ScoreFluentAustralia does not ask "did you pass an English test?" It asks which of five English levels you can evidence — and each level has its own LanguageCert Academic minimums, per skill. Getting this wrong in either direction is expensive: aim too low and your application stalls; aim a level higher than your subclass requires and you may be chasing scores you never needed.
Here is how the system works, and where to check the one thing this post deliberately does not decide for you.
The short answer
The Department of Home Affairs accepts the LANGUAGECERT Academic Test for tests taken on or after 7 August 2025, sat in a secure testing centre. It defines five English levels — Functional, Vocational, Competent, Proficient and Superior — and publishes exact LanguageCert minimums for each. Which level your application needs is set by your visa subclass listing, not by the exam and not by this post.
The five levels, and how the minimums work
Home Affairs publishes per-skill floors on LanguageCert Academic's 0–100 Global Scale. Two things to understand before looking at any numbers:
- Every skill must clear its own floor. There is no averaging: one skill below its minimum fails the level, however high the rest are.
- The floors are not flat. At every level, the Speaking bar is the highest of the four — worth knowing before you decide where your practice time goes.
As a sample, here are the three levels most PR conversations turn on (checked July 2026):
| English level | Listening | Reading | Writing | Speaking |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Competent English | 57 | 60 | 64 | 70 |
| Proficient English | 67 | 71 | 78 | 82 |
| Superior English | 80 | 83 | 89 | 89 |
The full five-level table — including Functional and Vocational English, with a source link for every row — is on our LanguageCert for Australian visas page.
Notice the Competent English pattern: Listening 57 sits in LanguageCert's B1 band, while Speaking 70 sits well into B2 on the fixed CEFR cut-scores. "I need B2" is not precise enough for Australia — you need four specific numbers.
Which level do you need? Check the subclass, not the forum
This is the step people outsource to Facebook groups, and it is the one place that genuinely requires the primary source. Home Affairs sets the required English level per visa subclass, and each subclass listing also states the evidence timeframes that apply — how recent your test must be for that application. For points-tested skilled visas, the subclass rules are likewise where English fits into your points calculation.
So the sequence is:
- Open your subclass listing on the Home Affairs site and note the English level it names.
- Look up that level's LanguageCert minimums on the English-language pages (or our threshold table).
- Book the test only once you know all four target numbers.
What you are actually booking
A quick orientation for anyone new to the exam itself, from the official qualification handbook: LanguageCert Academic tests all four skills — Listening (~40 minutes), Reading (50), Writing (50) and a live-interview Speaking component (~14). It is booked as two components — Listening-Reading-Writing, and Speaking — taken the same day or within 14 days of each other, with results published within 5 working days. Listening and Reading are computer-marked; Writing and Speaking are marked by trained examiners against published criteria.
And unlike a UK visa application, Australia needs no SELT booking — SELT is a UK concept. Home Affairs names the standard LANGUAGECERT Academic Test itself; the only Australia-specific delivery condition is the secure testing centre, covered next. If you are also weighing a UK application, Academic vs Academic SELT explains the booking difference that applies there.
Two delivery rules that catch people out
The secure-test-centre rule. Home Affairs states the test "must take place in a secure testing centre". LanguageCert Academic is also sold as an online-proctored exam you can sit at home — convenient, and useless for an Australian visa. Book a test-centre sitting.
The 7 August 2025 line. The accepted-tests list changed on 7 August 2025; LanguageCert Academic counts for tests taken on or after that date. If you hold an older result from another accepted test, Home Affairs notes tests completed before that date may remain valid for up to 3 years, depending on the visa subclass — again, the subclass listing decides. Timelines for results, validity and retakes are covered in our results and retakes guide.
One useful structural fact in your favour: LanguageCert Academic is a multi-level exam. A single sitting reports each skill 0–100 against CEFR B1–C2, so the same booking covers whichever level your subclass asks for — and if you miss a floor, the report still shows exactly where each skill landed for the retake plan.
Sources
Every visa-side fact above comes from the Department of Home Affairs English-language pages (including the per-level pages such as Competent English); every exam-side fact from the LanguageCert Academic Qualification Handbook. All checked July 2026. ScoreFluent is an independent practice platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to LanguageCert, PeopleCert or the Department of Home Affairs. Visa rules change — if a decision hangs on a detail here, the official pages outrank this post.
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