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SINP points: do you count every credential, or just your highest education?

Canada • Provincial Nominee Program • immigration 0 views
By VisaBuddies Communityvia community — compiled from public visa forums

Documents Needed

  • Educational Credential Assessment (ECA)

    Get an ECA for your foreign degree; a Canadian credential (like a diploma already earned in Canada) doesn't need a separate ECA.

Step-by-Step

When you hold more than one credential — for example, a bachelor's degree from your home country plus a one-year diploma completed in Canada — it's easy to wonder whether SINP scores each credential separately.

What members clarified:
  1. Only your highest attained education level is generally counted for points, not every credential you hold — so a bachelor's degree typically supersedes a shorter diploma for scoring purposes.

  2. Get an ECA for your foreign degree to establish its Canadian equivalency; your Canadian diploma, since it was earned in Canada, doesn't need a separate ECA.

  3. If your foreign bachelor's is assessed as equivalent to a Canadian bachelor's, that's the credential level you use for scoring — the Canadian diploma can still be mentioned/listed but isn't the primary scoring basis when you hold a higher-level foreign credential.


Takeaway: identify your highest overall education level first, get the appropriate ECA for any foreign component of it, and score based on that — rather than trying to add up multiple separate credentials.

Dos, Don'ts & Tips

  • Do: Get an ECA for your foreign degree to establish its Canadian-equivalent level.
  • Tip: Only your highest attained education is generally counted for points — additional lower-level credentials aren't typically added on top.
  • Tip: A credential already earned in Canada doesn't need a separate ECA.

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