IELTS for UKVI: which test and what score each UK visa needs

IELTS for UKVI is IELTS taken as a Secure English Language Test (SELT), the kind of test the UK Home Office accepts for visa applications. The British Council describes it as the same design, format and difficulty as standard IELTS. The difference is that it must be taken at a Home Office approved test centre with extra security, and the Test Report Form carries the information UK Visas and Immigration needs.

No. The questions, timing, marking and band scale are the same as standard IELTS Academic or General Training. Only the test centre, the security checks and the paperwork differ. If you can score 5.5 in each section on standard IELTS, you can score it on IELTS for UKVI.

Not where the route asks for a Secure English Language Test. Work visas such as the Skilled Worker visa, family visas and settlement need a SELT, which for IELTS means IELTS for UKVI or IELTS Life Skills. The main exception is a Student visa at degree level: the university can assess your English itself and may accept a standard IELTS Academic result.

CEFR B2 is 5.5 in each of Listening, Reading, Writing and Speaking. B2 is the level the Skilled Worker, Health and Care Worker, Scale-up Worker and High Potential Individual visas require. The overall band is not what counts: every section has to reach 5.5.

CEFR B1 is 4.0 in each of the four sections. It applies to a Student visa below degree level, and to Skilled Worker visa holders who had the visa before 8 January 2026 and are extending it. For settlement and citizenship, B1 is shown with a pass in IELTS Life Skills B1 instead, because only speaking and listening are assessed.

Both produce the same CEFR level, so either can meet a visa requirement. The British Council points people moving for work, training or study below degree level to General Training, and people applying for undergraduate or postgraduate study or professional registration to Academic. If a regulator is involved, follow the regulator: the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the General Medical Council both require IELTS Academic.

IELTS Life Skills is a speaking and listening test with a pass or fail result, offered at three levels. A1 is for a first family visa as a partner or spouse, A2 is for extending that visa and is available only in the UK, and B1 is for indefinite leave to remain and British citizenship. IELTS says Life Skills results are issued within 9 days.

Two years from the date it is awarded, according to GOV.UK. One useful exception: a B1 or higher qualification that was accepted when you settled in the UK can be used again for a citizenship application after it has run out.

No. GOV.UK says you do not submit documents. Your result is checked online using a unique reference number, which for the IELTS SELT Consortium is called the UKVI number. Keep it safe, because it is what you enter on the application.

GOV.UK lists four approved providers in the UK: the IELTS SELT Consortium, LANGUAGECERT, Pearson and Trinity College London. Outside the UK the four are the IELTS SELT Consortium, LANGUAGECERT, Pearson and PSI Services. Pearson's approved tests are PTE Academic UKVI and PTE Home.

Nationals of the majority English-speaking countries GOV.UK lists, which include the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, do not need to prove their English for a Skilled Worker visa. You can also prove it with a UK school qualification such as a GCSE or A level, or with a degree taught in English, which needs an Ecctis assessment if it was awarded outside the UK.