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Why your ECA was rejected for 'wrong purpose' even though WES/ACCA is a valid evaluator

Canada • Express Entry • immigration 0 views
By VisaBuddies Communityvia community — compiled from public visa forums

Documents Needed

  • Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) report

    Must be requested under the 'immigration' purpose category specifically, not 'study' or another category, even from an approved organization like WES.

Step-by-Step

A rejection stating your ECA's purpose wasn't immigration, despite using an approved body like World Education Services (WES) for an ACCA evaluation, usually comes down to a category selection issue rather than the organization itself being invalid.

What group members clarified:
  1. WES is a registered evaluation body recognized by IRCC, but it issues different evaluation types depending on the purpose you select when ordering — for example, 'study' vs. 'immigration' purpose evaluations are different products, even from the same organization.

  2. Double-check that you selected the 'immigration' purpose option when you originally ordered your ECA — this is the most common cause of this specific rejection message.

  3. If you selected the wrong category, you'll likely need to request a new evaluation (or a re-issue/purpose change if the organization offers one) specifically for immigration purposes, since the study-purpose version isn't accepted for Express Entry.


Before reordering, check with WES directly on whether they can reissue or convert your existing report to the immigration-purpose category, since this may be faster and cheaper than a full fresh evaluation.

Dos, Don'ts & Tips

  • Don't: Don't assume any ECA from an approved body (like WES) automatically qualifies — the purpose category selected at order time matters.
  • Do: Explicitly select 'immigration' as the purpose when ordering your ECA for Express Entry.

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