CES partnered recently with Parchment, a digital credential service that allows for secure electronic transmission of transcripts, in order to facilitate institutional documents submission for applicants.
If your institution uses this service, you can contact them and ask for your transcripts to be made available for CES through the Parchment platform, by posting them to this account: University of Toronto – School of Continuing Studies
For other options to submit institutional documents electronically, please click here.
The Majority of CES team continues to work remotely. We remain fully operational and are able to carry out most business operations normally.
Our building is open to the public from 11 am to 5 pm, but we are able to receive mail daily and are up to date with our mail. Kindly note that it takes about two weeks for the received institutional documents to be digitized and matched to each application, after which, a notification is sent to you to confirm receipt of these documents.
We are also up to date with retrieving all received electronic institutional documents. A similar confirmation notification message is sent upon matching the electronic documents to the application in 1 to 2 weeks from the delivery date of the documents.
We have also gradually resumed the dispatch of the official physical ECA package, we thank you for your patience and understanding while we catch up with the dispatch. In the meantime, if you have received a digital ECA report, please continue to use it for immigration and general purposes.
Estimated processing times are posted online, you can find them here.
Q. Are you Open?
Yes, but limitedly. Our office is open to the public only for scheduled appointments and for the receipt of courier deliveries. Majority of our staff continues to work remotely until further notice from the University of Toronto. Most of our business operations will continue as normal, but physical reports dispatch is still affected. We appreciate your understanding and patience as we work to ensure the safety of our staff.
Q. Are you able to receive mail?
Yes. As of February 1st, we now have two mail clerks on-site at our office. They are processing mail in stages based on the order in which it was received.
Once your package is delivered to our office, please expect to receive a confirmation message in two weeks, as all documents received by mail are subject to digitization and matching process. If your educational institution can send us your official academic records (such as your academic record, official transcripts, and other institutional documents) electronically, this helps us provide you with quicker service.
Please check our guidelines on how to submit digital institutional documents.
Q. How do I check the status of my application?
You will receive from us email notifications on the progress of your application. Click here for more details about these notifications.
Q. Can I get a refund?
Please be advised that all fees are final and non-refundable. Once you have submitted your application, you have acknowledged and provided consent to having read and understood the Terms and Conditions.
If you still wish to cancel the assessment of your credential(s) without refund, please contact us.
We thank you for your patience and understanding.
Q. May I drop off my documents myself?
If you have an institutionally sealed envelope in your possession, please send it to our office by mail or courier service.
Q. Do you still accept electronic transcripts?
Absolutely. However, they have to come from the academic institution directly.
CES accepts official academic records that are issued electronically and transmitted via established, secure inter-institutional means for review. If your former academic institution wants to use this digital means, please ask them to send the official academic records to ces.transcripts@utoronto.ca.
The electronic transcript must be sent via an institutional email address belonging to the appropriate office/department/unit that is in charge of academic document issuance or verification. Our office will then authenticate the electronic transcript according to our internal authentication procedures. Once we complete this, as we do at every stage of your application, we will confirm with you in writing.
Click here for more details on how to submit digital institutional documents.
Q. Can you expedite the processing of my application?
Regrettably, no, we cannot. In order to maintain equitable access and our unwavering commitment to quality, client care, transparency and accountability, we continue to process applications in the order in which they were received. No priority processing request can be granted. We know the impact our work has on your professional, academic and immigration needs. Each of us is deeply aware of the stakes involved for you, as well as the pressing deadlines all of our applicants are facing, so we are mobilizing additional resources towards processing applications as quickly as possible.
Q. Can you assess my file based on my own scanned documents only? Can you make exceptions during this time?
No. CES ECA reports give immigration authorities, employers, educational institutions and regulatory bodies confidence in three elements: the recognition status of your program and institution, the authenticity of your particular documents, and the comparability of these credentials in the Canadian context. We strive to accommodate and remove barriers whenever possible, but we cannot compromise the integrity of the process by waiving the official document requirement. This quality assurance is the very foundation on which you have placed your trust in the Comparative Education Service.
Q. Will IRCC, academic institutions, professional bodies, and employers accept the electronic ECA Report, even if it is “unofficial”?
Yes. Official CES ECA reports are printed on security paper; they will be issued and sent to you once we resume in-office operations.
In the interim, you may submit your electronic ECA report as part of your immigration, employment, and academic applications. IRCC welcomes our e-reports for the entire duration of the office closures.
We also communicate promptly and proactively with institutional recipients about these interim measures. If the employer / regulatory body / academic institution to which you are submitting your ECA report requires confirmation of its validity, please ask them to e-mail us at ces@learn.utoronto.ca.
Q: I am having trouble obtaining academic records or transcripts from my academic institution. Will my application be suspended or cancelled?
We fully acknowledge that people may have challenges obtaining their official academic records. We assure you that no applications will be suspended or cancelled due to delays you may experience while trying to get your documents to support your CES application.
Q: Has IRCC issued any information that I should know about?
Depending on your situation, you may wish to consult the IRCC website directly. In particular, please visit this page for important information related to IRCC processing during COVID-19.