Kardani, Karshenasi and Karshenasi Arshad in a Canadian ECA: the document rules, and the four universities that are treated differently

Two of Canada’s five designated ECA organisations publish an Iran document page, and both name the Persian award titles rather than translating them into English categories. ICES lists the post-secondary awards as “Diploma [Kardani (Foghe-Diplom), Karshenasi (Licence/Lesans), Karshenasi Arshad, Doctor or Pezeshki]”. CES asks for the “Final or provisional degree certificate (daneshnameh) in Farsi” and the “Academic records (reeze nomerat) in Farsi”.

The most specific published rule for Iran is not about any of those titles. It is about language, and it names four universities:

“*If you attended Sharif University of Technology, Shiraz University, Amir Kabir University or the University of Tehran, we will accept English-language transcripts.” — CES, Iran document requirements, read 3 September 2026

For everyone else educated in Iran, the same page requires the official record “in Farsi* and sent by the institution you attended”.

Read on 3 September 2026. This page reports published document rules. It does not say what any Iranian qualification is comparable to in Canada, and it does not predict any outcome.

The Persian-language requirement, and why it is unusual

Most country pages at most agencies assume a document arrives in the original language and is accompanied by a translation. CES’s Iran page goes further and specifies the language of the official record itself: the acceptable forms are “Official academic records or Verified/Attested copy of the academic records in Persian (stamped and signed, and dated by an appropriate official of the educational institution you attended)”.

Two practical points follow:

• An English transcript issued by an Iranian university is not automatically the document CES wants, unless the university is one of the four it names. If you have been supplied with an English transcript, check that first, because the request has to go back to Iran otherwise.
• The translation obligation is separate and unchanged. None of the five provides translation. IQAS requires “a word-for-word translation of the original document” by “a qualified professional translator who does not need to be certified in Canada” and states that translations “do not need to be certified or notarized”. ICES notes for Iran that a translation alone is not the document: “This means the original documents, not just a Ministry of Justice translation. If you submit translations only we will ask you once again for original documents and your evaluation will be placed on hold.”

That last sentence is the single most common cause of an Iranian file stalling, on ICES’s own account, and it is published in advance.

Who sends the envelope

Both published pages route the record through the institution you attended. CES: “Sent directly to CES office by the institution you attended, in an institution-sealed envelope”, with the alternative that you may forward the sealed envelope yourself if the institution released it to you. ICES’s general standard is stricter and admits no such alternative: an official document must be “Mailed or emailed from your educational institution directly to ICES office” and must have “never been handled by client, client’s friend, relative or any third party”.

ICES adds a country-specific carve-out that is worth reading if you are not applying for immigration: its Iran note that original documents are required “does not apply for the ECA or any time official documents are required. In this case, we will always require the documents directly from your institution.” CES publishes a parallel general-stream concession: “Only applicable to General Stream Applicants: If you are applying for an Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) for non-immigration purposes and have trouble obtaining your official documents, please submit a support request.”

Neither concession applies to an immigration ECA. For that report, both agencies want the institution to send.

The institution restriction list

ICES publishes, on the same country page, a short list of Iranian higher education institutes it cannot evaluate — five named institutes on the day we read it, all described as higher education institutes rather than universities. Three things about how to read such a list, which apply to every country ICES publishes one for:

1. It is one agency’s list. No other designated organisation publishes an equivalent for Iran. WES reserves the same power without naming anyone: “WES reserves the right not to evaluate documents from certain institutions in its sole and absolute discretion.” IQAS warns instead that “you may see a warning regarding an institution’s recognition or acceptance after selecting your institution from the lookup list.”
2. It is checkable before you pay, and only on the agency’s own page. ICES: “ICES does not offer a list of institutions we can assess. However, ICES does provide country-specific information that details institutions we cannot assess. We do not offer preliminary information prior to receiving the application.”
3. Being on it is not a finding about your degree. ICES describes the grounds for such lists generically and does not attribute a specific reason to a specific institution.

When the documents cannot be obtained at all

This is where the five diverge most sharply, and it matters for a country where applicants are often long out of contact with their institution.

WES publishes a named route: applicants “educated in Afghanistan, Eritrea, Iraq, Syria, Türkiye, Ukraine, or Venezuela who no longer have access to their academic documents may be eligible for the WES Gateway Program.” Iran is not on that list. WES also removes the deadline pressure generally: “There is no deadline to submit your documents to WES. We will put your file on hold until we receive all documentation necessary to complete an evaluation.”

ICES publishes a narrow, discretionary route and a hard rule beside it. The route: “In rare cases, ICES may be able to complete an evaluation based on photocopies or incomplete documents… If you are a refugee and do not have any documents we may be able to complete a program evaluation that will provide a statement of comparability, but no other personal identifiers on the report. You will need to provide a sworn affidavit listing the credential you’re earned.” The hard rule, for closed institutions: “Our requirements are mandatory… There are no exceptions made for a closed institution.”

The full comparison of what each organisation publishes about unobtainable records is in when the institution is gone.

What is not published for Iran

• No designated organisation publishes a country-specific rule about the length of any Iranian award, or about the discontinuous route from a sub-degree qualification to a bachelor’s-level one. Both published pages list the award titles and stop.
• IQAS publishes International Education Guides for 19 countries, and Iran is not among them. So the nearest thing to a public Canadian country comparison document does not cover Iran at all.
• We could not obtain any Canadian agency statement about how Iranian awards from any particular period are treated.

Where nothing is published, the general rules are what remain: ICES’s floor that a credential “must be at least comparable to one-year of full-time study”; the requirement across the board that the credential be completed and awarded; and IQAS’s two-part institution test — formally approved by the competent authority in its own country, and “widely accepted by other institutions and agencies, both within and outside the country.”

Reading the result, when it comes

IRCC’s published table maps the wording of an assessment report to one of eight levels of education, across 152 rows. It contains no Iranian award titles, because it does not work that way — it reads the English phrase the agency writes. Whatever your degree is called in Persian, the row that applies is determined by the sentence on the report, and no third party can tell you which sentence that will be. CICIC states of all six Alliance members that “their assessments are advisory only”. The table’s structure is set out in the 152-row grid read line by line.

What to do with this

1. Check whether your university is one of the four whose English transcripts one agency names. If it is not, plan for a Persian-language official record.
2. Do not send a translation on its own. One agency states in advance that this puts the file on hold and triggers a fresh request.
3. Check your institution against the published restriction list before paying, on the page of the agency you intend to use.
4. If you cannot obtain records at all, compare the published routes before choosing an agency — one publishes a named programme (which does not currently list Iran), one publishes a discretionary refugee route, and one states that closed institutions are no exception.
5. Ask the receiving body what it needs first — IRCC, a university, or a provincial regulator — because that decides which report you buy. See which report each purpose asks for.

What this page does not do

It does not state a Canadian comparison for Kardani, Karshenasi or Karshenasi Arshad, does not describe Iran’s education system beyond the award names the agencies print, and does not predict any outcome. Where nothing is published, this page says so rather than filling the gap.