Have you earned a degree in a different country and now want to use your degree in the United States? If you have taken courses there and want to complete your education at a university here, there are some things that you need to consider. To understand what steps are necessary, let me introduce you to Marcelo and Ana, two students from Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, a.k.a. UNIRIO.
Ana earned her bachelor’s degree in Nursing last year. After hearing from her sister in Orlando that there was a nursing shortage in the Orlando area, she began to look for opportunities to use her new degree. It wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be. Ana learned from an HR professional that she would be required to provide a diploma validation for her degree from UNIRIO. Before Ana could get her diploma validated, she would need to have it translated into English with a notarized certificate of accuracy. Once her certification and curriculum were translated into English, Ana could take the next step and send it to an educational credential evaluator.
Marcelo loved playing sports when he was in school, but at UNIRIO, Marcelo was only a business administration student. He missed playing his favorite sport, and since he wanted to combine his schooling and play on a team again, he considered transferring from UNIRIO to a University in the United States. During a visit to Orlando, he tried out for the Soccer team at the University of Central Florida (UCF). The coach offered him a full scholarship to finish his degree at UCF! Along with getting an F1 student visa to stay in the United States legally, Marcelo would need to have his coursework at UNIRIO translated from Brazilian Portuguese into English with the notarized certificate of accuracy from the translator. Then he could have the completed curriculum evaluated so that UCF could decide how many credits would be transferred toward his degree at UCF.
At SCG Law & Language, we can provide the professional translations you need to take the next step in getting your diplomas and curriculum evaluated. We have partners that can help you with your visa process, and we can refer you to organizations that can provide credential validations.