TSS Visa English Requirement - Medium-Term Stream

You can show you have the required level of 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 at least five years of full-time study in high school or higher (i.e. college or university) where all tuition was delivered in English, this will meet the English requirement. You must provide evidence of this, and the evidence must show:

  • The exact dates of the study; AND
  • Explicitly state English was the primary language of delivery for all tuition other than language classes.

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.

If your occupation requires licensing or registration

And you needed a certain level of English to be issued a license, evidence of the license or registration itself may be sufficient.

Intra-corporate transfers for overseas businesses

If you are sponsored by a business located outside of Australia, and you will be earning a salary of AUD96,000 per annum or higher, you do not need to provide evidence of your English level.

Sitting An Approved Test

If you cannot show either of the above, you will need to sit an approved English test.  This test must be provided before a decision is made on the application, however should ideally be provided at time of lodgement.

You must sit the test within the 3 years of providing the test results to the Department. The approved tests and required scores are outlined below:


APPROVED TEST

SCORE REQUIRED


Reading

Writing

Speaking

Listening

Overall

IELTS (International English Language Test System)

5.0

5.0

5.0

5.0

5.0

OET (Occupational English Test)


B

B

B

B

B

TOEFL iBT (Test of English as a Foreign Language)

4

14

14

4

35

PTE Academic (Pearson Test of English)

36

36

36

36

36

CAE Test (Cambridge: Advanced English)

154

154

154

154

154

Our many years of experience means we understand how the Department of Immigration, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, and other decision-makers analyse applications; we understand where they exercise discretions and where they will not. We know which strategies work and which don’t. We know which information to provide, and which to ignore.

We also have access to resources and information outside the reach of the general public. As such, we know the difference between the law and what DIBP says is the law. When DIBP puts out a statement on their website, we know what they really mean. And when DIBP publishes a checklist, our lawyers know how to read between the lines.

Our experience and expertise means that we are often in a position to help people who, based on poor advice or inadequate representation, might otherwise have assumed their case is hopeless.