WES Evaluation of Philippine Degrees: How It Works

TL;DR: A WES evaluation of a Philippine degree hinges on one thing: your school sending the official transcript straight to WES, either through an approved secure digital channel or in a sealed envelope you never open. You upload the diploma photocopy and any translations yourself; you do not upload the transcript. WES then verifies your documents by writing to the issuing institution, resending every three weeks until it hears back, and it cannot issue a report until that comes through. Published fees run from US$118 for a Document-by-Document Basic report to US$239 for Course-by-Course ICAP, and C$264 for the Canadian ECA. Budget about two weeks for verification plus one to two weeks for the evaluation, after everything arrives, and expect the registrar to be the slow part.

What a WES report actually is

World Education Services is a credential evaluator. It reads your foreign qualification and states what it is comparable to in the US or Canadian system. It does not confer a licence, a visa or an admission. The receiving body, a university, employer, licensing board or IRCC, decides what to do with the report.

That matters for the Philippines specifically because a lot of people order the wrong report. Before you pay:

• Ask the receiving institution which report it wants. Document-by-Document lists and describes each credential with its US equivalency. Course-by-Course adds a subject-by-subject listing and a grade point average, and is what most US universities and licensing boards ask for.
• Ask whether WES is accepted at all. WES is the most commonly named evaluator, not the only one, and some bodies name a different provider.

Required documents for Philippine credentials

WES publishes country-specific guidance for the Philippines, and the core instruction is short: ask your school to send WES your official transcript that lists all completed coursework.

The mechanics around that instruction are where people get stuck.

Sent by the institution, not by you. WES states that official academic documents need to be sent to WES by the issuing academic institutions. Whenever possible it encourages institutions to use an established secure digital channel. Where sending documents electronically is not possible, records must be provided in a sealed envelope; the institution may send it to WES directly, or give it to you in a sealed envelope which you forward unopened.

Uploaded by you. You may upload photocopies of degree certificates and translations in your WES account. Documents must be in English, and WES does not offer translation services.

What WES will not take. Do not send original documents, because they cannot be returned. Do not email documents, except where the institution has an approved digital partnership with WES. Do not upload transcripts or mark sheets through the portal; they must come from the institution.

The reference number. After you apply online you receive a unique WES reference number, and your school needs it so that the records it sends can be matched to your file. Send it to the registrar in the same message as the request.

Two optional forms. WES offers a Digital Partnership Form for schools that do not yet have a secure digital arrangement, and an Academic Records Request Form that officially authorises release of your records, which WES suggests for Philippine applicants who no longer live in the Philippines. The Academic Records Request Form applies only to certain schools in certain countries and does not apply to schools that can send documents electronically, so run WES's Required Documents tool for your exact credential and institution rather than assuming.

Is CHED CAV required?

Short answer: WES does not list it.

WES's Philippines credential advice page describes the transcript and sealed-envelope requirements and the two optional forms. It does not mention certification, authentication and verification from the Commission on Higher Education.

CAV is real and is often necessary, just usually for something else: apostille or consular legalisation of your school records through the Department of Foreign Affairs, embassy processing, and several foreign ministries' recognition systems. If you are also planning to work in the Gulf, or to have documents legalised for another country, you will probably need CAV, but you are doing it for that authority and not for WES. Our guide on whether a Philippine degree is recognised abroad separates the two paths.

If your specific credential or institution is unusual, check WES's Required Documents tool and take that output as the answer.

Fees, as published

US evaluations:

Delivery and extras (USD): standard delivery without tracking 14, US 3-5 business day shipping 19, 2-day 28, 1-day 42, international courier 86, sealed envelope 9 each. Duplicate reports ordered at application time cost 35. Updating a completed evaluation to add credentials or upgrade Document-by-Document to Course-by-Course costs 92, and upgrading to ICAP for permanent transcript storage costs 92.

Canada, for the ECA:

WES notes that Canadian prices exclude 13 percent HST and that all fees are subject to change.

ICAP is worth a sentence. WES stores your transcripts permanently under ICAP, so later reports to additional recipients are cheaper and you do not have to ask your registrar again. If you expect to send reports to several employers or boards over the years, or you suspect your school will be difficult to deal with a second time, the ICAP premium is usually the cheaper long-run choice.

Timelines, as published

WES separates the process into two phases and publishes times for each.

Document verification: typically about two weeks after all documents are received, while WES reviews and verifies their authenticity.

Evaluation: typically about one week for an ECA for IRCC or a Document-by-Document report, with complex evaluations up to two weeks; typically about two weeks for Course-by-Course, with complex evaluations up to four weeks.

WES is explicit that it only starts the process after receiving all required official documents from you and your institution, and that stated processing times are approximate and may change based on volume and staffing.

Read that carefully. The published clock starts when the last document lands. If your registrar takes two months, WES's two-week verification window is irrelevant to your actual wait.

The verification step, and why Philippine applications stall

This is the part most guides skip, and it is where Philippine files most often get stuck.

WES sends a photocopy of your documents electronically to the issuing institution or authority, with a letter requesting verification. It does this when documents look different from what it usually receives from that institution or education system, when information on the documents does not match your application, and as proactive secondary verification to minimise fraud.

Then: WES resends the request every three weeks until a response is received. Some verification requests take several weeks and even months; some institutions reply in days. WES cannot begin issuing the report until the documents have been verified.

Two situations WES flags that require action from you: some institutions charge a verification fee that you must pay directly, and some need your explicit authorisation before they will verify your records.

What actually goes wrong with Philippine schools

Based on how the process is structured, the recurring failure points are predictable:

• The registrar will not seal and send. Some Philippine registrars are used to releasing the transcript of records to the graduate, full stop, and will hand it over unsealed or refuse to mail internationally. An unsealed transcript is not usable.
• The school has no international mail process. Courier costs, addressing and tracking become your problem in practice, even though the document must formally come from the school.
• The school does not answer the verification letter. Small colleges, schools that have merged or been renamed, and offices where the person who handles this has left are the common cases. WES keeps resending; nothing else moves.
• Name and detail mismatches. A middle name recorded differently on the diploma and the transcript, or a programme title that changed after you graduated, triggers verification and delay.
• Closed institutions. If the school no longer exists, records normally sit with CHED or a designated custodian, and you will need to establish who holds them before WES can get anywhere.

How to reduce the risk

1. Ask the registrar the specific question in writing: can you send an official transcript of records directly to WES, either electronically through an approved channel or in a sealed, signed and stamped envelope? Get the answer before you pay WES anything.
2. Give them the WES reference number and the exact mailing address in the same request, and offer to pay any courier or certification fee up front.
3. Ask whether they will respond to a verification letter from WES, and get a named contact and email in the office that would handle it.
4. If you are abroad, ask WES's Required Documents tool whether the Academic Records Request Form applies to your school, and use it if it does.
5. Order translations only if needed. Philippine transcripts are normally issued in English already, which removes one common failure mode.
6. Do not open anything sealed. If the school gives you the envelope, it goes to WES exactly as received.

Where a WES report fits in your plan

For the US, the report is an input into an admissions or licensing decision, not the decision. For Canada, an ECA from a designated organisation such as WES is required for certain immigration programmes, is accepted by IRCC for five years from the date it is issued, and expressly does not mean your professional credentials are recognised, since licensing is provincial.

If you are still deciding what to study and where, two related reads: universities that accept international students in the Philippines and Philippine online degrees taken from abroad, where the records question is worth settling before you enrol rather than after. Our overview of the Philippine education system explains the credential names WES will be reading, and if rankings are part of your shortlist logic, see why rank is a poor proxy for an international applicant.

Sources

• WES, Get Your Philippines Degree Evaluated
• WES, Understanding Required Documents for Credential Evaluation
• WES, What Is the Academic Records Request Form?
• WES, Understanding the WES Document Verification Process
• WES, Evaluations and Fees, Graduate Admissions
• WES Canada, Educational Credential Assessment fees
• WES, Current Processing Times
• WES, Required Documents tool
• IRCC Help Centre, Can I re-use my ECA report?
• IRCC Help Centre, Does an ECA mean I can be licensed in a regulated profession?