Every English Requirement We Read, in One Place

We read twenty published English requirements: healthcare regulators in three countries, teaching in two, aviation, immigration, and one federal law covering nine professions at once.

This is the index. What each body requires, and where the surprise was.

SpeakShark is free for the skill nearly all of them set highest, three AI conversation sessions a day with no card.

In this guide: start here · UK healthcare · UK visas · aviation · United States · Canada · across bodies · tests · limits · method · FAQ

Key takeaways

No two bodies set the same combination of test, score and conditions.
Speaking is the highest requirement almost everywhere and the concession nowhere.
Country lists disagree so sharply that one names Nigeria and another names Kenya.
The test is often the last resort, behind three to six other routes.
The decisive sentence is almost never the one with the number in it.

Start here

Three guides answer most questions before you read anything specific.

Nine questions to ask before booking an English test is the checklist. Product, version, structure, delivery, retakes, validity, who sends it, and whether a test is needed at all.
Speaking is the highest bar in four countries is the single biggest finding, with its exceptions.
Where the real rule hides on a regulator's page is the method, if you would rather read your own regulator yourself.

UK healthcare

Eight bodies, no two rules alike. The comparison is in eight UK regulators, eight different English rules.

Body	The guide	The surprise
GMC, doctors	the GMC requirement	only your most recent sitting counts
HCPC, 15 professions	speech therapists against doctors	one profession needs 8.0, above doctors
HCPC exemptions	the 43 qualifying countries	Kenya is on it and Nigeria is not
GDC, dental	the dental score table	seven registrant groups, identical numbers
GDC, why two years	why certificates last two years	the only published reason in the series
GDC, references	the reference route	a signature can replace the test
GPhC, pharmacy	straight sevens	passes here, fails the GMC
GPhC, process	needing an interpreter	the application is itself evidence
RCVS, vets	the worked examples	six sample reports, three rejected
GOsC, osteopathy	any test proving C1	the only open standard
GOsC, TOEFL	one level, four numbers	four figures, one band floor
GOC, optometry	7.0 in speaking	speaking held a full band higher
GOC, US graduates	a US degree still needs IELTS	26 accredited schools, test anyway
NMC, nursing	a person must mark speaking	six published acceptance criteria
NMC, combining	two sittings combined	a floor applies to both tests
NMC, near miss	half a band costs a year	twelve months of UK work
NMBI, Ireland	Irish nursing English	the 6.5 can fall where you choose

UK visas and tests

Topic	The guide
The B1 to B2 change	the Skilled Worker requirement
Two skill routes	speaking and listening only
Where you can sit it	the provider split by border
IELTS ladder	IELTS for UKVI by CEFR level
Pearson ladder	PTE Academic UKVI scores
Trinity spoken tests	GESE as a visa test
Trinity four skill tests	ISE I to IV
LanguageCert	Academic against General SELT
The anomaly	one listening score is lower
Pass rather than a score	a test that never gives a number
Degrees	the Ecctis code
Professional exemption	doctors and vets skip it
Students	the university can assess you
Teaching	GCSE grades for teachers

Aviation

Topic	The guide
What the top level assesses	adapting to a weaker speaker
The test suite	Level 6 gets its own exam
The evidence required	it asks about your childhood
The marking rule	the examiner must have no doubt
Validity	nine years for controllers
Maritime, by contrast	a hiring gate, not a licence

The United States

One federal law, nine professions, six tests, revised in May 2026.

Topic	The guide
The current table	speaking highest on every test
What changed	every score lowered except speaking
Who it covers	the nine professions
A removal	TOEIC is no longer accepted

Canada

Topic	The guide
Ontario nursing benchmarks	speaking above reading
The margin of error	the benchmark includes it
Two deadlines, one test	General against Academic
Nova Scotia	same scores, different doors
Expired certificates	they may still count
Ontario teaching, countries	Nigeria counts here
Ontario teaching, products	one province accepts what another refuses
French routes	B1 where the others ask C1
Chain of custody	the sealed envelope
The nursing-specific test	CELBAN speaking

Patterns across bodies

The guides that only exist because several bodies were read together.

The tests themselves

Test	The guide
TOEFL, the January 2026 rescale	the new 1 to 6 scale
TOEFL, checking a conversion	did your regulator convert it properly
Oxford Test of English	modular and permanent
EF SET	what a free test buys you

What we could not verify

Every guide has its own limits section, and they are specific rather than boilerplate.

Requirements change. Two sets here changed during the weeks we were reading, and several bodies have live reviews open.

We did not read every regulator in the world, or every profession, or every country.

Where two published documents disagreed, we reported both. There are two live discrepancies in this series that we did not resolve.

We have a commercial interest in one of the conclusions, and we say so inside that guide rather than in a disclaimer.

This is not registration or immigration advice. Each guide links the source it was written from.

How we researched this guide

Every guide in this index was written from a regulator's own published pages, one body at a time, before any comparison was attempted.

That order produced the cross-body findings rather than the other way round. Reading each requirement on its own terms notices what that requirement is doing; going in with a thesis finds evidence for the thesis.

The most consistent lesson is about where to look. The score is the thing everybody researches and almost never the thing that goes wrong, and the decisive sentence is usually the one after it, or the caption under the table, or the second file published beside the current one.

The most useful habit is reading tables as columns rather than rows. Three separate findings in this series came out of two documents that way.

We have kept a limits section in every guide, listed what we could not check, and left two published discrepancies unresolved rather than picking the convenient reading. That is the part we would most like to be judged on.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, and this index exists because our users spend more time on requirements than on practice.

That is rational. A wasted booking costs a fee and a month; a wrong assumption about a retake costs a full resit. Getting the paperwork right is worth more than any single study session.

But the paperwork ends. What is left is a person listening to you speak, at a number set higher than almost everything else in the requirement.

You talk, the AI answers what you actually said, and you get speaking feedback while the conversation is still running. The free tier gives basic feedback; the detailed pronunciation and grammar breakdown is on Premium.

Being straight about the limits: a free session runs five minutes with four turns, we issue no certificates, and we appear on no accepted list anywhere in this index. We are practice, not proof.

Start free with three sessions a day and no card. Paid sessions run ten minutes with unlimited turns. Limits are on the pricing page, and how it works walks through a session. Sign up here once the reading is done.

We are a speaking improvement tool. We are not an exam preparation provider, and we are not affiliated with Cambridge English, the IELTS partners, Pearson or any exam board. For test format, booking and official practice material, go to the exam body directly. Use SpeakShark to make your spoken English stronger, and use official material to learn the test.

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Sources

GOV.UK, prove your English language abilities with a secure English language test: the UK immigration approved test lists underlying the visa guides
HRSA, updated list of tests and scores for foreign health care workers as of 12 May 2026: the American federal table underlying the United States guides
HCPC, certificate of English language proficiency: one of the eight UK healthcare requirements compared across this series
College of Nurses of Ontario, language proficiency: one of the Canadian requirements compared across this series
Council of Europe, CEFR Table 1, common reference levels global scale: the framework most of these requirements are mapped to

FAQ

Which regulators are covered?

In the UK: the GMC, HCPC, GDC, GPhC, RCVS, GOsC, GOC, NMC, the Civil Aviation Authority and the Home Office. In Canada: nursing regulators in Ontario and Nova Scotia and the Ontario College of Teachers. In Ireland: NMBI. In the United States: HRSA and TruMerit, covering nine professions under federal law.

Where should I start?

With the checklist, which sets out the nine questions that decide whether a booking is wasted, then with the guide for your own regulator. The score is rarely the thing that goes wrong; the product name, the delivery mode and the retake position are.

What was the single biggest finding?

That speaking carries the highest number almost everywhere, and that no body in the whole series makes speaking the skill you are permitted to drop. Writing is dropped at four bodies, reading at two, listening at one, and speaking nowhere except where the candidate chooses.

Is any of this a substitute for the regulator's own page?

No, and every guide says so. Requirements change, two of the sets here changed during the period we were reading, and several bodies have live reviews open. Each guide links the source it was written from so you can check it directly.

How were these written?

One body at a time, from its own published pages and guidance documents, before any comparison was attempted, with a limits section in every guide setting out what we could not verify. Where two published documents disagreed we reported both rather than choosing the convenient reading, and two such discrepancies remain unresolved in this series.

Why does a speaking app write about exam requirements?

Because the requirement is where our users actually are, and because the honest version of that subject is genuinely useful. Every guide carries a section stating our own limits, and where our interest conflicts with the finding we say so in the guide itself.