zandora:


This is what the CIC website states in relation to assessing law degrees:

For Express Entry, we only accept professional degrees in these fields:

medicine,
veterinary medicine,
dentistry,
podiatry,
optometry,
law,
chiropractic medicine, or
pharmacy.

ECA assessment results for Law:

Bachelor of Laws
Juris Doctor
First professional university degree in law
First professional university degree in law, preceded by [x years] prerequisite undergraduate study

Now in order to fall into the category 'Master degree or professional degree needed to practice in a licensed profession' you have to have either a Master's degree or the professional degree. Firstly, you don't have a Master's degree. Secondly, Canada requires any foreigner working in a regulated field to take their exams before they can practice their profession in Canada, therefore you can't use your law school certificate to practice in Canada as you'll have to write a Canadian Bar exam. A Juris Doctor degree is earned by completing law school in order to practice law either in the United States, Canada, Australia, and other common law countries of which Nigeria is a part of but like I said, you can't practice law in Canada, only in Nigeria. As a result, your degree and certificate will most likely be evaluated as a Bachelor of Laws.

iphie25:


this was Zandora's reply to someone in 2015. i dont know if she still holds this view. it'll be nice if she can help us out here.

iphie25:


this was Zandora's reply to someone in 2015. i dont know if she still holds this view. it'll be nice if she can help us out here.

flosk:
Hi everyone, with a bsc and acca what category does one falls to?

Is it bachelors degree or
2 or more certificate category?


As WES only asses degree how do I get to assess the acca.

dupyshoo:
If you look at the comments after Zandora's post, you will see that I commented after that and the conclusion then was Law graduates from Nigeria can only claim Bachelor's degree.

JesusDWay:


Iphie....you are right all along, I think the problem with the back and forth between our amiable Dupyshoo and Nittaj is 'English'. What is the difference between Bachelor Degree and Bachelor of Laws? They are both first degrees, nomenclature is the difference and since CIC has elaborated on how we are to read ECA report of which the requirement for those classified as professional degree is 'First Degree required to practice' which is what is required here and the Credential and ECA remarks already stated it is 'Bachelor of Law' which is 'First Professional Degree'....it shows it is to be taken as such and gets the same marks for Masters. Furthermore, the Canadian Equivalent which is what is causing controversy is to be noted that Canadian equivalent will always state whatever is assessed and is acceptable as a Degree, Diploma or Certificate, there's no ECA report that will state its Canadian Equivalent as Bachelor of Law or Masters of Law or PhD Law, it will always be Bachelor Degree or Masters Degree or Postgraduate Diploma etc, it is the Credential and Remarks that will mention the specific.

iphie25:


Ahhh!!! Finally I can rest. I've been so worried eh...15marks no be here and beyond d 15marks sef...I started wondering if I was going to be affected in anyway if I get ITA with my current EEP.
Thanks JesusDway

zandora:


No, it won't fall under Master's degree because it isn't equivalent to a Canadian Master's degree and it won't fall under professional degree because you can't use that Nigerian law degree to practice law in Canada. Remember, it is the assessment that is supposed to give you either Master's degree or professional degree needed to........ If however the degree was obtained in Canada and the person has done the call to bar then it would fall under professional degree needed to practice in a licence profession because you can practice law with that certification in Canada. I don't know if you get me.

dupyshoo:
What do you think about Zandora's comments below?

JesusDWay:


Iphie....you are right all along, I think the problem with the back and forth between our amiable Dupyshoo and Nittaj is 'English'. What is the difference between Bachelor Degree and Bachelor of Laws? They are both first degrees, nomenclature is the difference and since CIC has elaborated on how we are to read ECA report of which the requirement for those classified as professional degree is 'First Degree required to practice' which is what is required here and the Credential and ECA remarks already stated it is 'Bachelor of Law' which is 'First Professional Degree'....it shows it is to be taken as such and gets the same marks for Masters. Furthermore, the Canadian Equivalent which is what is causing controversy is to be noted that Canadian equivalent will always state whatever is assessed and is acceptable as a Degree, Diploma or Certificate, there's no ECA report that will state its Canadian Equivalent as Bachelor of Law or Masters of Law or PhD Law, it will always be Bachelor Degree or Masters Degree or Postgraduate Diploma etc, it is the Credential and Remarks that will mention the specific.

iphie25:


ok i need to ask a question. for starters is ECA meant for canadian degrees? if the answer is No then it means some of these terms refer to your home/ awarding country. i.e the first professional certificate required to practice in a given profession. they wont be expecting you to produce a canadian bar license or degree. infact if you have any of these two, you dont need to bother with WES. WES is solely for foreign degrees. thats my opinion sha, although i have sent a detailed mail to WES, hoping to send one along these lines to CIC. in time we'll surely come to know the true position.

dupyshoo:
What do you think about Zandora's comments below?

NittaJ:


But the ECA states it's the 'first professional degree needed to practice'.

The same way u can't practice Law with the Bachelor's degree here in Nigeria until u are called to bar, u also cannot 'practice law' with the Bachelor's degree given in Canada until you move to their next professional degree needed to practice law in Canada

I think what JesusDway said makes sense, but who knows..

dupyshoo:
I agree with you but my concern is the Bachelor's degree (4 years). Why is it written there?

I think we should just wait for iphie25's verification so that we will not get ourselves too confused about this issue.

Ekpekus:

1. Yes you can but its advisable to wait for the assessments by WES to be concluded before opening an EE profile.
2. Yes it can be updated. invariably it is the same when you wait for the documents to be complete before opening a profile.
3. The highest qualification can be assessed alone which in this case is the MBA especially as time to you is of the essence. Nevertheless, it would have cost the same price to evaluate both degrees in case you might want to use the BSc evaluated


later in Canada.

I hope it help

In a comprehensive and informative report, Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees Canada (IRCC, formerly known as CIC) has provided valuable insights on the first 12 months of the Express Entry selection system for immigration to Canada, which came into operation on January 1, 2015.

The end-of-year report provides a range of highly useful information for Express Entry candidates for immigration to Canada. The data given in the report covers the entirety of 2015, encompassing the first 23 draws (also known as rounds of invitations), while also providing a snapshot of the composition of the pool taken from a data extract on January 3, 2016. CICNews.com has published a series of articles analyzing this report. In addition to this article, there are also articles covering Canadian provinces and the Comprehensive Ranking System.

Over the course of 2015, a total of 31,063 Invitations to Apply (ITAs) were issued to individuals around the world looking to immigrate to Canada. Through the report, we learned the following:
Many candidates in IT occupations have been issued ITAs, while individuals working in the food service industry have also fared well.
The majority of candidates issued ITAs were residing in Canada.
More than half of all invited candidates were nationals of one of the following five countries: India, Philippines, China, the U.K., and Ireland.
IRCC has stated that ‘Future invitation rounds from the Express Entry pool will become the main source of applications to meet annual immigration levels targets for certain economic immigration programs under the Express Entry system as the older inventories are reduced.’

Focus on occupations
In the run-up to the launch of Express Entry, the government of Canada stated that the new system would ensure that Canada’s economic and labour market needs are met. For the Express Entry system, as compared with previous systems, intake caps for specific occupations were done away with.

Express Entry is intended to be a flexible system that is more responsive to the immediate needs of Canadian employers and provinces. As such, eligible candidates who obtain a qualifying job offer (supported by a Labour Market Impact Assessment) or provincial nomination certificate are issued an ITA at a subsequent draw from the pool, regardless of their occupation. It should be noted, however, that a job offer is not required in order for a candidate to receive an ITA. Indeed, at least 40% of all ITAs issued in 2015 were issued to candidates who did not have a job offer.

IT professionals (NOCs beginning with 21) and business and finance professionals (NOCs beginning with 11) have been successful at obtaining ITAs. According to IRCC, these candidates often have high human capital with no valid job offer, while candidates with NOCs beginning with 63 are more likely to have first arrived in Canada on a work permit and later obtained a job offer.

Given that early draws selected a large number of candidates under the Canadian Experience Class (CEC), it is likely that a large number of food service supervisors and cooks already in Canada were invited over the first few rounds of invitations. As time goes on, the relative number of invitees in such occupations is expected to decrease; the figures heading into 2016 and beyond will likely reveal a wider range of occupations, particularly in professional occupations such as IT and business.

Since the Express Entry selection system for immigration to Canada was first introduced in January, 2015, candidates have speculated about the make-up of the pool, but no candidate ever fully knew its structure. Now, since the recent publication of an enlightening Express Entry report, the inner workings of the Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) can be revealed.

The year-end report covers the period from January 1, 2015 to January 3, 2016, which takes into account the first 23 draws from the pool. A data extract (or ‘snapshot’) from the pool was provided, revealing a view of the pool on January 3, 2016.

Through the report, we learned the following:
As of January 3, a total of 191,279 Express Entry profiles had been submitted. Of these, 88,048 were found not eligible because they did not meet the criteria of at least one of the three programs managed by the system, namely the Federal Skilled Worker Class, the Federal Skilled Trades Class, and the Canadian Experience Class. On January 3, a total of 1,303 profiles were pending due to Job Bank registration or verification of a Provincial Nomination (PN).

A total of 63,937 candidates were in the pool on January 3. Of these, 3,895 had received an Invitation to Apply (ITA) but had not yet submitted an application (candidates have 60 days to do so after receiving an ITA).
Of the profiles that had left the pool, the overwhelming majority (21,651) were applications that had been submitted for processing. Other profiles had either been withdrawn or reached the 12-month expiry date.

Active candidates in the Express Entry pool have the opportunity to increase their likelihood of receiving an ITA by improving their CRS score.

This can be done by:
gaining additional work experience;
completing a level of education;
improving language proficiency in English and/or French; and/or
adding a spouse or common-law partner’s language proficiency and/or level of education, if applicable.

In addition, candidates may:
obtain a qualifying job offer from a Canadian employer; or
obtain an enhanced provincial nomination certificate from a Canadian province.

Candidates with a qualifying job offer or PN are awarded 600 CRS points, and will be invited to apply at a subsequent draw from the pool. Draws typically occur around every two weeks, with the lowest CRS point requirement of any draw thus far having been 450. When a draw takes place, candidates with a CRS score equal to or above the requirement are issued an ITA, after which they may submit an application. Once they do so, they leave the pool. Therefore, the number of candidates with a score equal to or above the most recent CRS ‘cut-off’ point is generally relatively low, as there is a constant flow of people leaving the pool due to the submission of applications.

Take, for example, the January 3, 2016 snapshot of the pool provided by IRCC. The draw prior to this snapshot took place on December 18, 2015, and issued 1,503 ITAs to candidates with 460 or more CRS points.

On January 3, 2016, a total of 851 candidates had 600 or more CRS points. All candidates with 600 or more CRS points had either a qualifying job offer or PN.
A further 1,659 candidates had between 450 and 599 points. These candidates had been awarded a significant number of points based on their human capital factors.

Assuming that none of these candidates withdrew their profiles or allowed them to expire over the three days before the next draw from the pool, which took place on January 6, 2016, all of the candidates with 600 or more CRS points, as well as a proportion of those in the 450 to 599 range, were issued ITAs.

The candidates remaining in the pool, many of whom had CRS scores in the 300s, were in a strong position to get into that 450+ range by promoting themselves to Canadian employers and attracting the attention of provinces that are looking for particular skill sets that may benefit the local labour market. Other candidates were well-positioned to obtain an ITA as a result of improving their human capital factors alone.

iphie25:


Bachelors degree in what? This question has deepened my confusion. Again the NOC requirements for lawyers on cic's website specifically states Bachelors Degree. I even read somewhere dt MBBS is regarded as an undergraduate Bachelors degree but it's still a professional degree.

40manlappy:


http://www.cicnews.com/2016/04/comprehensive-ranking-system-express-entry-report-offers-valuable-insights-pool-047628.html

Runn:
Hi All,

Thanks for your great work.

I have a few questions about WES credential evaluation for the Canadian Express Entry program, which I haven't really found answers to on their website. Here goes:

1. For the credential evaluation via WES, I need to understand if it's all my certificates that I need to evaluate through them (secondary + undergraduate + Masters) or it's my highest qualification only (MSc)? I have my WAEC & NECO, BSc and two Masters degrees.
2. Does the origin of the credential have any implication on the outcome and speed of their/WES's evaluation? My secondary and undergraduate education was here in Nigeria, while both Masters were in England.
3. If I have to send more than one credential for them to evaluate, would I pay a flat fee, irrespective of how many credentials they are to evaluate or would it be their fee *(times) the number of credentials to evaluate?
4. I also understand that one has to make contact with their Alma mater to request/make payment for the transcripts. Please could someone explain to me how the entire process comes together? My Bachelors was from UNN and I am currently awaiting my IELTS result.
5. Please feel free to add comments, caution, advice, etc that will aid my application.

Thanks again...

Runn:
Hi All,

Thanks for your great work.

I have a few questions about WES credential evaluation for the Canadian Express Entry program, which I haven't really found answers to on their website. Here goes:

1. For the credential evaluation via WES, I need to understand if it's all my certificates that I need to evaluate through them (secondary + undergraduate + Masters) or it's my highest qualification only (MSc)? I have my WAEC & NECO, BSc and two Masters degrees.
2. Does the origin of the credential have any implication on the outcome and speed of their/WES's evaluation? My secondary and undergraduate education was here in Nigeria, while both Masters were in England.
3. If I have to send more than one credential for them to evaluate, would I pay a flat fee, irrespective of how many credentials they are to evaluate or would it be their fee *(times) the number of credentials to evaluate?
4. I also understand that one has to make contact with their Alma mater to request/make payment for the transcripts. Please could someone explain to me how the entire process comes together? My Bachelors was from UNN and I am currently awaiting my IELTS result.
5. Please feel free to add comments, caution, advice, etc that will aid my application.

Thanks again...

vcole:
Evaluate only your "highest qualification" is the recommendation. You may want to take into consideration which of your degrees is most relevant to your intended occupation as well as your present occupation for which you intend to claim work experience for.
You pay a flat rate for the wes eca for all your academic qualifications.
I would advise that you evaluate one of your masters' degree, as evaluating both would give the same report.
It is easier and faster to evaluate a foreign qualification because of the faster/simpler process of transcripts request/verification from foreign schools.
However if you would need to gain points for an ECA of "2 or more degrees" on your CRS then you should consider evaluating your bachelors as well as your masters' degree.

vcole:
this is why WES is not the evaluating body for mbbs. The MCC evaluates a Nigerian mbbs as a professional degree.

iphie25:


Yeah I know. The degree in question now is law degree...I was only making a comparison with what I read somewhere as regards MBBS.

hartson:


Does it work like that?evaluate all degrees at a flat rate?

vcole:
yea. the thing is that WES 'may' evaluate an mbbs or bds or bpharm or pharmD as a bachelors degree while another evaluating body may evaluate them as professional degree.
I quite understand your dilemma. I notice that the entry qualifications for job occupations under the NOC are an indication as to what is required to enter a career in that job field. Sometimes it does not match up with what the cic requirement to gain a point on that educational level is.
It appears to me that WES is evaluating your LLB as an equivalent 4 yrs bachelors degree in Canada (not necessarily the equivalent of a bachelors of law degree in Canada) and as an equivalent first professional degree required to practice law in Nigeria.
The issue is whether the b part of the statement is in conjunction with the first or is made as a "stand alone" and if the first professional degree required to practice law in Nigeria is same as that in Canada.
Just like WES evaluates a Nigerian nursing diploma; RN as a 3 yrs training in a hospital......which literally does not place a nurse anywhere on the CRS right now. Ideally they should fall into the "2 yrs diploma" category but since the ECA does not state that it's like a stuck in limbo phase.
Very ambiguous something. You would definitely want to clear this up to avoid an allegation of "misrepresentation" at the PR app stage. However you should not be worried about your EEP as you have not yet responded to an ITA and up until that point you can still modify your profile if need be.