WES Advisor Blog

Trusted Advice for Academic and Professional Success

COVID-19 Operational Updates

Tuesday | March 31, 2020 | by WES Advisor

world education services and coronavirus

WES is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of our employees, applicants, and partners. We take this commitment very seriously, especially during these challenging and uncertain times. 

The governments of both the U.S. and Canada have taken numerous steps to contain the COVID-19 virus. These include declaring states of emergencies, temporarily shuttering immigration offices, enacting stricter travel restrictions, and closing the U.S.-Canada border to non-essential traffic.

We have likewise made changes to our operations. In particular, we have temporarily suspended most in-office operations in the U.S. and Canada and transitioned to remote working. This action is in line with global public health recommendations and state, provincial, and local mandates that seek to protect the health of workers. The majority of our staff continue to work from home while a small, dedicated team ensures that physical documents are handled securely. Visit our notifications page to get the latest information.

We understand the critical role we play in supporting our applicants and will continue to offer some services.

WES remains open for business and our staff is working remotely to facilitate the completion of evaluation reports. We have resumed processing mailed academic documents in Canada and will begin processing U.S. documents mid-May. We are working diligently with institutions around the globe to receive verified credentials electronically, and we encourage you to request that the institution from which you received your credential contact us to submit your documents electronically. Your international institution can contact us using this form—have them select the “Other” category on the form.

Ready to begin the credential evaluation process? Start by creating an account here.

We are continuing to monitor the rapidly changing situation and are evaluating ways to better serve you in the days and weeks ahead.  In the meantime, you may have questions about how COVID-19 is affecting your credential evaluation. There are a couple of ways you can contact us:

  • You can reach out to us Monday through Friday with any questions or concerns using the Contact Us pages for the U.S. and Canada.
  • We also encourage you to visit our Help Center, which has the answers to commonly asked questions about credential evaluation and links to useful resources.
  • You can phone our customer service line Monday through Friday during standard operating hours.

Note: To minimize the impact on applicants like you, we have been staying in close touch with academic institutions, government bodies, licensing bodies, and other offices that most often receive our reports. This includes Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). We have requested that all these recipients remain flexible regarding deadlines associated with the receipt of WES credential evaluation reports.

We will notify you via email once we have received and reviewed your application. You can then check the status of your application at any time by logging in to My Account. If you are in need of a credential evaluation, please create an account.

We want to assure you that we are here for you. We will continue to monitor the situation around the world and update you on any new developments via our website.

We are working to restore normal operations as quickly as possible and will reopen our offices in New York and Toronto when it is safe to do so. 

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Best wishes for your health and safety.

Helpful WES Resources

Tips for Completing Your WES Application

Understanding WES Required Documents

WES Advisor is an initiative of World Education Services, a non-profit organization with over 45 years of experience in international education. We provide advice and resources for international students and skilled immigrants to help them make informed decisions about education, employment, immigration, and integration opportunities in the U.S. and Canada.