IELTS for UKVI by CEFR Level: 4.0 at B1, 8.5 at C2

Most guides describe IELTS bands in adjectives. The Home Office publishes them as a table, and the table says something the adjectives hide.

Across four CEFR levels, IELTS for UKVI moves from 4.0 to 8.5. That is four and a half bands of the nine band scale, spent on the distance between B1 and C2.

SpeakShark is free for the component most people lose their half band on, three AI conversation sessions a day with no card.

In this guide: the table · per component · the spread · other providers · Life Skills · preparing · limits · method · FAQ

Key takeaways

• B1 is 4.0 in every component. C2 is 8.5 in every component.
• The requirement is per component, with no overall figure stated.
• The jump from C1 to C2 is 1.5 bands, the largest step in the table.
• IELTS Life Skills is the two skill version, at A1, A2 and B1 only.
• Approved results are valid for two years before the application date.

The published band table

These figures come from the Home Office lists of approved Secure English Language Tests. IELTS for UKVI appears at four CEFR levels, with the same figures in the in-UK and outside-UK lists.

Two things are immediately visible. The figure is the same in every component at each level, and there is no A1 or A2 row for IELTS for UKVI. Below B1 the approved IELTS product is Life Skills, which is a different exam.

The requirement is per component, not overall

Every IELTS for UKVI row in both lists states listening, reading, writing and speaking separately. None of them states an overall band.

That is worth holding onto, because it is not how professional regulators write the same requirement. The General Medical Council asks internationally qualified doctors for 7.0 in each area and an overall of 7.5, as we set out in the GMC requirement for doctors. Ireland's nursing board asks for 7.0 overall with 6.5 permitted in any one component.

Three bodies, three shapes:

• Home Office: a floor in every component, no overall.
• GMC: a floor in every component and an overall above that floor.
• NMBI Ireland: an overall, with one component allowed to drop below it.

The GMC version is the harshest of the three, because straight sevens produce an overall of 7.0 and fail a 7.5 requirement. The Irish version is the most forgiving, because you choose where to be weak. The Home Office version is the simplest: hit the number four times.

Four and a half bands across four levels

Read the steps rather than the rows.

The steps are even, and each is larger than it looks. A band and a half on IELTS is not a small improvement, and the table asks for it three times over.

The bottom of the table is the part most people misjudge. B1 for a UK immigration route is 4.0, and 4.0 is a long way down the IELTS scale. Somebody assuming B1 requires a 5 or 5.5 may be preparing for a harder exam than their route asks for, which costs months.

The top is the opposite problem. C2 at 8.5 in every component is the most demanding row anywhere in either approved list. For comparison, the same C2 line asks 85 from Pearson and 90 out of 100 from LanguageCert Academic.

The same level at three other providers

The Home Office treats these rows as equivalent for immigration purposes, whatever the underlying scales do.

LanguageCert General SELT does not appear at C2 in either list. It runs to C1 and stops, while Academic SELT continues. Two products with near-identical names and identical thresholds at B1, B2 and C1 part company at the top, which is exactly the kind of detail that gets missed at booking.

One published figure we are reporting without explaining. The LanguageCert International ESOL SELT at C2 lists listening at 25 out of 50 while reading, writing and speaking are 33 out of 50. It appears identically in both official lists, so it is not a one-off slip in a single file, and we cannot say why it is lower.

IELTS Life Skills is a different exam

Below B1, IELTS for UKVI is not on the list at all. The approved IELTS product there is IELTS Life Skills, at A1, A2 and B1, graded Pass.

Life Skills is a speaking and listening exam. The Home Office labels it 2-facet in the approved lists, against 4-facet for IELTS for UKVI. There is no reading paper and no writing paper.

It exists because several UK routes do not require reading and writing: citizenship, settlement, partner, parent, International Sportsperson, and Representative of an Overseas Business. We set that split out in full in the UK routes that only test speaking and listening, and Trinity GESE is the other spoken option for applicants inside the UK.

Above B1, no provider offers a two skill option. Every approved test at B2 and above examines all four skills.

What this changes about preparing

• Find your required CEFR level first. Preparing for C1 when B1 is enough is months of wasted work.
• Aim at the component floor, four times. There is no overall to average into.
• If your route is a two skill one, book Life Skills or GESE, not IELTS for UKVI.
• Do not carry the number between bodies. The Home Office, the GMC and Irish nursing all want different shapes.
• Count back two years from the application date, not the booking date.

Speaking is where most candidates lose the half band, and it is the one that does not improve by reading quietly. Role play scenarios and a daily speaking partner tend to move it faster than a workbook, and testing your speaking level free tells you where you actually are. CEFR levels for speaking explains what these labels describe and what C2 actually means covers the top of the table.

For how examiners mark spoken English at these levels, Cambridge speaking criteria by level shows real scored candidates and Interactive Communication covers the criterion that separates them. For other countries solving the same problem, MET for Australian visas publishes a table that changes shape as you climb and MET for US nurse licensure varies by state. Linguaskill and Aptis are the closest non-visa comparisons we have written.

What we could not verify

We did not check which CEFR level each immigration route requires. The Home Office directs applicants to their own route guidance, which we have not read.

We are not claiming the scales are interchangeable. Putting IELTS 5.5 next to PTE 59 next to LanguageCert 60 shows what the Home Office accepts at B2. It does not mean those numbers measure the same thing.

We did not verify test centre lists or fees. Separate spreadsheets exist for approved centres, dated July 2026, which we have not opened.

Rules change. LanguageCert's SELT products were replaced on 6 July 2025 and existing results stayed valid for two years. Check the current lists on the day you book.

The C2 LanguageCert listening figure is reported, not explained. 25 out of 50 against 33 for the other three skills, identically in both files.

This is not immigration advice. It is a reading of two published spreadsheets and the guidance page they sit on, all linked below.

How we researched this guide

We downloaded both approved test spreadsheets and parsed them by rows and cells rather than reading them as text. Each holds 36 rows across six columns: CEFR level, type, test name, provider, minimum grade and effective date.

The band table above is what the minimum grade column says when the rows are filtered to one provider and sorted by level. No page on gov.uk presents it that way, and the guidance prose never mentions a number at all.

The cross-provider table came from the same filter applied four times. That is also how the LanguageCert gap surfaced: sorting by level and scanning the provider column shows General SELT present at B1, B2 and C1 and absent at C2, which is invisible when the file is read top to bottom.

We checked the two files against each other rather than trusting one. The IELTS figures are identical in both, which is what allows us to state them without qualifying by where the test is sat, unlike the provider lists themselves, which differ.

Practise speaking, from SpeakShark

SpeakShark is an AI English speaking practice app, and the table above is the argument for practising the spoken component specifically. The requirement is a floor in every component, so your weakest skill decides the outcome, and for most candidates that is speaking.

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, and we issue no certificates. We are not an approved test provider and nothing here counts toward an application.

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 if the speaking band is the one standing between you and the row you need.

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.

• Site: speakshark.com
• Support: speaksharksupport@gmail.com
• Free tier: 3 AI conversation sessions per day, no card

Sources

• GOV.UK, list of approved Secure English Language Tests taken in the UK: the IELTS for UKVI rows at B1, B2, C1 and C2, the IELTS Life Skills rows at A1, A2 and B1, the PTE and LanguageCert figures used for comparison, and the 2-facet and 4-facet types
• GOV.UK, list of approved Secure English Language Tests taken outside the UK: the same IELTS figures, checked against the in-UK file
• GOV.UK, prove your English language abilities with a secure English language test: the route split between two skill and four skill tests, the approved test names and the two year validity rule
• Council of Europe, CEFR Table 1, common reference levels global scale: the level scale every row reports against

FAQ