English testing for professional registration

Many professional registration paths require an English test even if your degree was in English. The five accepted tests (in most cases) are IELTS, PTE, OET, Cambridge C1 Advanced and TOEFL iBT. Different professions accept different tests and require different score levels.

By profession (broad, verify with the relevant body)

• Nurses (AHPRA) — OET (preferred), IELTS Academic, PTE Academic, Cambridge C1 Advanced or TOEFL iBT. Score requirements differ by category.
• Doctors (AHPRA / Medical Board) — OET, IELTS Academic, PTE, Cambridge or TOEFL iBT.
• Engineers (Engineers Australia for skills assessment) — IELTS, TOEFL, PTE, OET — minimum scores apply.
• IT (ACS for skills assessment) — varies by visa; skills assessment itself doesn't require an English test, but the visa does.
• Teachers (AITSL) — IELTS, PTE, ISLPR or specific equivalents.
• Accountants (CPA, CA ANZ, IPA) — usually require English at "Proficient" or higher for skills assessment.
• Lawyers — admission process per state, with English requirements set by the state legal admissions board.

AHPRA standard — what changed in 2025

• AHPRA and the National Boards revised the English Language Skills (ELS) registration standard, effective 18 March 2025, with further score alignments published in August 2025 and updated again on 23 April 2026. The required level of proficiency hasn't changed — the score thresholds across different tests were re-aligned so that a candidate scoring at the boundary on one test wouldn't end up disadvantaged versus another test.
• One concrete change: the writing component score dropped from IELTS 7.0 to IELTS 6.5 (or equivalent on other tests). If you sat a test before the change date with a writing score of 6.5, you may now meet the standard even if you didn't at the time you sat the test.
• Score requirements are tied to your test date, not your application date, so don't re-sit a test thinking the new alignments penalise older results.
• All National Boards (except the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practice Board) accept the same five tests at the same minimum scores. Nurses, doctors, pharmacists, physios — the table is the same.

Practical sequencing

• Take the test once at the highest score you can reach. Most results stay valid for 2–3 years, so a single sitting often covers both the visa and the professional registration.
• If both the visa and the registration body accept the same test, use one result for both. The two bodies won't share your score, but you can submit the same Test Report Form to each.
• OET is the only one of the five designed specifically for health professions. AHPRA categories often have lower OET thresholds than the IELTS equivalents because the test content is healthcare-specific. If you're going through AHPRA, the OET is usually the most efficient path.
• PTE Academic is generally the fastest to book and turn around — useful when an assessing authority wants a fresh score before processing your application. Cambridge C1 Advanced is rarely accepted for visa purposes but appears in some professional-body lists.
• Test results have validity windows. If a year passes between your test and your application, check the issuing body still accepts the date — most do for 2 or 3 years, but some narrow it for specific occupations.

Cross-link: see English testing for visas for which tests apply to which visa subclasses.