The “On Hold: We are waiting for your institution(s) to verify your documents.” status will appear in your My Account when WES sends photocopies of your documents for verification to the institution that issued them. WES is committed to maintaining the integrity of our evaluations by ensuring that they are based on authentic documents. Therefore, at times we need to send documents for verification. The most common reasons include the following:

• Due to increased incidence of fraud, WES is compelled to conduct a secondary verification of documents.
• The documents received are different from the documents WES generally receives from the same institution or institutions in that system of education.
• Information on the documents received does not correspond to the information an applicant provided on the WES application.

How does the verification process work?

WES sends a photocopy of your documents both electronically and by standard postal mail to the issuing institution or authority with a letter requesting verification. The status of your file changes to “On Hold.”

As soon as the institution verifies in writing that the documents are authentic, WES proceeds with the evaluation and issues the evaluation report. No evaluation report can be issued until we receive a response from the institution.

How long will my application remain in verification status?

Response times from institutions vary. It can take just a few days or extend to several weeks. If we do not receive a response from an institution within seven weeks, WES automatically sends another request.

What do I need to do?

Generally, you do not need to take any action during this process. However, there are two exceptions.

• If your institution requires a fee for its verification service, you will need to pay the fee directly to the institution.
• If your institution requires authorization from you prior to verifying your documents, we will send you a notice asking you to contact your institution and give your permission.

Although the verification process does take time, the benefits of this process will lead to an accurate and verified WES evaluation report that is trusted and accepted by thousands of institutions in North America.

If you have other questions about your account status, you can search for additional information on our Help Center.