HAD TO DECLINE ITA. PLEASE ADVISE ON WAY FORWARD!

[alysha]

Hi all,

I have completed a 2 year, full-time MSc in Chemistry which WES evaluated as a one year postgraduate diploma. Even though I chose 'One year course' under the WES evaluation dropdown box, my degree was calculated as masters and my final score was 470. I realized this glitch very late after completing medical and obtaining PCC (both of which are time bound documents). Now my score has dropped to 463 after recalculation and I had to decline the ITA. I'm at my wit's end as I am unable to see a way forward in the current scenario where the cut-off score is continuing above 470 in successive draws.

I already have a CLB 10 in IELTS and more than 3 years of work experience so my score can't be improved in those sections. I do not know French so getting those additional points for a second language is a distant dream. I don't have a job offer so most of the PNPs are out of my reach. Also, My NOC is not among the 'in-demand' occupation list of any PNP nor do I have any friend or relative staying in Canada. All these pretty much rule out any chance of getting a PNP to increase my score. And my birthday is in June so that would decrease a few more points from my already beleaguered score!

Please advise if getting my ECA done again from other organizations like ICAS, ICES or CES will help to get my MSc certified as a Canadian Master's equivalent? If yes, which organization among the above will do so in the quickest possible time? Or if there is any other plausible way to overcome this situation.

Any advice would be very much appreciated. It is very painful to accept defeat after going through so much effort to reach this stage. :|

Thanks in advance.

 

[alysha]

Nobody with the same issue?

 

[eept]

You are in a very tough situation.

on your ECA, it would depend on where you finished your MSc degree.

BCIT takes 20 weeks (Average of 15-20 weeks depending on your country of education). And they accept email copy of your transcripts - from any institution, I believe. Thus, this would be faster. The official start date begins on the date they received the documents.

UofT CES takes 14 weeks from the date they received your documents. If the degree is from the US and other selected countries, they would accept online copy from university. Otherwise, the shipping would also take more time.

ICAS would take more than half a year.
IQAS has not resumed their ECA services yet.

 

[alysha]

You are in a very tough situation.

on your ECA, it would depend on where you finished your MSc degree.

BCIT takes 20 weeks (Average of 15-20 weeks depending on your country of education). And they accept email copy of your transcripts - from any institution, I believe. Thus, this would be faster. The official start date begins on the date they received the documents.

UofT CES takes 14 weeks from the date they received your documents. If the degree is from the US and other selected countries, they would accept online copy from university. Otherwise, the shipping would also take more time.

ICAS would take more than half a year.
IQAS has not resumed their ECA services yet.

Thanks for your detailed reply! I have done my MSc from the University of Madras. My best bet seems to be CES. I just want to make sure that it would not be a futile exercise. I don't want to end up with another 'post graduate diploma' and wasting the precious little time I've got. Is there any way I can verify this before applying? Thanks!

 

[rajkamalmohanram]

Thanks for your detailed reply! I have done my MSc from the University of Madras. My best bet seems to be CES. I just want to make sure that it would not be a futile exercise. I don't want to end up with another 'post graduate diploma' and wasting the precious little time I've got. Is there any way I can verify this before applying? Thanks!

University of Madras! That's closer to home for me .

So, AFAIK, there is no way to know what your degree will be evaluated to until you get the evaluation done.

I have a similar issue with an application I'm working on right now for someone - the person has a Masters degree but WES's preliminary evaluation tells me it might be evaluated to another Bachelors degree (which is a shame).

In my tenure here, I have seen people get a different evaluation from ICAS (people whose Masters degrees were evaluated to a diploma or a bachelors degree by WES got a Masters equivalency from ICAS) but then this was like 3-4 years ago. Maybe their protocols have changed, I'm not sure.

 

[newbiealpha]

Hi all,

I have completed a 2 year, full-time MSc in Chemistry which WES evaluated as a one year postgraduate diploma. Even though I chose 'One year course' under the WES evaluation dropdown box, my degree was calculated as masters and my final score was 470. I realized this glitch very late after completing medical and obtaining PCC (both of which are time bound documents). Now my score has dropped to 463 after recalculation and I had to decline the ITA. I'm at my wit's end as I am unable to see a way forward in the current scenario where the cut-off score is continuing above 470 in successive draws.

I already have a CLB 10 in IELTS and more than 3 years of work experience so my score can't be improved in those sections. I do not know French so getting those additional points for a second language is a distant dream. I don't have a job offer so most of the PNPs are out of my reach. Also, My NOC is not among the 'in-demand' occupation list of any PNP nor do I have any friend or relative staying in Canada. All these pretty much rule out any chance of getting a PNP to increase my score. And my birthday is in June so that would decrease a few more points from my already beleaguered score!

Please advise if getting my ECA done again from other organizations like ICAS, ICES or CES will help to get my MSc certified as a Canadian Master's equivalent? If yes, which organization among the above will do so in the quickest possible time? Or if there is any other plausible way to overcome this situation.

Any advice would be very much appreciated. It is very painful to accept defeat after going through so much effort to reach this stage. :|

Thanks in advance.

What you mean by you had to decline the ITA? Why don't you submit all the documents as requested by CIC

 

[prkartik]

Hi
if your new calculated score is less than cut-off score for which you received ITA.
CIC will reject your application and you will loose your valuable money and time. Its better to get re-evaluated by another institution.

Best of Luck.

 

[Islander216]

463 is not a bad score at all, you still have a decent chance that the cut-off score drops to that over the course of the year. You can also try to apply for PNP, which would be a good idea.

You're in a tricky situation with the Masters degree evaluated by WES, one thing i will tell you is if you get it evaluated by CES, then erase any mention of the ECA done by WES for it.

Someone mentioned WES for their undergraduate degree and then CES for their Masters, because they gave them Master's equivalence. But when IRCC saw that the Master's was assessed as a postgraduate diploma on the WES ECA, they did not give them the points for Master's, despite them getting Master's equivalence by CES.

So be very careful.

But i know many people who have gotten their Master's from India assessed as Master's equivalence by CES.

The only problem is their are not taking any additional assessments i think until May 2020, it's a lot more expensive and it takes a lot more time than WES.

But of course, for our friends from India it's much more worthwhile for them to get their Master's degree accredited as Master's equivalence.

 

[dayocanny]

Hi all,

I have completed a 2 year, full-time MSc in Chemistry which WES evaluated as a one year postgraduate diploma. Even though I chose 'One year course' under the WES evaluation dropdown box, my degree was calculated as masters and my final score was 470. I realized this glitch very late after completing medical and obtaining PCC (both of which are time bound documents). Now my score has dropped to 463 after recalculation and I had to decline the ITA. I'm at my wit's end as I am unable to see a way forward in the current scenario where the cut-off score is continuing above 470 in successive draws.

I already have a CLB 10 in IELTS and more than 3 years of work experience so my score can't be improved in those sections. I do not know French so getting those additional points for a second language is a distant dream. I don't have a job offer so most of the PNPs are out of my reach. Also, My NOC is not among the 'in-demand' occupation list of any PNP nor do I have any friend or relative staying in Canada. All these pretty much rule out any chance of getting a PNP to increase my score. And my birthday is in June so that would decrease a few more points from my already beleaguered score!

Please advise if getting my ECA done again from other organizations like ICAS, ICES or CES will help to get my MSc certified as a Canadian Master's equivalent? If yes, which organization among the above will do so in the quickest possible time? Or if there is any other plausible way to overcome this situation.

Any advice would be very much appreciated. It is very painful to accept defeat after going through so much effort to reach this stage. :|

Thanks in advance.

You can learn French. If you are determined and consistent, you can write TEF this year and get ITA. Not easy but possible

 

[eept]

Thanks for your detailed reply! I have done my MSc from the University of Madras. My best bet seems to be CES. I just want to make sure that it would not be a futile exercise. I don't want to end up with another 'post graduate diploma' and wasting the precious little time I've got. Is there any way I can verify this before applying? Thanks!

Unfortunately, there really is no way to determine the Canadian equivalency of your degree, prior to submitting your application.
I would suggest that you go through the threads of BCIT timeline and CES timeline here in the forum- those are already long threads, but you may probably encounter someone with a similar degree from same university.

If I were in your situation, I would probably go with both BCIT ICES and UofT CES- but I know that it would be very costly - would be around Cad410 plus school and shipping fees. But in that case, you have additional options. But then again, they are not cheap at all!

Alternatively, have you already checked the SINP? If your NOC is not in the excluded list, you may probably qualify with that.
Also, make sure that on your EE profile, check all provinces option (question about which province/s you’re interested to settle), in case you have not done yet, so you might get an invite from Ontario or Alberta.

 

[alysha]

463 is not a bad score at all, you still have a decent chance that the cut-off score drops to that over the course of the year. You can also try to apply for PNP, which would be a good idea.

You're in a tricky situation with the Masters degree evaluated by WES, one thing i will tell you is if you get it evaluated by CES, then erase any mention of the ECA done by WES for it.

Someone mentioned WES for their undergraduate degree and then CES for their Masters, because they gave them Master's equivalence. But when IRCC saw that the Master's was assessed as a postgraduate diploma on the WES ECA, they did not give them the points for Master's, despite them getting Master's equivalence by CES.

So be very careful.

But i know many people who have gotten their Master's from India assessed as Master's equivalence by CES.

The only problem is their are not taking any additional assessments i think until May 2020, it's a lot more expensive and it takes a lot more time than WES.

But of course, for our friends from India it's much more worthwhile for them to get their Master's degree accredited as Master's equivalence.

@Islander216 Thanks a ton for this information! So it makes sense to get both my bachelor's and Master's evaluated by CES again to eliminate the mention of WES.
I thought it was IQAS which was not accepting applications till May 2020. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[alysha]

Unfortunately, there really is no way to determine the Canadian equivalency of your degree, prior to submitting your application.
I would suggest that you go through the threads of BCIT timeline and CES timeline here in the forum- those are already long threads, but you may probably encounter someone with a similar degree from same university.

If I were in your situation, I would probably go with both BCIT ICES and UofT CES- but I know that it would be very costly - would be around Cad410 plus school and shipping fees. But in that case, you have additional options. But then again, they are not cheap at all!

Alternatively, have you already checked the SINP? If your NOC is not in the excluded list, you may probably qualify with that.
Also, make sure that on your EE profile, check all provinces option (question about which province/s you’re interested to settle), in case you have not done yet, so you might get an invite from Ontario or Alberta.

Those were very valid options that you have suggested! I'll check out SINP and in the meanwhile try to get ECA done from the toher organizations. I guess time more than cost should be my priority now. Thanks a ton @eept

 

[Islander216]

@Islander216 Thanks a ton for this information! So it makes sense to get both my bachelor's and Master's evaluated by CES again to eliminate the mention of WES.
I thought it was IQAS which was not accepting applications till May 2020. Correct me if I am wrong.

You can verify with UofT directly,, but i remember recommending to someone to get their ECA from CES and they told me it was not accepting new applications until May.

Yes, get both your undergraduate and postgraduate degrees assessed by CES.

If they give you Master's equivalence for your MSc, never mention WES ever again.

 

[tapioca]

Alysha, what did WES do wrong exactly? Did they assess your Master's or not?

 

[alysha]

You can verify with UofT directly,, but i remember recommending to someone to get their ECA from CES and they told me it was not accepting new applications until May.

Yes, get both your undergraduate and postgraduate degrees assessed by CES.

If they give you Master's equivalence for your MSc, never mention WES ever again.

@islander Will do.Thanks a bunch!