3 Easy Steps for I-140 Education Evaluation in 2024

12/28/2023

Good news! After being in the USA from your home country for many years, your employer finally decided to file an I-140 for you after years of hard work and waiting.

However, after you submitted your American degrees, USCIS still asked for extra evidence for your home country degree.

Now, you’re told to do an Education Evaluation for I-140 with a credential evaluator.

Founded by an immigrant just like you, we’ll today explain all the details you need to know in 2024.

1. What is Education Evaluation for I-140?

Education Evaluation, Academic Equivalency Evaluation on Wikipedia, is an analytical report which determines the equivalency in the US education system of a potential US immigrant's foreign academic and professional credentials.

Report of education evaluation includes the level of education and number of years completed, as well as the field of specialization.

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.

In the case of immigration, including I-140, a document-by-document evaluation should be enough but please advise your immigration lawyer for more details.

2. Why do you need Education Evaluation for I-140?

(General requirements for I-140)

Apply for I-140

According to USCIS, applicants for I-140 must hold an advanced degree, in other words, bachelor’s degree or higher, to be eligible.

Your country may call an advanced degree differently than the US, like a baccalaureate degree in Latin America, a licence degree in some European countries, although they all mean a bachelor’s degree in the US. Therefore, you need a trusted credential evaluator to make them equivalent to a US degree to show the proof of education to USCIS.

(FCE for I-140 RFE)

Received I-140 RFE

Sometimes, people like Jaiho123 might receive I-140 RFE from USCIS. In his/her case, the immigration attorney failed to submit any evidence of baccalaureate degree. Although he/she has a master’s degree from the US, because of the foreign education background, they still need to submit the proof for that

Or for whatever reason, when you receive the RFE for additional evidence to showcase your foreign education background, you’ll need an education evaluation to help you.

3. Three Easy Steps for I-140 Education Evaluation

1) Find a trusted agency.

This is how USCIS talks about what education evaluation reports can be accepted:

“In cases involving foreign degrees, officers may favorably consider a credentials evaluation performed by an independent credentials evaluator who has provided a credible, logical, and well-documented case for such an equivalency determination that is based solely on the noncitizen’s foreign degree(s)”

With that said, a private agency that provides foreign credential evaluation services and degree evaluation services are accepted by USCIS. In most cases, you can easily pick a general credential evaluation from a trusted agency.

Here we put out a few lists 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:

2) Submit documents.

In most cases, you may submit the following documents for an I-140 Education Evaluation:

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

Many education evaluation agencies may require you to submit documents either by mail or in person.

In order to avoid losing mail or being delayed, you can always come to an agency that accepts online submission.

With this kind of agency, simply take a picture of your document or scan it, then send out an email, you’re good to go!

3) Get your report.

After selecting the right service options and submitting payment, you can now relax to wait for your education evaluation report to be ready.

Depends on your choice, your document will be either mailed to you in a hardcopy or sent to you directly via Email in PDF.

4. Other Questions about I-140 Education Evaluation

Now, you may still have a few more questions regarding I-140 Education Evaluation on mind, we’re here to answer them all:

What are the prices?

In most cases, a document-by-document/general evaluation is enough for immigration purposes, and the cost is around $100 to $130.

How long is the process time?

The process time for I-140 Education Evaluation varies among different agencies.

For instance,American Education and Translation Services needs 7 business days (document-by-document evaluation), and bigger agencies like WECS takes 21 business days.

Therefore, it takes about 7 to 21 business days to finish an I-140 Education Evaluation.

What does an I-140 Education Evaluation include?

A document-by-document evaluation report typically includes:

Your foreign education background (enrollment time, school information, etc.)
Whether you completed the U.S. equivalent of high school before entering college.
Possible equivalence of your foreign degree
Conclusion on the equivalence of your foreign degree
Brief introduction of the evaluators qualification and experience

Free Tip on I-140 Education Evaluation

In the case of immigration education evaluation, you don’t have to go to the big guys, or you might experience no calls answered, waiting time is too long, and them always being busy.

Therefore, smaller agencies, like American Education and Translation Services, can better your experience for the services.

But, why choose us?

Founded by an immigrant, we know your struggles in USA because we've all been through that.
Reply to your email in 30 mins. To save your valuable time, we respond you rapidly via email.
Easy to be reached out. You can always contact us via phone, email, WhatsApp and more.
Customer service that puts you in first. We understand your pain of being ignored if you go to bigger agencies.
Experienced credential evaluators. Our Evaluation Director has had over a decade experience and was a Senior Associate Director at a well-known NACES agency.
Reasonable pricing and quality service.

Conclusion

Applying for I-140 is a big deal, that’s why it’s important to evaluate your foreign credentials if needed, or to avoid I-140 RFE.

Hence, we covered a few important questions and three steps to help you get an I-140 Education Evaluation done in a timely manner.

Overall, the process of an I-140 Education Evaluation is very simple: contact an agency, submit your documents, and receive the report.

For more information, click “What is Foreign Credential Evaluation?”

Or contact us for a free estimate.

References
https://forum.murthy.com/topic/35925-i-140-rfe-on-education-evaluation/
https://www.immigrationdirect.com/blog/employment-based-green-cards/degree-equivalency-requirements-for-employment-based-immigrant-visas/
https://www.uscis.gov/forms/filing-guidance/checklist-of-required-initial-evidence-for-form-i-140-for-informational-purposes-only