Translation for WES & ECE Evaluation

WES and ECE are the two credential evaluation agencies most US and Canadian universities, licensing boards, and employers point to when a foreign degree needs a US-recognized equivalency. People assume the translation rules are basically the same across agencies, because both do a similar job. They aren't the same, and the difference matters enough to walk through each one separately.

Neither agency translates for you

Start with what's true of both: WES states plainly that it does not provide translation as a service, and "you are responsible for providing any translations necessary to process your application" (WES, Translation Requirements for a WES Credential Evaluation). ECE takes a slightly different position, discussed below, but the baseline assumption for both is that translation is the applicant's problem to solve, not something bundled into the evaluation fee by default.

WES: professional translator required, applicant translations rejected outright

WES's rule is unambiguous and worth quoting directly, because it's the one applicants get wrong most often. Required translations must be "exact and word-for-word," "clear and legible," and "completed by a professional translator" who "might be affiliated with a university, certified translation agency, or any other professional translation service" (same WES source as above). Then comes the list of what WES will not accept: "Handwritten translations, translations of photocopies, translations completed by applicants, incomplete translations, original translations." That third item is the one to notice. WES does not require your translation to come specifically from your issuing institution — a certified agency or professional translation service is explicitly acceptable — but it does flatly reject anything you translate yourself, no matter how fluent you are in both languages.

WES also has a document-integrity rule that catches people off guard: the translator must work from an official copy, not a student's personal copy, because "unofficial documents or student copies might not correspond exactly to the official versions." WES's advice is to ask your institution for two identical sets up front — one for WES, one for the translator — rather than sending a single set and hoping the translator can work from a scan of what you kept.

One more detail specific to WES: for evaluations processed through its Canadian office, translations must be in English or French; for the US office, English only. Confirm which office is handling your file before you assume French is acceptable.

ECE: applicant translations are explicitly allowed

ECE's policy is the opposite of WES's on the one point that matters most. Its own FAQ states: "You may also prepare the translations yourself as long as they are word-for-word and in the same format as the original document" (ECE, Credential Evaluation FAQs). If you're bilingual and confident in your own accuracy, ECE will accept a translation you did yourself, provided it mirrors the source document's layout and translates every line rather than summarizing. That's a materially lower bar than WES, and conflating the two agencies' rules is the single most common mistake we see: an applicant assumes their self-prepared translation, rejected by WES, would have been fine — and it would have been, for ECE.

ECE also offers something WES doesn't: a paid Translation Waiver. For $85, added to the order, "you do not need to submit English translations" at all — ECE translates the documents itself as part of preparing the report (same ECE source). That option isn't available if you're applying through the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy pathway, which has its own separate documentation rules, but for standard Course-by-Course, General, and most other ECE report types, it's a legitimate way to skip the translation step entirely if your budget allows it.

Word-for-word, not idiomatic

Both agencies converge on one requirement that surprises people used to other kinds of translation work: they want literal, word-for-word rendering, not a smooth, idiomatic English version of a foreign transcript. A course titled something that translates literally to "Introduction to the Fundamentals of Commercial Law" shouldn't be tidied up to "Intro to Business Law" for readability. Evaluators are comparing course titles, credit hours, and grading scales against known equivalencies in their databases, and a translator's stylistic smoothing can obscure the exact terminology they're trying to match. This is one of the few document types on this site where we deliberately favor an awkward-but-literal translation over a polished one, because that's what the evaluator is actually asking for.

Translate first, or let the evaluator handle it?

Given the two agencies' different postures, the practical sequencing differs too. With WES, translation is a mandatory prerequisite you arrange before or alongside submission — there's no option to defer it to WES itself. With ECE, you have a real choice: prepare your own word-for-word translation, hire a professional translator, or pay the $85 waiver and let ECE translate internally. If your documents are already sealed in an envelope from your institution and you don't know their exact contents, ECE's guidance is to request two sets of sealed envelopes so one can be opened and translated without breaking the seal on the set you'll actually submit — the same official-document-integrity concern WES raises, solved a different way.

Getting it right the first time

Because a rejected translation delays an evaluation that already runs weeks, the cost of the wrong translator is measured in weeks, not euros. If you're applying through WES, order a certified translation from a professional service — never a self-translation — and confirm whether your file goes through the US or Canadian office. If you're applying through ECE and want a professional job without paying its internal waiver fee, the same certified translation gives you a document you control and can reuse elsewhere, like an immigration petition that also needs your transcripts translated.

Start your transcript and diploma translation and tell us WES or ECE — we'll confirm office, format, and price before anything is charged. See also our diploma and transcript translation guide for the underlying document requirements.