A member wanted to create their Express Entry profile but hadn't yet received their ECA (Educational Credential Assessment) report, and asked how to proceed in the meantime.
What the thread clarified:- You cannot fully complete an EE profile's education section without the specific code from your ECA report — this field is a required, specific input, not something you can approximate or fill in generically.
- You can still start the rest of your profile and save it as a draft while waiting for your ECA to arrive — no need to wait entirely idle for the report before beginning any work on your profile.
- Whether you even need an ECA depends on where your highest degree is from. If your highest degree is Canadian, you don't need an ECA at all; an ECA is only required to assess foreign (non-Canadian) education.
- Enter your highest earned degree in the education history field — this determines what you report, and correspondingly whether you need an ECA at all.
The practical takeaway: while waiting for your ECA report, start and save the rest of your Express Entry profile as a draft — you can't finalize the education section until the ECA code is in hand (unless your highest degree is Canadian, in which case no ECA is needed at all).