New English Tests Approved for Australian Visas: What You Need to Know

7 August 2025

After an extensive review process, the Australian Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has officially updated its list of approved English language tests for visa applications.

As of now, nine tests from eight different providers are recognised by the Australian Government. These include the familiar names—IELTS (now listed separately as Academic and General Training), Pearson, Cambridge, TOEFL, and OET. New additions to the list are LANGUAGECERT Academic, CELPIP General, and the Michigan English Test, expanding the options available to visa applicants.

The legislative instrument formalising these changes was updated last night and is effective immediately. English Australia has confirmed with the Department that applicants who sat one of the previously approved tests before 6 August 2025 will still be assessed under the old score requirements. However, any tests taken from 7 August 2025 onwards must meet the new benchmarks outlined in the updated instrument.

Test results will remain valid for two years, as before. However, DHA has adjusted some of the required scores following new concordance studies. These changes reflect a more accurate alignment across the different testing systems.

One interesting exclusion is DuoLingos DET test which was being heavily marketed at universities and colleges early this year. I actually went part of their three day seminar which focussed a lot on the security of the test and I later took it myself at home. While I’m not sure if they were on DHA’s list of 9 test in consideration, I would probably agree that DET is neither secure enough nor thorough enough to be the equivalent of the other test, though it may still be approved for some colleges, it won’t get you a student visa.

Australian has also lifted students numbers for the coming year. More in my next blog. One area that I’m pleased to see more visas for is ELICOS- I think too many students learn useless English to pass test to get a visa, and they would be better off to come on an ELICOS visa and learn here.

Please find below more details about the band score requirements for the approved tests.