How to Fill Out the Josef Silny Application Form: Fees, Mailing, and USCIS

To fill out the Josef Silny application form for a foreign credential evaluation, download the current PDF from the firm’s services page, print it, complete every section by hand in legible writing, and mail it to the Miami office with your original academic documents, certified English translations, and payment. There is no online document submission — the entire package travels by mail.¹ Two decisions made before you start writing — which evaluation type you need and whether your documents are ready — determine whether the form goes through cleanly or stalls.

Decide Which Evaluation Type You Need First

The box you check on the form controls both the detail of the report and the fee. Confirm what your receiving institution, licensing board, or employer actually requires before you fill anything in; a wrong choice means paying again for a re-evaluation.

A document-by-document evaluation lists each diploma and states its American equivalent without breaking out individual courses or calculating a GPA. It covers general employment, immigration filings, military enlistment, and graduate admissions at schools that don’t need course detail. The fee is $90 at either the high school or university level.²

A course-by-course evaluation adds a subject-level breakdown with American credit and grade equivalents for every course. U.S. college transfer applicants, teacher certification candidates, and CPA examination candidates generally need this version. The fee is $150 at the high school or university level, or $250 for the accounting-specific course-by-course evaluation for CPA boards. JS&A may ask for course syllabi for this type, but you don’t need to send them with the initial application.³

Engineering graduates applying for Florida licensure and nurses seeking state board or Visa4Nurses review use separate application tracks rather than the standard foreign credentials form.¹

Gather Every Document Before You Open the Form

This is where most applications stall. JS&A will not begin work until the file is complete, and photocopies of academic credentials are not accepted for an official evaluation. Pull everything together first:

Original diplomas and certificates issued by your school, in the original language.
Original transcripts showing course names, grades, and hours of instruction for every year of study, also in the original language.
Certified English translations of any document not already in English. Translations supplement the originals; they don’t replace them. JS&A offers translation through a separate application if you need it.
If you’re paying by credit card: photocopies of the front and back of the card, plus a copy of the cardholder’s U.S. driver’s license or foreign passport.³

Understand the risk you’re accepting. JS&A assumes no liability for loss, destruction, or damage to original documents in transit or in their office, and any non-original material you submit becomes JS&A’s property and will not be returned.¹

Working Through the Form Section by Section

Download the current PDF from the services page on the JS&A site. The form is for individual applicants; corporate clients use a different process. Print it and write clearly in every field.

Personal Information

The first block asks for your full legal name (last, first, middle, and maiden name if applicable), gender, date of birth, country of citizenship, country of birth, mailing address, phone number, and email. Verify the email carefully. JS&A uses it to send portal login credentials and status updates.³

Academic History

List every school you have attended, starting with elementary and continuing through your most recent studies. For each one, give the institution’s name, city, country, dates of attendance, diplomas or certificates earned, and year of graduation. Applicants seeking a university evaluation often skip their earlier schooling. Don’t. The form instructs you to include everything, and gaps delay processing.

Evaluation Type

Check the single box matching the service you need: high school document-by-document ($90), post-secondary document-by-document ($90), high school course-by-course ($150), post-secondary course-by-course ($150), or course-by-course for CPA ($250). If you need a GPA equivalent ($40 per education level) or upper-division course identification ($30), mark those add-ons here as well.²

Report Recipients

The form provides space to list the names and addresses of institutions that should receive your evaluation directly, such as a university admissions office, licensing board, or employer. Each additional report costs $20 when ordered with the evaluation ($30 after it’s complete), plus a mailing fee per address. Choose a delivery method for each recipient: electronic delivery or first class mail at $10, Priority Mail at $25, domestic courier at $50, or international courier at $90.³

Payment Authorization

JS&A accepts Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and bank checks or money orders payable to Josef Silny & Associates, Inc. Postal money orders and Western Union are not accepted. For credit card payment, complete the authorization section with the cardholder’s name, billing address, card number, security code, expiration date, and signature, and include the card photocopies and ID copy described above.³

Totaling Your Fees

Add every charge before you sign. The common ones:

Document-by-document (high school or university): $90
Course-by-course (high school or university): $150
Course-by-course for CPA: $250, plus $250 for each additional state board
GPA equivalent: $40 per education level
Upper division course identification: $30
Re-evaluation from document-by-document to course-by-course: $150
Rush processing: $100 for five-day, $200 for two-day, $300 for 24-hour, each above the basic fee
Return shipping of your originals (see below)
Mailing to each additional recipient

All fees are non-refundable, including the base evaluation, rush charges, GPA add-ons, extra copies, and translations. The single exception: if JS&A can’t meet the rush window you paid for, they refund the rush surcharge or adjust it to the actual speed delivered.

Mailing the Package

Your complete submission is the signed application, all original academic documents, certified translations where needed, your payment or credit card authorization with ID copies, and the mailing and shipping fees. The street address for the Miami corporate office is printed on the application form itself. JS&A will not begin processing until the signed form and all fees have arrived. If anything is missing, they’ll let you know, but your file sits idle until you complete it. An application left incomplete for a year is closed, and JS&A keeps academic credentials with that application only for that same year. Reopening a closed file requires paying the evaluation fee again.³

After the Package Arrives

Standard processing takes 10 working days from the date JS&A has every fee, document, and piece of information in hand. That clock only starts when the file is complete. Rush service compresses the timeline to five days, two days, or 24 hours with the surcharges listed above.

Applicants with cases opened on or after January 1, 2026 can check status through the JS&A applicant portal. Registration credentials arrive by email once the case is created.⁴ The main phone line for direct questions is 305-273-1616.⁵ When the evaluation is finished, JS&A mails reports to the recipients you designated and sends your copy with your returned originals by the shipping method you selected.

Paying for the Return of Your Originals

JS&A returns original diplomas, certificates, and transcripts only if you prepay return shipping on the application:

Continental U.S. by Priority Mail: $25 per address
Continental U.S. by courier: $50 per address
Outside the U.S. by international courier: $90 per address¹

If the courier fee you paid falls short of the actual cost, JS&A may send the documents by USPS Priority Mail Express and bill you the difference. Pre-filled courier airbills from applicants are not accepted. Documents in transit, both inbound and outbound, are at your risk.

If the Evaluation Is for a USCIS Petition

One boundary worth knowing before you choose your evaluation type. For employment-based immigration petitions, USCIS officers may consider an independent credential evaluation like JS&A’s, but the evaluation is advisory. The final decision on whether your foreign degree meets the job’s education requirements belongs to the officer.⁶ A document-by-document evaluation is the usual starting point for showing that a foreign degree equates to a U.S. bachelor’s or master’s. A course-by-course report is called for when the petition requires evidence of specific coursework in a specialty field.

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Josef Silny & Associates. Services, Applications, Evaluations, and Translations
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Josef Silny & Associates. Application for Evaluation of Foreign Educational Credentials
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Josef Silny & Associates. Application for Evaluation of Foreign Educational Credentials
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Josef Silny & Associates. Josef Silny and Associates International Education Consultants
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Josef Silny & Associates. Corporate
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. USCIS Policy Manual Volume 6 Part E Chapter 9 – Evaluation of Education Credentials