English Test for an Australian Visa: Check Your Subclass

The date printed on your certificate decides which list you are read against, and your visa subclass decides which date that is. On the Department of Home Affairs general English language page, a test sat on or after 7 August 2025 is read against a list of nine. Sat on or before 6 August 2025 it is read against a list of five, and CELPIP General, LANGUAGECERT Academic and the Michigan English Test are not among those five.

That general page is not guaranteed to be the last word. A subclass page can simply point back to it. The Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189) publishes no test table of its own: its eligibility page says "At the time of invitation, you must have at least competent English" and links straight to the general Competent English page. That timing condition is part of the requirement, not decoration. The invitation lands before you lodge, so a result you plan to sit after the invitation arrives is late.

At least one subclass does the opposite. The Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) publishes its own page, splits its tables at 13 September 2025 rather than 7 August 2025, and the table for sittings on or after that date carries eight tests with no Cambridge C1 Advanced row at all. Book C1 Advanced now on the strength of the general page and a 482 applicant sits it in the window where their own visa's page carries no Cambridge row.

That gap is where the money goes. Somebody who sat CELPIP in June 2025 holds a result that has no row at all in the older general table, so the transitional arrangement that rescues old IELTS, PTE, OET, TOEFL and C1 Advanced results does not reach them. A guide that merges lists across dates, or across the general page and the subclass page, tells that reader their result is fine when it is not.

If you want daily speaking practice while you sort out the paperwork, SpeakShark is free with three AI conversation sessions a day and no card, each capped at five minutes and four turns, with basic speaking feedback. The detailed pronunciation and grammar breakdown is on Premium.

In this guide: two lists, not one · tests and scores · subclass 482 is different · why Functional is different · the five levels · traps that cost a fee · what to practise · what we could not verify · how we researched this guide · FAQ

Key takeaways

• On the general English language page, nine tests are accepted for sittings dated on or after 7 August 2025 and five for sittings dated on or before 6 August 2025. CELPIP General, LANGUAGECERT Academic and MET appear only in the newer list.
• The general page is not guaranteed to be the last word. Subclass 189 publishes no table and points back to it, but adds a timing condition of its own, at least competent English at the time of invitation. Subclass 482 publishes its own page, splits at 13 September 2025, lists eight tests after that date and drops Cambridge C1 Advanced from that table entirely. Read your own subclass page before you book.
• A pre cutoff result runs to 6 August 2028 inclusive on the main page and on the Vocational, Competent, Proficient and Superior pages. The Functional English page publishes 6 August 2026 inclusive for the same window.
• Functional English is scored on an overall or average result, for example an IELTS average band of at least 4.5. The other four levels set a minimum in each of the four components, for example IELTS 6 in every component at Competent. Functional also accepts education instead of a test, which the other four levels do not.
• Six named online versions are rejected: CELPIP Online, IELTS Online, LANGUAGECERT Academic Online, MET Digital taken at home, OET@Home and TOEFL iBT Home Edition. Every accepted test must be sat in a secure test centre.
• TOEFL iBT candidates must select Taking TOEFL for Australia at registration. Four of the five level pages say results not registered that way are not eligible, with no date attached. The subclass 482 page attaches one: tests taken on or after 21 January 2026.

Two approved lists on the general page, split by the date you sat the test

The general English language page does not publish one approved test list. It publishes two, and the condition that separates them lives in the heading above each one rather than in the rows.

The department's own wording for the change is short: "On 7 August 2025, the English language tests approved for Australian visa purposes changed. If you completed a test before this date, your results may still be valid for up to 3 years. This will depend on the visa subclass you apply for."

The first list sits under the heading "For tests taken on or after 7 August 2025" and carries nine tests. The second sits under "For tests taken on or before 6 August 2025" and carries five. Copy either list without its heading and it becomes wrong.

There is a third condition above both of them, and it is the one this guide will keep repeating. The department's instruction on the same page is that you "must check what level of English you need and what evidence you must provide for the visa you want to apply for", through "the eligibility page of the relevant visa subclass".

That page may simply send you back here, and still add a condition of its own on the way. The subclass 189 eligibility page publishes no test table, asks for at least competent English "at the time of invitation", and links to the general Competent English page. But a subclass page can also refuse the 7 August 2025 split entirely, and subclass 482 does, which is why the instruction is worth following: the general page tells you which two lists exist in general, and your subclass page tells you whether you are read against them at all, and by when.

This is the same failure we documented in which English test a UK visa needs, where gov.uk splits approved providers by whether you sit the test inside or outside the UK, and in the Canadian immigration test rules, where score tables split by the date of the sitting. The pattern repeats across three countries.

One condition applies to both lists with no exception stated. Home Affairs writes: "Tests may be available in either computer-based or paper-based formats. The test must take place in a secure testing centre."

The approved tests and scores, with the date window in every row

Every row below repeats the date window it belongs to, because that condition is what makes the number meaningful. All scores are from the Home Affairs Functional, Vocational, Competent, Proficient and Superior English pages, read on 3 August 2026.

One scope condition sits above both tables and cannot be put in a row: these are the general English language level pages, not your visa subclass page. Your subclass page may simply point back here, as subclass 189 does. Where it instead publishes its own cutoff and its own list, as subclass 482 does, nothing in these two tables applies to that application. The 482 tables are further down.

General level pages, tests taken on or after 7 August 2025.

General level pages, tests taken on or before 6 August 2025. Five tests only. There is no row here for CELPIP General, LANGUAGECERT Academic or MET at any level.

Rules that sit outside the score tables, on the general level pages. These say what each level page publishes and nothing more. All five pages also close with the same offer of other evidence. Four of them, Functional, Competent, Proficient and Superior, word it "Some visas will allow you to submit other forms of evidence. To find out, check the relevant visa pages"; the Vocational page reverses the clauses and ends "Check the relevant visa pages to find out." Either way, "not listed on this page" means exactly that and never "not allowed for your visa".

If your test is CELPIP, what the eight CELPIP speaking tasks involve covers the format, and the difficult situation task covers the one with no IELTS equivalent. For PTE there is the PTE Academic speaking section, for TOEFL there is the TOEFL speaking section, for OET there is how OET speaking is scored, and for Cambridge there is the B2 First speaking format.

Subclass 482 publishes its own cutoff and its own shorter list

The Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) publishes its English requirement on its own page, headed English proficiency (subclass 482), and that page does not follow the general one. It splits at 13 September 2025 rather than 7 August 2025. Its Table 1, for sittings on or after that date, carries eight tests and has no Cambridge C1 Advanced row at all. Cambridge C1 Advanced appears only in Table 2, for sittings before 13 September 2025.

Read that against the general tables above and the practical consequence is blunt. A 482 applicant who books Cambridge C1 Advanced today, on the strength of the nine test list, will sit it on or after 13 September 2025, and that is the window Table 1 governs, the table with no Cambridge row. Nothing in the two general tables above applies to a 482 application.

One scope condition governs everything else on that page, and it is in the opening sentence: "When applying for the Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482), primary visa applicants are required to demonstrate that they meet certain minimum standards of English language proficiency by taking and achieving a specific result in an English language test, unless exemptions apply." The exemptions and both tables below are written for the primary applicant. The page says nothing about a partner or dependants included in the same application, so do not read it as either requiring or excusing them.

The 482 page also publishes its own exemptions, which are wider than the passport route on the level pages. A primary applicant is exempt from proving English proficiency for a 482 if any one of the following applies.

• You are a passport holder from Canada, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States of America.
• You completed at least 5 years of full-time study in at least a secondary level institution where most classes were in English. The page asks for the institution names and locations, the qualification levels, an official transcript, the contact hours per week in English and the number of years of study.
• Your nominated occupation in Australia will be performed at a diplomatic or consular mission of another country, or at an Office of the Authorities of Taiwan.
• Your nominated occupation requires a licence, registration or membership, you were granted it, and you had to prove English proficiency equal to or higher than the levels in the 482 tables below to be granted it.
• You are an employee of an overseas business, that business or an associated entity has nominated you to work in Australia, and you will receive guaranteed annual earnings of at least AUD96,400.

If none of those apply, the page requires a test taken within 3 years before you apply, in the Core Skills or Specialist Skills stream.

Subclass 482 English proficiency, Table 1, tests taken on or after 13 September 2025. Eight tests. No Cambridge C1 Advanced row. The page adds: "If your test offers a single skill retake option, we may accept your result for that skill."

Subclass 482 English proficiency, Table 2, tests taken before 13 September 2025. Five tests, and this is the only 482 table with a Cambridge row. The page states: "You must achieve the minimum scores in one sitting. Single skill retake results are not accepted."

Two more conditions on that page. The Labour agreement stream is not covered by either table: the page says only that you must have English skills suitable for your nominated occupation, and that requirements "may be specified in the Labour agreement between your employer and the Commonwealth". And the 482 page carries its own online test restriction, naming the same six examples as the general page.

We have not gone through the eligibility page of every Australian visa subclass. The other one we did read, subclass 189, publishes no test table of its own: it says "At the time of invitation, you must have at least competent English" and links to the general Competent English page. Its document checklist carries the timing as well as the level, "Provide proof you have at least competent English at time of invitation for this visa", so on that subclass the deadline is the invitation and not the lodgement. That makes two subclass pages read, and one of the two overrides the general page outright. We cannot tell you whether that holds across the rest, and not knowing is exactly what makes the assumption expensive. Read your own subclass page before you book a sitting.

Subclass 189 does publish one English rule of its own, and it is written for somebody other than the primary applicant. Its document checklist asks for proof that your partner has functional English, and says you do not have to provide any documents for that if your partner is a citizen of and holds a valid passport from the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, Canada or New Zealand. The same rule and the same five countries are published for a dependant aged 18 or over. A dependant under 18 does not have to prove functional English at all. The published consequence of not showing it is money rather than refusal: "If you can't show us your partner has functional English, you will need to pay the second instalment of the visa application charge when we ask you to."

Functional English is the odd one out

Four of the five levels behave alike. Functional English does not, and the differences are easy to miss because most of them are not in the score tables. Most run against the applicant. The first one below runs the other way, and it can remove the test fee entirely.

It accepts education instead of a test. This route is on the Functional page only. Alongside the passport route, the page accepts a degree, higher degree, diploma or trade certificate from an institution in or outside Australia that required at least 2 years of full-time study or training with all instruction in English. It also accepts the schooling combinations in its own Table 1: all years of primary plus at least 3 years of secondary in English, or at least 5 years of secondary in English, either in or outside Australia. Its third schooling row is narrower and its condition is in the row rather than the heading: at least 1 year of full-time study, or the part-time equivalent, at an institution in Australia with all instruction in English, towards a degree, higher degree, diploma or associate diploma. None of these routes appears on the Vocational, Competent, Proficient or Superior pages.

It is scored on an overall or average result. The Functional table asks for an IELTS "average band score of at least 4.5", a CELPIP General "overall band score of at least 5", an OET "overall band score of at least 1020" and a TOEFL iBT "total score of at least 26". Every other level uses a minimum in each of the four components instead.

That difference cuts both ways. An IELTS 4.5 average for Functional can survive a 3.5 in speaking offset elsewhere. Competent English at 6 cannot: one 5.5 fails the whole thing. If band scales are new to you, what CEFR levels mean for speaking and what a B1 English test is are the plain versions.

It runs on 12 months, not 3 years. The Functional page states the test must have been achieved "in the 12 months before your visa application". The other four pages say 3 years, depending on the visa subclass.

Six official pages publish two different transition end dates. Five of them, the main page and the Vocational, Competent, Proficient and Superior pages, carry the footnote that a pre cutoff result "may be used as evidence of English proficiency for visa purposes until 6 August 2028, inclusive". The sixth, the Functional English page, carries the same footnote with 6 August 2026 instead.

We are not settling that for you. Both dates are published on official pages last updated on 2 February 2026. The Functional figure is at least internally consistent with the 12 month Functional validity, but we found no page that reconciles the two, and today is 3 August 2026, so on the Functional reading a pre cutoff result stops being usable in days rather than years.

Two tests are missing from Functional tables where you would expect them. Cambridge C1 Advanced is in the nine test list on the main page but has no row in the Functional or Vocational tables for sittings on or after 7 August 2025. OET has no row in the Functional table for sittings on or before 6 August 2025, though it appears in the older table on all four other level pages.

The OET score report will not show the number Functional English asks for. Home Affairs states that OET "does not currently provide overall test results on test score reports" and that you can obtain the overall result by contacting OET. Nurses and doctors assembling documents the night before lodging cannot generate that figure themselves, which is worth knowing before the deadline. Our OET speaking guide for nurses covers the speaking half of the test.

The five levels, and which one your visa needs

Home Affairs publishes five levels under the heading "English proficiency level requirements for your visa": Functional, Vocational, Competent, Proficient and Superior English.

We are not telling you which one your subclass requires, and neither does the general page. The department's instruction is explicit: "You must check what level of English you need and what evidence you must provide for the visa you want to apply for. You can check this through the eligibility page of the relevant visa subclass."

Two further scope conditions matter here.

• Subclass 482 does not use these five level names at all. The Skills in Demand visa (subclass 482) publishes its own page, headed English proficiency (subclass 482), with its own exemptions and its own two score tables split at 13 September 2025 rather than 7 August 2025. The words Functional, Vocational, Competent, Proficient and Superior appear nowhere on it. Those tables are above. Nothing in the five level tables applies to a 482 application.
• The passport route is published only as far as Competent. Holding citizenship and a valid passport from Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States is listed as an alternative on the Functional, Vocational and Competent pages. The Proficient and Superior pages list test scores instead.

Do not turn that second point into an obligation. An absence from a page is not a rule. The Proficient and Superior pages close with the sentence the Functional and Competent pages carry word for word: "Some visas will allow you to submit other forms of evidence. To find out, check the relevant visa pages." The Vocational page carries the same offer with its clauses reversed, ending "Check the relevant visa pages to find out." So the passport is not published as a Proficient or Superior route, and we cannot tell you it is refused either. Read your subclass page before you pay for a sitting. If a test is what your subclass asks for, the numbers get steep: what an IELTS band 7 actually means and what band 8 means are the honest versions of what Proficient and Superior ask for on IELTS.

The underlying requirements sit in two 2025 legislative instruments made under the Migration Regulations 1994, LIN 25/014 for Functional English and LIN 25/016 for language tests, test scores and passports. Every number on this page comes from the Home Affairs pages rather than from the instruments themselves.

Traps that cost a test fee

Each of these is a booking or a document decision made before anyone checks your English.

1. Booking an online or at home sitting. CELPIP Online, IELTS Online, LANGUAGECERT Academic Online, MET Digital taken at home, OET@Home and TOEFL iBT Home Edition are rejected by name. Each shares a brand with an accepted in centre test, so the candidate believes they booked IELTS or OET. The department introduces that list with the word include, so it is not a safe whitelist either.
2. Booking TOEFL iBT without selecting Taking TOEFL for Australia. This is a choice at registration, not a form afterwards. The main page and the Functional page say such results may not be accepted; the Vocational, Competent, Proficient and Superior pages say they are not eligible. None of those pages attaches a date to the rule. The subclass 482 page does, and scopes it to "tests taken on or after 21 January 2026". So the trap runs both ways: book a new TOEFL without the option and you may have wasted the fee, but if you hold an older sitting, do not assume it is dead until you have read your own subclass page.
3. Relying on a TOEFL sitting dated from 26 July 2023 to 4 May 2024, both dates included. Home Affairs writes "From 26 July 2023 to 4 May 2024, the TOEFL iBT test was not approved for Australian visa purposes", which takes in both endpoint dates. A date check against the 3 year validity passes it, but the test was not approved when it was taken. The subclass 482 page repeats the same gap on the same dates.
4. Sitting a computer based Cambridge C1 Advanced from 12 February 2024 to 6 August 2025, both dates included. Inside that band the level pages accept the paper based test only. Sittings before 12 February 2024 are still accepted in both formats within their validity periods, so the restriction is a stripe in the middle of the timeline rather than a simple before and after. The subclass 482 page writes the same restriction with no end date inside the sentence, "From 12 February 2024, only results from the Cambridge C1 Advanced paper-based test are accepted", but that sentence sits in a row of the table headed "Tests taken before 13 September 2025", so the heading supplies the closing bound. On the 482 page the stripe runs from 12 February 2024 to 12 September 2025, and from 13 September 2025 Cambridge C1 Advanced has no row on that page in any format. Our computer delivered versus paper IELTS comparison explains why the format label on a certificate is not cosmetic.
5. Assuming PTE Academic scores carry across the cutoff because the name did not. Home Affairs states plainly that "the test and scores are different". Competent English is 50 in each component on a pre cutoff sitting but 47 listening, 48 reading, 51 writing and 54 speaking on a post cutoff one.
6. Reading an OET letter grade against a numeric threshold. OET scoring was alphabetical before 7 August 2025 and numerical from that date. Competent English is B in each component on the old scale and 290 listening, 310 reading, 290 writing, 330 speaking on the new one. The tables offer no conversion between them.
7. Planning a Superior English application on MET. The Michigan English Test is accepted at Functional, Vocational, Competent and Proficient, so it looks like it scales all the way. It has no row in the Superior table.
8. Assuming a One Skill Retake or Single Section Retake works for your visa. Home Affairs accepts IELTS results including One Skill Retake, and MET results including Single Section Retake, "for eligible visas", and tells you to check the relevant visa page. Eligibility is per visa rather than universal, and subclass 482 proves it twice over on one page: its post 13 September 2025 table says "If your test offers a single skill retake option, we may accept your result for that skill", while its pre 13 September 2025 table says "You must achieve the minimum scores in one sitting. Single skill retake results are not accepted." Same visa, opposite answers, split by the date you sat. What a one skill retake costs and covers is worth reading before you pay for one. Note also that Canada refuses One Skill Retake for Express Entry, as the Canadian immigration test rules set out, and IRCC scopes that refusal to Express Entry rather than to every Canadian programme, so the rule does not travel between countries or even between programmes.

What to actually practise

Whichever test you book, the speaking component is the part you cannot revise into existence, and the Australian tables show why: Superior English asks for 8 in IELTS speaking, the same as in reading and writing, with no room to average it away.

1. Get a baseline before you pay for anything. Test your English speaking level free gives you a rough starting point, and why your English speaking is not improving is the diagnostic if study has not moved it.
2. Speak daily and unscripted. All of these tests measure retrieval under time pressure. Free methods to raise fluency and a 30 day plan to improve speaking cover the habit rather than the exam.
3. Match the practice to the format. CELPIP, PTE and TOEFL record you talking into silence, which is what practising English speaking alone trains. IELTS puts a live examiner in front of you, so practising IELTS speaking alone and the computer delivered IELTS speaking test are the ones to read.
4. Fix clarity rather than accent. Six pronunciation fixes in fourteen days and reducing mother tongue influence target what actually blocks a marker from understanding you.
5. Work the task types your test uses. PTE describe image and CELPIP describing a scene are the two picture tasks that catch people who have only rehearsed conversation.
6. Build the habit before you book, because the 12 month Functional window and the 3 year window elsewhere both run against you rather than for you. Start a free session and make it daily. SpeakShark's free tier is three sessions a day, five minutes and four turns each, with basic speaking feedback; the detailed pronunciation and grammar breakdown is on Premium.

If your plans also cover the United Kingdom, the level requirements there are structured differently again: the B1 speaking test for settlement, the A1 spouse visa test, the A2 extension test and what an A2 test actually is cover that ladder.

What we could not verify

Which level each visa subclass requires. The English language pages publish no subclass to level map, and Home Affairs directs applicants to the eligibility page of the relevant subclass instead. We read two of those pages. Subclass 189 publishes its own pairing, at least competent English at the time of invitation, and that is the one pairing this post states. Subclass 482 does not use the five level names at all. For every other subclass we verified no level, so this post names none.

Every subclass page other than 482 and 189. We read the English proficiency page for subclass 482 in full and reproduced its tables above, and we read the subclass 189 points tested eligibility page and its step by step document checklist. Subclass 189 publishes no test table and points back to the general Competent English page, but it does add a timing condition, at least competent English at the time of invitation, and a functional English rule for partners and dependants aged 18 or over. We read no other subclass page, so we cannot tell you how many publish their own cutoff date, their own list or their own timing condition. Treat 482 as proof that a subclass can override the general page, not as evidence that many do.

What the 482 page asks of anyone other than the primary applicant. Its opening sentence scopes the requirement to primary visa applicants, and the page publishes nothing about a partner or dependants included in the same application. We found no statement either way, so we make none.

The per subclass test eligibility timeframe. Every validity statement on the general level pages is qualified with "depending on the visa subclass". The 12 month and 3 year figures in those tables are the page level statements, not a verified figure for any named subclass. The one exception is subclass 482, whose own page sets 3 years for that visa, and we have reproduced that figure above.

Whether the 6 August 2026 Functional date or the 6 August 2028 date elsewhere is the deliberate rule. Both are published on official pages last updated 2 February 2026. We could not find a page that reconciles them, so we present it as two dates published across six official pages, five carrying 2028 and one carrying 2026, rather than as settled.

Student visa subclass 500. It has its own instrument, registered as F2025L00906, which we did not review. Nothing on this page should be read as covering a student application.

A spelling we are not correcting. The string LANGUGECERT appears once inside a table row label on four of the level pages, while the correct LANGUAGECERT appears elsewhere on the same pages. We have used the main page spelling throughout rather than reproduce it.

Whether a TOEFL result booked without the Australia option can be fixed. The department states only that such results may not be accepted, or on four level pages that they are not eligible. It publishes no remedy and we found none.

Test fees, booking lead times, result turnaround and centre availability. None of these are on the Home Affairs pages, so none of them are here.

The operative text of the two legislative instruments. We confirmed LIN 25/014 is registered as F2025L00904 and LIN 25/016 as F2025L00905, and that the register serves the matching titles, but the site renders as a client side application and we could not extract the text. Every score above therefore comes from the Home Affairs pages.

How we researched this guide

The two approved lists, the headings that split them, the secure test centre requirement, the online test restrictions and the six named online versions, the TOEFL registration rule and the five proficiency levels all come from the Department of Home Affairs English language page, read directly on 3 August 2026.

Every score in the general tables comes from the numbered tables on the Functional, Vocational, Competent, Proficient and Superior English pages, with the date window heading carried into each row rather than left behind. The primary applicant scope, the 482 exemptions, both 482 tables, the 21 January 2026 TOEFL condition and the two single skill retake rules come from the English proficiency page for subclass 482, read on the same day. The subclass 189 comparison, its invitation timing condition and its functional English rule for partners and dependants come from that visa's points tested eligibility page and step by step document checklist, read on the same day. Where the level pages and the main page disagree, as they do on the transition end date and on the strength of the TOEFL wording, we have quoted both and named the page each came from.

Where the general page and a subclass page disagree, we have not merged them. They are separate tables under separate headings on this page, because they are separate tables under separate headings on the department's site.

Where Home Affairs scopes a statement to one level or one visa, we have kept that scope. That scoping is the part most often lost when these tables are republished, and it is the part that decides whether a booking is wasted.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app. It does not prepare you for a visa application and it does not teach the test. It is daily speaking practice, which matters here for a structural reason: four of the five levels set a minimum in every component, and so does the subclass 482 table, so a strong reading score cannot carry a weak speaking one, and speaking is the component that does not improve from reading a textbook. You talk, the AI answers what you actually said, and you get speaking feedback while the conversation is still going. The free tier gives basic feedback; the detailed pronunciation and grammar breakdown is on Premium.

Start free with three sessions a day and no card, each free session capped at five minutes and four turns. Paid sessions run ten minutes with unlimited turns. Limits are on the pricing page, and how it works walks through a full session.

We are a speaking improvement tool. We are not an exam preparation provider, not an immigration adviser, and we are not affiliated with the Department of Home Affairs, Cambridge, Paragon Testing Enterprises, IDP, British Council, LANGUAGECERT, Michigan Language Assessment, Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessment, Pearson, ETS or any exam board. For test format, booking and official practice material, go to the exam body directly, and for the level your visa subclass requires, read immi.homeaffairs.gov.au. Use SpeakShark to make your spoken English stronger, and use official material to learn the test.

• Site: speakshark.com
• Support: speaksharksupport@gmail.com
• Free tier: 3 AI conversation sessions per day, 5 minutes and 4 turns each, basic speaking feedback, no card

Sources

• Department of Home Affairs, English language visa requirements: the 7 August 2025 change, the two approved lists and their headings, the secure test centre requirement, the online test restrictions and the six named online versions, the TOEFL registration rule, the five levels and the instruction to check the subclass eligibility page
• Department of Home Affairs, Functional English: the 12 month validity, the overall and average scoring, the 6 August 2026 footnote, the study and passport alternatives, the missing OET row in the older table and the OET overall score problem
• Department of Home Affairs, Vocational English: the Vocational scores in both date windows, the passport alternative, the stricter TOEFL wording, the 6 August 2028 footnote, and the absence of Cambridge C1 Advanced from the on or after table
• Department of Home Affairs, Competent English: the per component scores, the stricter TOEFL wording, the 6 August 2028 footnote, the PTE name note, the Cambridge paper based restriction, the TOEFL approval gap and the retake notes
• Department of Home Affairs, Proficient English: the test score as the only stated route, and the Proficient scores
• Department of Home Affairs, Superior English: the Superior scores and the absence of MET from that table
• Department of Home Affairs, English proficiency (subclass 482): the primary visa applicant scope, the exemptions list, the 13 September 2025 split, both score tables and their headings, the absence of Cambridge C1 Advanced from the later table, the 21 January 2026 TOEFL registration condition, the two opposing single skill retake rules and the Labour agreement stream
• Department of Home Affairs, Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189) points tested stream: the subclass that publishes no test table of its own, asks for at least competent English at the time of invitation, links to the general Competent English page, and publishes a functional English rule with a five country passport carve out for partners and dependants aged 18 or over
• Federal Register of Legislation, LIN 25/014: the Functional English instrument referenced by Home Affairs
• Federal Register of Legislation, LIN 25/016: the language tests, test scores and passports instrument referenced by Home Affairs

FAQ