Who IRCC designates for an ECA: five multipurpose organisations, three professional bodies, and the parts every summary leaves out

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada designates two different things, and almost every summary online reports only the first. There are five multipurpose organisations, and there are three professional bodies whose reports are not optional for three occupations. The two lists are governed differently, opened and closed at different times, and carry restrictions the five-name version cannot show.

This page reproduces both lists as IRCC published them, read on 3 September 2026, and then sets out five things about them that are true, checkable, and almost never written down. It summarises public rules; it is not an assessment, it does not replace one, and it does not advise on immigration.

The two lists, as published

IRCC’s Express Entry ECA page carried a Date modified of 22 June 2026 when we read it. Its designated-organisations panel says: “Most people must use one of these designated organizations”.

Organisation	Date designated
Comparative Education Service – University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies	April 17, 2013
International Credential Assessment Service of Canada	April 17, 2013
World Education Services	April 17, 2013
International Qualifications Assessment Service (IQAS)	August 6, 2015
International Credential Evaluation Service – British Columbia Institute of Technology	August 6, 2015

The second panel on the same page is collapsed by default, which is one reason it goes missing. It opens: “If your primary occupation is as an architect, doctor or a pharmacist, you must use a designated professional body based on your occupation.”

• Architects (NOC 21200) — the Canadian Architectural Certification Board, “professional body for architects designated on May 20, 2024”, where “you need a license to practise”.
• Specialists and family physicians (NOC 31100, NOC 31101 or NOC 31102) — the Medical Council of Canada, “a professional body for doctors designated on April 17, 2013”. IRCC requires an ECA report “for your primary medical diploma” from it.
• Pharmacists (NOC 31120) — the Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada, “professional body for pharmacists designated on January 6, 2014”, again where “you need a license to practise”.

For architects and pharmacists IRCC adds the same carve-out: “If you’re in a position where you don’t need a license, one of the other designated organizations can assess your credentials.” For doctors the wording is different and turns on occupation rather than licensing: “If you have a different primary occupation, another designated organization can do your assessment.”

There is also a transition rule that only appears inside that collapsed panel and in IRCC’s May 2024 notice: “If your primary occupation is Architect (NOC 21200), and you already have an ECA that was issued by another designated organization before October 31, 2024, we will still accept it if it is valid.”

One list is closed. The other is open.

IRCC’s service-provider page — a different page from the Express Entry one, and the only place the structure is explained — separates “Multipurpose assessment organizations”, which “authenticate and assess foreign educational credentials across a wide range of disciplines”, from “Professional bodies”, which “assess whether foreign educational credentials are authentic and determine if they are equivalent to a credential needed to practise in a specific regulated occupation in Canada.”

The same page lists both calls for proposals, and their status is the whole story:

• “Call for Service Proposals for Multipurpose Educational Credential Assessment Organizations — This call was closed on March 13, 2015.”
• “Call for service proposals for professional bodies providing educational credential assessments — This is an open-ended call that was relaunched on October 2, 2024.”

So the five general organisations are a closed set that has not admitted a new member in over a decade, while the professional-body list is a live intake that added one member in 2024. IRCC’s stated reason for the second track: profession-specific ECAs connect applicants “with a regulatory body that oversees their occupation earlier in the immigration process” and are “recognized as a step in the licensing process, which helps to reduce duplication”.

Anyone treating “the five agencies” as the permanent shape of the system is reading the half that stopped changing.

Four of the five general agencies still publish superseded occupation codes

We checked each agency’s own immigration page on 3 September 2026 against IRCC’s current wording.

• WES: “Principal applicants intending to apply as a Physician/Specialist Physician (NOC 3111 or 3112) must be assessed by the Medical Council of Canada (MCC). Individuals intending to apply as a Pharmacist (NOC 3131)…”
• ICAS: “Principal applicants intending to apply as a Physician/Specialist Physician (NOC 3111 or 3112)… Principal applicants intending to apply as a Pharmacist (NOC 3131)…”
• ICES: “If you intend to apply as a Physician/Specialist Physician (NOC 3111 or 3112)… Individuals applying as a Pharmacist (NOC 3131)…”
• CES: “Principal Applicants intending to apply as a Physician/Specialist Physician (NOC 3111 or 3112)… Individuals intending to apply as a Pharmacist (NOC 3131)…”
• IQAS names the professions and the bodies but cites no occupation codes at all.

IRCC’s current Express Entry page uses 31100 / 31101 / 31102 and 31120. Those are the newer classification’s codes; 3111, 3112 and 3131 belong to the previous edition.

This is not simply four agencies being careless, and it is worth being precise about why. IRCC itself still publishes the older codes — but only in one place, and only for a legacy population. The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot page splits its guidance in two: applicants who applied for community recommendation on or after 16 November 2022 get the 31100/31101/31102 and 31120 rules; those who applied on or before 15 November 2022 get “Physicians (NOC 3111 or NOC 3112)” and “Pharmacists (NOC 3131)”.

The practical point stands either way. If you match your occupation against an agency’s page rather than against IRCC’s, the code you find may not be the code your application uses. All four agencies route you to the same three professional bodies, so the routing is right even where the number is old — but check the code on IRCC’s page, not the agency’s.

Designated by IRCC does not mean accepted by the receiving body

Three published facts, all read on 3 September 2026, make this concrete.

A province’s list can be shorter than IRCC’s. The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program’s Ontario Workforce Priority stream page lists the organisations “designated by IRCC” whose assessments it will accept: the five general organisations, the Medical Council of Canada and the Pharmacy Examining Board of Canada. The Canadian Architectural Certification Board — designated in May 2024 — does not appear on that list.

A designated body can decline a province outright. PEBC’s own page states: “The Ontario Immigrant Nominee Program (OINP) – PEBC does not provide ECA Reports for the OINP. Please follow-up with the OINP for alternatives.” Read alongside OINP’s list, which names PEBC, that is two official pages pointing in different directions. We are not resolving it; we are telling you it exists so that you ask before you pay.

A regulator can accept only three of the five. The College of Nurses of Ontario states that credentials earned outside Canada “need to be verified by one of the educational credential assessment (ECA) service providers listed below”, and lists World Education Services, ICAS and ICES — then adds: “Credential verification from providers that are not listed on this page will not be accepted.” CES and IQAS are IRCC-designated and are not on that list.

Each professional body reports something narrower than you expect

The three professional bodies are not general agencies with an occupational label. Their published scopes are materially different.

The CACB reports your professional degree, not your highest one. Its eligibility page: “if you have a professional Bachelor’s degree in Architecture followed by a post-professional Master’s degree, your Bachelor’s degree will be the credential reported on your CACB ECA.” It continues: “You will not receive a second CACB ECA for the pre-professional Bachelor’s degree”, and “the degree reported by CACB is not determined by its academic level or its potential to provide additional immigration points.” If you want a post-professional master’s or PhD assessed as well, CACB says you “may wish to have it assessed through another IRCC-designated organization.” Its application fee is listed as $329.96 (stated as $292.00 plus 13% HST), non-refundable, with an estimated processing time of up to two weeks once all documents are received.

The MCC assesses the primary medical diploma only. Its page: “The Medical Council of Canada (MCC) only issues ECAs for medical degrees/diplomas. If you require an ECA report for a specialty certificate, visit the IRCC website for more information.” It will only issue the report once the degree has been source-verified by the MCC with “a status of verification returned – passed” (or the transcript has been, with the diploma in progress). It states the PDF is issued “within 14 business days of submitting your request”, that the report “will be valid for immigration purposes for 5 years”, and that a new one can be requested “4 years following your original report date”.

PEBC gates the ECA behind a separate evaluation. Its page: “You must successfully complete Document Evaluation before you will have access to the ECA Report application.” That Document Evaluation “will determine whether your educational credentials are the equivalent of the basic education requirement to practice as a pharmacist in Canada – a Canadian 4-year, entry-level pharmacy degree.” Only afterwards does the ECA application appear, described as “an optional application that you can ignore if you do not require an ECA Report for IRCC”. PEBC also describes its own designation narrowly — for principal applicants under “Express Entry for the Federal Skilled Worker Program (FSWP) and Canadian Experience Class”.

None of that is visible from the five-name list.

The routing question is not the same in every programme

Express Entry routes on your primary occupation. The Atlantic Immigration Program routes on your job offer: “If your job offer is in one of the National Occupation Classification (NOC) codes below, your ECA must be done by a special organization”, followed by the same three bodies. The Rural and Northern Immigration Pilot adds a further caution: “if you plan to work for a large employer or in a regulated occupation, you may need to have your assessment done by a specific designated organization. Check with your employer or the professional body for your occupation.”

Same three bodies, three different triggers.

What to do with this

1. Open the professional-bodies panel on IRCC’s page before you pay anyone. It is collapsed by default and contains the compulsory routing, the licensing carve-out and the architect transition date.
2. Take the occupation code from IRCC, not from the agency. Four of the five general agencies were still publishing the previous edition’s codes on 3 September 2026.
3. Ask the receiving body which organisations it accepts, in writing, first. A provincial programme’s list and a regulator’s list are both shorter than IRCC’s, and at least one designated body says it does not serve a programme that lists it.
4. If a professional body applies to you, read its scope page, not just its name. CACB reports the professional degree; MCC reports the primary medical diploma; PEBC requires a Document Evaluation first.
5. Do not assume the list is stable. The professional-body intake has been open since 2 October 2024. Re-read the page rather than reusing a list you saved.

Related on this site: why two designated agencies can report the same credential differently, which type of report each receiving body actually asks for, how long a report stays valid, and whether a Canadian credential needs one at all.

We do not rank the organisations, we do not predict what any of them will report, and we do not give immigration advice — paid immigration advice in Canada is a licensed activity. Every quotation above was read from the official pages listed in the sources on 3 September 2026.