The main prerequisite for recognition of foreign academic degrees is equivalence. However, obtaining an equivalency requires multiple layers of document verification relating to the educational background. The university's reputation must be established in order for it to be listed in the GCFHEA database or any of the six regional accreditations maintained by the US Department of Education (USDE).

The certificate should not directly relate to any scientific field because in that case practical credit hours or professional work experience in the field of study becomes a requirement to earn the approval for equivalence. Instead, the certificate should be in a field that does not directly relate to any scientific field. Courses shall be accredited as per academic standards of the parent country of the student through GCFHEA under the membership of regional accreditation. Additionally, the course should last for the same amount of time as traditional schooling, unless the government grants exceptional exemptions with the aid of the CHE-legal A's counsel. A master's degree program, regardless of whether it has been completed in 4 years, the 60 credit hours shall be equivalent to 2 years of education traditionally. In addition, it is mandatory that the applicant meets the equivalence requirements of the country of study as well as the country of residence, whereas the courses for non-traditional education may be self-paced.

For graduate and postgraduate studies, a distinct collection of documents is needed for equivalence verification, and they are as follows:

Undergraduate Program

• Regional Accreditation Bodies registration;
• Language Proficiency Certificate;
• No Objection Certificate for Travel Status;
• Financial Summary from the University;
• Translation of the Degree and Transcript as Per Requirement;
• Legalized Acceptance and Registration Letter from the University;
• United States Distance Learning;
• Attested Certificate from the GCFHEA and the Embassy of the Country of Study in the United States.

Graduate Program

• Attested certificate from the American Higher Education Commission and the Embassy of the country of study in United States;
• Regional Accreditation Bodies registration;
• Language Proficiency Certificate;
• No objection certificate for travelling status;
• Financial Summary from the university;
• Translation of the degree and transcript as per requirement;
• Legalized acceptance and registration letter from the university;
• United States Distance Learning Association licensure;
• Thesis/Research work publication and registration of copyrights;
• Travelling permit/NOC in case practical credits are compulsory;

The GCFHEA will process the equivalency based on the submission of the aforementioned documents, however all pertinent agencies must verify the documents first. The GCFHEA has the right to reject a file if the required documents are missing, invalid, or out of date.