You can show you have Functional English via any one of the following ways:
Your Passport
If you are a passport holder from the UK, Ireland, US, New Zealand or Canada, provision of these passport details will be sufficient.
Your Schooling in English
If you have completed certain education where all tuition was delivered in English, this may meet the English requirement. The ways you can show this are:
- 1Completing all years of primary school education and at least three years of secondary education at a school where all instruction was in English.
- 2Completing at least five years of secondary school education at a school or college where all instruction was in English.
- 3Completing one year of full time study (or equivalent part time study) towards a degree (or higher), associate diploma or diploma at a college or university where all instruction was in English.
You must provide evidence of this, and the evidence must show:
This evidence is required even if you believe it may be obvious. For instance, a Japanese passport holder needed to provide additional written evidence to show instruction for her schooling was in English, even though her schooling was in New Zealand!
Generally a letter from the school or college will be sufficient, provided it includes all the required information.
Sitting An Approved Test
If you cannot show either of the above, you will need to sit an approved English test.
You must sit the test within the 12 months leading up to the lodgment of the application. The approved tests and required scores are outlined below:
APPROVED TEST | SCORE REQUIRED | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Reading | Writing | Speaking | Listening | ||
IELTS (International English Language Test System) | Overall band score of 4.5 | ||||
TOEFL iBT (Test of English as a Foreign Language) | Overall band score of 32 | ||||
PTE Academic (Pearson Test of English) | Overall band score of 30 | ||||
CAE Test (Cambridge: Advanced English) | Overall band score of 147 |