Transcript Compass: US Credential Navigator for Foreign Degrees
An AI navigator that tells any immigrant or international student exactly how their foreign degree maps to a US equivalent, which NACES agency will accept it fastest, and what each employer in their target industry actually does with it.
Skilled immigrants and international students navigating US degree recognition for jobs, immigration, or graduate admissions
- Instant degree-equivalency lookup using Anabin-style logic adapted for US NACES agencies and major universities
- Personalized document checklist tailored to your path (H-1B, green card, F-1, university admission, state licensure)
- Side-by-side comparison of WES, ECE, and other NACES evaluators with turnaround time, cost, and acceptance odds
- Opt-in employer recognition tracker that anonymizes outcomes — 'IBM accepted ECE in 12 days for Indian MBA equivalents'
The HN thread exposed a clear US gap — no central Anabin-style database — and skilled immigration volumes hit record highs while NACES agencies keep their data locked behind $300 reports
HN thread that inspired this idea had only 6 points / 3 comments, a very weak traction signal, though NACES/WES/ECE clearly serve a real population of skilled immigrants given WES covers 48,000 institutions in 203 countries.Ask HN: US Equivalent of Anabin? | Hacker News ↗WES | International Credential Evaluation Services | NACES Member ↗
No AI-native navigator aggregating NACES agencies, employer acceptance, and degree-equivalence mapping surfaced; the field is dominated by the evaluation agencies themselves (WES, ECE) plus SEO/content guides (aaeevaluations.com, study-abroad.org), leaving an aggregator-plus-AI angle genuinely open.11 Best Credential Evaluation Services in USA (2026) ↗How to Choose Credential Evaluation Services 2026 ↗
End users already pay $100–$300+ per WES/NACES evaluation, so a referral/affiliate model is plausible, but a navigation product sits upstream of a regulated report users must still buy, making direct willingness-to-pay for the AI navigator itself unproven.Credential Evaluations and Fees - WES ↗What is WES Evaluation? Process, ICAP, Validity & Latest Fee Structure ↗
Skilled immigration, foreign-degree hiring, and graduate admissions are structural and durable US flows; credential evaluation is a regulated necessity rather than a fashion, so demand persists regardless of macro cycles.NACES - National Association of Credential Evaluation Services ↗How to Verify a Foreign Degree or International Credential ↗
Building a trustworthy mapping across thousands of foreign programs to US equivalents, plus scraping opaque employer requirements and NACES agency preferences, is a large, fragmented data problem; an LLM-only navigator risks accuracy issues that matter for immigration/employment decisions.ECE | NACES Member | Foreign Credential Evaluation Services ↗Transcript Evaluation: WES, anabin & More 2026 Blog ↗