Under the updated immigration rules, new English requirement will take effect to visa application or extension at 9 am on December 1, 2020. Previous requirement will be continued until then. The following are the visa routes for which the new English requirement will be met;

Student, Skilled Worker, Representatives of an Overseas Business, T2 Minister of Religion, T2 Sportsperson, Global talent visa, Innovator, Start-up, Ancestry, T5 international agreement worker, Hong Kong British National, ECAA (European Communities Association Agreement) can stay extension of Stay.

 

English Language Test

From December, applicants applying under student, Skilled Worker, Start-up and Innovator route can meet the requirement if they have one of the following qualifications in English (language or literature), as long as they were under 18 and at school at the time and the qualification was awarded by an Ofqual, SQA, Qualification Wales or CCEA awarding body:

Even if a student under the age of 18 wanted to take a GCSE or A level course in UK, the applicant had to take an English test to apply for Tier 4 visa or apply for settlement. However, if the applicant had completed GCSE and A level, the applicant does not need to take an English test.

Also, the 3 test providers have been authorised by the HO and the English tests which the applicants can take are as follows.

• IELTS SELT Consortium (tested in the UK and abroad)

• LanguageCert (Testable in England and abroad)

• Trinity College London (only available in the UK)

• Pearson (tested in England and abroad)

• PSI Services (UK) Ltd (available overseas only)

Academic Qualification

As before, applicants can meet this requirement by having a degree from

• UK university;

• a university in a designated English-majority country (except Canada) with evidence of equivalence from NARIC; or

• a university in any other country that was taught in English with evidence of equivalence from NARIC as well as evidence that the degree was taught in English from NARIC.

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The only changes are that Malta will now be on the list of designated English-majority countries, and that the ‘degree from a designated English-majority country’ category will now include degrees from Ireland, meaning that Ireland will be treated as an honorary English-majority country for these purposes, despite not being added to the list. As above, these changes are pervasive across all immigration categories, not just the ones to which this Appendix applies.

Majority English country

English requirement will be met automatically for the nationals from English speaking countries. As previously mentioned, Malta has been added to English speaking countries.

Exemption

If the applicant is aged 65 or over, under 18 as of the date of application or does not meet the requirements due to physical or mental disability, he/she will be exempted from the qualification in English. If you have a physical or mental disability, you are expected to provide strong medical evidence.  

Met in a previous application

If the applicant has already shown that he/she has already met the English requirements of the level required for the current application, the applicant will be satisfied with previous English requirement without having to take the English test again. However, if the English required for the current application is higher than the previous application requirements, you must demonstrate your English ability.