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What to do if WES misevaluates your degree as a "double bachelor's" instead of a master's

Canada • Express Entry • immigration 0 views
By VisaBuddies Communityvia community — compiled from public visa forums

Documents Needed

  • Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) — WES or IQAS

    Two different designated organizations recognized by IRCC for assessing foreign credentials; results can differ between them for the same degree.

Step-by-Step

For an applicant with a 4-year Bachelor's plus a 2-year Master's from Pakistan, where WES assessed the combination as a "Double Bachelor's" instead of recognizing the Master's, the group gave two concrete directions rather than accepting the result as final:

  1. Contact WES directly and dispute the assessment. Group members flagged this as a known and repeated issue — WES has reportedly made this type of error before (misclassifying degree combinations), and it's worth raising the discrepancy with them directly rather than assuming the evaluation is correct or final.

  2. Consider IQAS as an alternative ECA provider. Members noted that IQAS has a track record of recognizing a Pakistani master's degree as a genuine Master's (rather than reclassifying it), which is relevant if you're deciding whether to pursue a second ECA rather than dispute the first.

  3. Search the group/community first, since this specific WES-vs-Master's-recognition issue for Pakistani applicants comes up frequently — prior threads may have more detail on successful dispute outcomes or IQAS experiences.


Practical takeaway: don't treat a WES "double bachelor's" result as automatically final if you completed a genuine master's degree — first try disputing directly with WES, and if that doesn't resolve it, weigh whether a fresh ECA through IQAS (despite the added cost) is likely to produce a more accurate result based on other Pakistani applicants' experiences.

Dos, Don'ts & Tips

  • Do: Dispute a WES evaluation directly with WES if it misclassifies your master's degree — this type of error has been reported before.
  • Tip: IQAS has reportedly recognized Pakistani master's degrees correctly in similar cases — consider it as an alternative if a WES dispute doesn't resolve things.

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