CAS Authentication & Evaluation for Chinese Undergraduates: A Step-by-Step Guide

For applicants educated outside the United States, the Credential Assembly Service does one extra thing that decides whether a file can move forward: it evaluates foreign credentials and reports the result to the school. That step is not automatic, it is not included by default at every school, and in China it carries an additional verification requirement that many applicants discover too late.

What A&E actually does

Authentication and Evaluation is performed by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers through LSAC, once your CAS registration is complete and your documents have been processed. It answers two questions: whether your foreign credential is equivalent to a US bachelor's degree, and what academic rating to assign it.

The evaluation produces an equivalency and a rating — it does not produce a GPA on a 4.0 scale. If a school's page describes a converted GPA, that is separate from the A&E rating.

The mailing address

This is where errors are costly, because a wrong address means a returned envelope and weeks of lost time. LSAC publishes the address for mailed transcripts as:

LSAC's published address for mailed transcripts under JD/CAS. Using a PO Box number or an internal department code from a different program will result in return.

Step 1 — Enter every institution in your CAS account

In JD Services, open the Credentials & CAS tab and use Add Institutions to record every postsecondary institution you have attended. Then confirm the list. Once confirmed, a Transcript Request Form becomes available for each institution, usually within a few minutes.

The scope of what counts is wider than most applicants expect. Transcripts are required from institutions where you took college-level courses in high school for high school credit, where you earned credit later transferred elsewhere, where you attended summer or evening courses, where the school is unaccredited or closed, where the only grades recorded are 'withdraw' or 'incomplete,' and where you have simply enrolled and not yet finished.

Step 2 — Have your school send the sealed packet

For degrees completed outside the US, LSAC requires the following for programs in the People's Republic of China:

1. Official institution-issued transcripts for all programs

   In both Chinese and English, sent in a securely closed envelope with the institution's official stamp or seal across the flap.

2. University-certified copies of graduation and degree certificates

   In Chinese, and in English, for every completed program. Where a school issues only one original, LSAC accepts a copy certified by the institution as a true and correct copy.

3. Records in the original language, with translation

   All records must arrive in their original language. If a document is not in English, a translation must be included. LSAC does not provide translation service. Translations must be literal, line-by-line and word-for-word, ideally following the original's format. LSAC generally does not require a certified translation, though individual law schools sometimes do — check your targets.

4. The Transcript Request Form, in the same envelope

   When the school mails the transcript rather than sending it electronically, the form must travel in the same envelope so LSAC can match the document to your file. This is the single most common cause of a transcript going unmatched and the file stalling.

Step 3 — CSSD verification for mainland China degrees

LSAC's China-specific requirement is separate from the paper records and is not satisfied by them. For all programs you have attended, you need official verification reports from CSSD covering your transcript, and covering your degree and graduation certificates for completed programs.

1. Log in to the CSSD system on chsi.com.cn and use the international cooperative application module — 学信档案国际合作申请.
2. Request the verification reports for each program you have attended: transcript verification for all programs, and degree and graduation certificate verification for completed programs.
3. Select 'LSAC – Law School Admission Council' from the institutional recipient list so the reports are sent electronically, directly to LSAC.

Step 4 — Sending, tracking, and what the statuses mean

Use a trackable express courier for the paper packet, and keep the tracking number in your account. The express mailer is the courier package; the institutional sealed envelope goes inside it.

Received is a logistics status, not an academic judgment. Do not read it as progress on evaluation.

Step 5 — Timeline

LSAC's published figures are: transcripts are processed within two weeks of receipt, and an international credential evaluation requires at least two weeks from the point your transcripts are processed. LSAC also notes that peak processing from October through February takes one to two weeks longer on top of the standard timeline.

1. Budget the total, not the components

   Two weeks to process plus two weeks minimum for evaluation, with international and peak-season extensions, puts a realistic floor of six to eight weeks from arrival at LSAC to a completed evaluation. Add international shipping from China, CSSD's own processing time, and the time your registrar needs to prepare the packet.

2. Start two to three months before you need it

   The constraint is not the deadline but the date your CAS report must be complete. Working backward, a Chinese applicant targeting an October application should be arranging documents in June or July and confirming the CSSD reports have been delivered well before then.

3. If you are still enrolled, send what exists and update later

   Request a transcript showing grades in progress or a current enrollment statement bearing the registrar's seal. After the semester ends or the degree is awarded, have the institution send an updated transcript through the same process. LSAC forwards the update to any school whose terms are still active.

Checklist for a mainland China JD applicant

Five ways this stalls, and what each costs

1. You mail the transcript yourself. LSAC does not process documents issued to you or forwarded by you, even in a sealed registrar envelope. The envelope must travel from the institution.
2. You rely on the paper records and skip CSSD. Evaluation cannot proceed without the verification reports.
3. You omit a summer program, community college, or a school you left. LSAC cross-references records and can flag discrepancies that stall the whole file.
4. You use a notarized or self-produced English translation. Translations must come from the institution in the required literal format; a personal translation is not what LSAC is asking for.
5. You start in September. October through February is peak processing, when timelines stretch by one to two weeks on top of an already long international evaluation.

Questions we get asked

Addresses, document requirements, and processing times are set by LSAC and change. The address published here is the one LSAC lists for JD/CAS mailed transcripts as of October 2026, and LSAC states that the address printed on your Transcript Request Form supersedes anything else. Confirm on lsac.org and with your target schools' admissions offices before mailing anything — and remember that whether A&E is required at all is a school-by-school decision worth checking first. LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admission Council, which does not review or endorse this site. This article is educational and is not legal or admissions advice.