Australian Immigration Daily News

Generally, an application for a student visa (subclass 500) will need to be accompanied by sufficient evidence of English where appropriate. Whilst evidence of English language is not a time of application criteria, applicants seeking to meet the primary criteria for grant of a student visa must provide evidence of English language proficiency in order for the visa to be granted. The maximum time periods in which an English test must be taken is either two years before the application is lodged or two years before a decision is made on the application.  The Department of Home Affairs will accept the following tests in order to satisfy the English language requirements:

• IELTS Test
• TOEFL iBT
• Certificate in Advanced English
• PTE and;
• OET

Relevant test score can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2018C00474

Students who have completed a Toefl paper based test will be able to rely on instrument “English Language Tests and Evidence Exemptions for Subclass 500 (Student) Visas 2016/019 (IMMI 16/019)” as it continues to apply in relation to applications for a Subclass 500 (Student) visa if that application is made before 6 June 2018 and is not finally determined on or before 6 June 2018.

Applicants requiring evidencing English and are subject to regular evidentiary requirements are required to provide evidence of achieving the minimum relevant score with a test provider specified in the latest instrument. Applicants identified as having regular evidentiary requirements at lodgement, will be required to provide evidence of English language proficiency as specified above.  The policy is clear that those who do not provide evidence of meeting this requirement can be refused a visa, although the processing officer may choose to request the required documents from the applicant. 

If an application is refused, an appeal is possible. Based on the latest statistics published by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT), approximately 7,166 lodgements in May 2018 are student visa refusals which make up approximately 30 % of the overall applications for an appeal received by the AAT. The outcome of review by the AAT takes around 392 days with median of 428 days.

It is possible to seek exemption from the abovementioned English language requirements if the applicant is able to present passport issued by:

• United Kingdom
• United States of America
• Canada
• New Zealand
• Republic or Ireland

Students holding passport from the magic five countries will not be required to provide further evidence.

Where an applicant can demonstrate five years of study in English undertaken in one or more of the following countries: 

• Australia;
• Canada;
• New Zealand;
• South Africa;
• the Republic of Ireland;
• the United Kingdom; or
• the United States of America.

Other exemptions may apply and it is strongly advisable to check the latest legislative instrument for further details prior to lodging a student visa application.

Certain applicants are classified as “streamlined students” and therefore evidence of English language may not be required to submit a student visa application.  Requesting formal evidence of English language proficiency from streamlined students may be appropriate in limited circumstances such as:

• specific intelligence exists which raises concerns about the student’s English language proficiency
• during an interview with Home Affairs the student is not able to understand basic questions or provide basic information in English
• the applicant has indicated on their application form that they have English test results lower than the specified levels.

The applicant who falls within such circumstances may be required to undertake an English language test.

The Department of Home Affairs has moved to streamlined processing of student visa applications which means that an application may be finalised without a request for further information from a case officer assessing an application.  Therefore, it is advisable to all applicants to submit fully documented applications and include evidence of English at the time of lodgement.  Currently, student visas take approximately 1 to 4 weeks to process.