us directly, we’ll be happy to assist you!

1. What’s the difference between translation and evaluation of foreign diploma?

This is a question that we often get asked because our customers sometimes say “translate my diploma” when they mean evaluation.

To answer this question, we’ll get into the definition of translation and evaluation:

What’s translation?

Translation, according to Merriam-Webster, is a process of converting from one language into another. With that said, since English is widely spoken in the USA, your diploma or other documents will be translated from the original language to English.

Here in the US, when people mention translations, they are referring to certified translations because you need it to show your employer, USCIS, or your future school that the work is validated. But we need to be clear that a translation won’t state your foreign educational background equivalency to a US one.

What’s evaluation?

Evaluation, which can also be known as credential evaluation, educational equivalency evaluation or education evaluation, is a service provided by professional evaluation agencies to evaluate educational background(s), test scores from your home country, making it equivalent to a US diploma or degree.

In order to evaluate your educational background, you need to translate your supporting documents first.

In general, there are two commonly used types of educational evaluations:

Foreign Degree Evaluation (Diploma Evaluation/Document by Document)
This report includes U.S. degree equivalency only. It's a basic evaluation that often satisfies requirements for employment and immigration.
Transcript Evaluation (Course by Course)
This most complete report includes U.S. degree equivalency, credits, grades, and GPA. It's recommended for college admission, determining transfer credits or applying for an advanced degree, licensing, USCIS RFE, and more.

Now, if we ask you what the difference between a translation and evaluation is, we’re sure you have the answer.

Learn more: What is the difference between a translation and an evaluation?

2. Do I need both diploma translation and evaluation?

It depends.

Sometimes, your employer might only need to see your translated diploma. Cheers to that if it’s the case! Because most of the times, you’ll have to do both, diploma translation and evaluation.

For employers, most of the time, they would want to see if you have at least a high school diploma or its equivalency.

Besides that, as we mentioned earlier, you’ll need to do a diploma translation before the evaluation.

If your documents are already in English because you’re from an English speaking country, good for you! If not, you can ask the school you studied to do the translations or simply reach out to a trusted agency that can do both translations and credential evaluations.

3. How do I get my foreign diploma evaluated?

According USCIS and US Department of Education, you can use private or non-governmental entities’ services for your need of international diploma evaluation.

For instance, if you’re applying for a work visa (H1B), go to a private agency which specializes in credential evaluation services to assess your foreign Education Evaluation for H1B. If you’re applying for jobs, employers are typically fine with an evaluation report from an experience agency.

With more than 10 years of experience, American Education and Translation Services have evaluated massive numbers of foreign credential evaluations with 0 RFE or rejections from USCIS. Our reports are widely accepted by employers in all kinds of business as well.

Contact us for a free estimate.

4. Where can I evaluate my foreign diploma?

Here we collected some credential evaluation companies to save you time:

5 best education credential evaluations agencies:

They can all meet your needs for employment, immigration, and education.

If you live in Florida, California or Texas, we also listed the following educational evaluators for you:

5. What is the process of evaluating my foreign diploma?

In general, the process of getting your foreign credential evaluated is pretty simple. You’ll just have to submit the following documents to the agency:

Degree Certificate
Translated degree certificate by a certified translator
Transcripts
Translated transcripts by a certified translator (required if doing Transcript Evaluation)

As you can see, a diploma translation is a submitting document for your credential evaluation. If you apply for immigration or jobs, you typically just need a general document-by-document evaluation so a diploma certificate translation is good enough.

Next, the agency will ask to fill out an application, in which you’ll fill your mailing address, choose what services to do, and add additional services like mailing fee, PDF fee, et. if they’re needed.

After that, relax for a few days to wait for the results.

If you ordered a digital report, you will receive a confirmation email once your document has been finished. If you ordered a hardcopy to be mailed to you, it will take a few days to arrive.

6. How much does a credential evaluation service cost?

Generally speaking, if you only need a document-by-document credential evaluation, the service fee is anywhere between $100 and $130.

Here is the rundown of credential evaluation service fees from some agencies:

Credential Evaluation Agency	Service Fee
American Education and Translation Services	$100
A2Z Evaluations	$225
Academic Credentials Evaluation Institute (ACEI)	$105
Bruscan Educational Information Services (BEIS)	$75
California University FCE	$100
Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE)	$100
Educated Choices, LLC	$100
GEO Credential Services	$99
International Evaluations	$100
Josef Silny & Associates, Inc. (JS&A)	$130
Transcript Research	$95
SpanTran: The Evaluation Company	$95
Worldwide Education Consultant Services (WECS)	$110

7. How long do credential evaluation services take?

Every agency has their own turnaround time based off their capability and work capacity, but it normally takes around 7 to 21 business days for a document-by-document evaluation. For instance, it takes Worldwide Education Consultant Services (WECS) 21 days but American Education and Translation Services only needs 7 business days to provide prompt services.

8. Can I translate and evaluate my advanced degrees as well?

Absolutely! In fact, if you are planning to apply for a work visa (H1B) or employment based green card, USCIS requires applicants to show the evidence of having a U.S bachelor’s degree or that your foreign degree is equivalent to a particular U.S degree.

Sometimes, employers like higher institutions may also ask for a bachelor’s degree as well.

In this case, most credential evaluation agencies can also help you with advanced degree evaluation. Simply contact the one that fits your best needs for certified translations and credential evaluations.

9. What’s next after getting a translation and credential evaluation?

Congratulations! You now have successfully done foreign diploma translation and credential evaluations.

If you are submitting job applications, attach the documents with your CV and cover letter, we’re sure you’ll receive your dream job offer soon!

If you are apply for immigration cases, send the documents to your lawyer, they’ll take care of it. And you’re one step closer on getting the work visa (H1B), green card, and more.

Conclusion

As an experienced agency in translation and evaluation of foreign diploma, we covered 9 commonly asked questions from our customers since some were confused about the difference between a translation and an evaluation.

Our owner at American Education and Translation Services, Jeremy Yan, who is also the Director of Evaluation, worked for a prominent NACES agency for 10+ years as a senior associate director. He was just like you, coming to the US from a foreign country to better his life. And that’s why he wanted to help people like you by providing fast, cheap, affordable and reliable education credential evaluation services.

Contact us today if you need anything!

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Jeremy Yan, President & Director of Evaluation at AET

Immigrated to the U.S. back in 1998, Mr. Yan had worked for over 10 years in a prominent NACES (National Association of Credential Evaluation Services) company as a senior associate director and team leader. He has completed hundreds of thousands of foreign credential evaluation of documents from numerous foreign countries for various universities, licensing boards, U.S. government, and immigration services. He is a leading expert at American Education and Translation Services and was invited several times to be a keynote speaker to hundreds of admission counselors of U.S. universities.

Translations vs Foreign Diploma Evaluation: What's the Difference? 9 Frequently Asked Questions