Many people in this country and overseas have never heard of a foreign credential evaluation service. In reality the foreign credential evaluation service is the organization that reviews the qualifications of foreign education and how they will translate into U.S. educational qualifications with regards to immigrants, certifications and higher education.

Despite it being a relatively unknown field, the field of foreign credential evaluation is growing rapidly, and it has evolved a great deal over the past thirty years. In the start, educational equivalencies in the U.S. were usually determined by counting the number of years a person had studied in a foreign country and then comparing it to the level of education a student would have completed in the same number of years in the United States. This, of course, is not accurate.

The education that was studied every year was barely even considered. US students attend classes only half as long (or even less) as many other countries. The way foreign education credentials are being evaluated has become more complex with time, so what used to be a case of black or white has recently been showing many gray areas.

Originally, the task of such evaluation was left up to the U.S. Education Department through the Foreign Credential Evaluation Service. Between 1966 and 1969 however, the FCES was shortened, and finally terminated in 1970. Unlike many other foreign countries, there are no national government standards for assessing foreign educational credentials in the United States.

Evaluation of foreign credentials since 1970 had been largely done by private credential evaluation services or through the offices of colleges and universities. Although the Council had developed initially the placement recommendations that provided the national guidelines for evaluating foreign educational credentials, being a non-government organization, their recommendations are non-binding. The UNESCO have provided international guidelines that are often legally binding, however these are at times ignored.

Since the Council has been in existence since 1955, many institutions and agencies in the United States respect their guidelines. Although, colleges and universities have their developed their own assessment policies, many of them are still at least loosely derived from the Council's guidelines. Additionally, the Council plays a leading role in the areas of immigration and employment. While the UNESO's recommendations would be hypothesized by most to hold more official weight since they are legally binding, many agencies still do not look to them for guidance.