Diploma & Transcript Translation for WES, ECE & Credential Evaluation

If you earned your degree outside the United States, sooner or later someone will ask you to prove what it’s worth here — a university admissions office, an employer, a licensing board, or USCIS. That usually means a credential evaluation from an evaluator such as WES or ECE, and before the evaluator can do anything, your diploma and transcripts need a certified English translation. This guide explains what evaluators actually require, where translation fits in the process, and how to get it right the first time.

Translation and evaluation are two different steps

This is the single most common point of confusion, so let’s settle it up front:

• Translation converts your documents from the source language into English, exactly as written. The translator doesn’t judge your degree — they render it faithfully.
• Evaluation is the analysis that says what your foreign credential equals in U.S. terms (“equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree”). That’s the evaluator’s job, not the translator’s.

The organizations that perform evaluations — WES (World Education Services), ECE (Educational Credential Evaluators), SpanTran, and others — are credential evaluators, many of them members of NACES, the National Association of Credential Evaluation Services. NACES approves credential evaluators, not translation companies — so no translator is “NACES-approved,” and any translation provider claiming to be should raise an eyebrow. What matters is that your translation meets the evaluator’s stated requirements.

Taika provides the certified translation; the evaluation itself is performed by the evaluator you choose.

What WES and ECE expect from a translation

Evaluators are strict about translations because their analysis is only as good as the documents in front of them. WES publishes its requirements, and they’re representative of what NACES-member evaluators expect:

• Exact, word-for-word translation. Nothing interpreted, explained, summarized, or converted — the translation mirrors the original literally, including course titles and grades as written.
• Complete. Every element translated: grading scales, transcript legends, stamps, seals, signatures, handwritten notes, and marginal text. Incomplete translations are rejected.
• Professionally translated. WES does not accept translations done by the applicant. The translation must come from a professional translator or translation service.
• Clear and legible, so the evaluator can read every course title, grade, and institutional detail.

A certified translation adds a signed certificate of accuracy — the translator’s formal statement that the translation is complete and accurate. That certification is what admissions offices, licensing boards, and USCIS require, and it gives the evaluator an accountable document to work from.

What a proper diploma or transcript translation includes

• A full, word-for-word translation of the original — names, titles, grades, dates, stamps, and notes included
• A signed certificate of accuracy
• A copy of the source document attached
• Formatting that mirrors the original layout, so the evaluator can match the translation line-by-line against your source document

That last point matters more for transcripts than almost any other document type: a transcript is a dense table of courses, credits, and grades, and an evaluator needs to find each line of the translation in the original without guesswork.

Where you’ll need it

• Credential evaluation — WES, ECE, and other evaluators, for study or employment
• University admissions — undergraduate and graduate applications
• Employment — employers verifying a foreign degree
• Professional licensing — boards that require evaluated (and therefore translated) credentials
• USCIS filings — under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3), any foreign-language document submitted to USCIS needs a full English translation with a signed certification

If your case involves several of these at once — say, an evaluation for a green-card employment petition — the same certified translation set typically serves all of them, which is another reason to have it done completely the first time.

Cost and turnaround

Taika’s certified school diploma translation is priced from $26 per page, with standard delivery in 2–3 business days and a 24-hour rush add-on for tight application deadlines. Every order includes:

• A complete word-for-word English translation — institution, program, dates, seals, and signatures accounted for
• A signed certificate of accuracy accepted for official submission
• A 100% USCIS Acceptance Guarantee — if your translation is rejected by the receiving agency, we fix it free or refund your order
• A full-year accuracy warranty

Translations are produced by professional linguists and reviewed by a second linguist before certification — quality that meets ISO 17100 & 9001 standards.

How to order

1. Open the diploma translation product and upload clear scans of your diploma — and transcripts, if your evaluator needs them.
2. Choose your language pair and any add-ons — rush turnaround, notarization, or a mailed physical copy.
3. Pay securely online, and receive your certified translation ready to submit to your evaluator, school, or USCIS.

For multi-document evaluations — diploma plus multi-page transcripts, or credentials from more than one institution — see academic credential translation or request a quote with your full document set; most quote requests are answered the same business day. Questions? projects@taikatranslations.com.

FAQ

Is Taika NACES-approved?

No translation company is — NACES approves credential evaluators (like WES and ECE), not translators. What your evaluator requires is a complete, word-for-word translation from a professional translation service, which is exactly what a certified translation provides.

Can I translate my own transcript for WES?

No. WES explicitly does not accept translations completed by the applicant. Use a professional translator or translation service.

Do I need the transcript translated, or just the diploma?

It depends on the evaluation type. A document-by-document evaluation may need only the diploma; a course-by-course evaluation needs the full transcripts. Check your evaluator’s requirements for your specific evaluation type before ordering.

Does the translation convert my grades to the U.S. scale?

No — and it shouldn’t. The translation renders your grades exactly as written; converting them into U.S. equivalents is the evaluator’s job. A translation that “helpfully” converts grades will be rejected.

Will the same translation work for USCIS and my university?

Generally yes. A certified word-for-word translation with a signed certificate of accuracy meets USCIS requirements under 8 CFR 103.2(b)(3) and what admissions offices expect — one properly done translation set can serve the whole process.