Is CELPIP accepted in Australia? Yes — but only one version, and only since 7 August 2025
Aman Batth · 9 min read · · Updated
The Department of Home Affairs added CELPIP General to its approved test list for tests taken on or after 7 August 2025. CELPIP Online is still refused outright, the required score changes with the English level your visa asks for, and the version of CELPIP that works for Australia is not the one that works for Canadian citizenship.
Yes. The Department of Home Affairs lists CELPIP General among the English tests approved for Australian visa purposes, for tests taken on or after 7 August 2025, and it must be taken at a secure test centre.
Two things immediately narrow that "yes", and both of them are the kind that cost a booking fee:
- CELPIP Online is not accepted. Home Affairs names it explicitly in its list of remote-proctored tests it will not take.
- CELPIP General LS is not on the list. The listening-and-speaking version is an IRCC citizenship test. Australia needs all four skills.
Everything on this page is taken from the Department's own pages, linked at each claim. These lists and score tables change — the 7 August 2025 change is itself the proof. Open the official page and confirm against your own visa subclass before you book anything.
What Home Affairs actually approves
From the Department's English language visa requirements page, for tests taken on or after 7 August 2025 at a secure test centre:
- Cambridge C1 Advanced
- Canadian English Language Proficiency Index Program General (CELPIP General)
- IELTS Academic, including One Skill Retake
- IELTS General Training, including One Skill Retake
- LANGUAGECERT Academic
- Michigan English Test (MET), including Single Section Retake
- Occupational English Test (OET)
- Pearson Test of English Academic (PTE Academic)
- TOEFL iBT — and you must select "Taking TOEFL for Australia" when you register, or the result may not be accepted
The same page lists the tests it refuses because they are delivered fully online: CELPIP Online, IELTS Online, LANGUAGECERT Academic Online, MET Digital taken at home, OET@Home, and TOEFL iBT Home Edition.
If you already sat a test on or before 6 August 2025, the old list still applies to you, and the Department says those results may be used until 6 August 2028 inclusive, depending on the visa. CELPIP was not on that older list — so a CELPIP result from before 7 August 2025 does not help an Australian application.
There is no single "CELPIP score for Australia"
This is where most pages on this topic quietly mislead. Australia does not set one score. It defines five English levels — Functional, Vocational, Competent, Proficient, Superior — and each visa subclass points at one of them. Your target is whichever level your subclass names, so look it up on your own visa's eligibility page rather than trusting a single number you read anywhere, including here.
These are the Department's published requirements for tests taken on or after 7 August 2025:
| English level | CELPIP General | IELTS (Academic or General Training) | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Functional | Overall 5 | Overall 4.5 | Functional English |
| Vocational | 5 in each of the four components | 5 in each | Vocational English |
| Competent | 7 in each | 6 in each | Competent English |
| Proficient | 9 listening, 8 reading, 10 writing, 8 speaking | 7 in each | Proficient English |
| Superior | 10 listening, 10 reading, 12 writing, 10 speaking | 8 in each | Superior English |
Note what happens in the bottom two rows. Up to Competent, CELPIP's Australian mapping is flat — 7 across the board. From Proficient upward it stops being flat, and writing becomes the bottleneck by a clear margin: 10 for Proficient when reading and speaking only need 8, and 12 for Superior, which is the top of the CELPIP scale.
That is worth sitting with. If your visa asks for Superior English and you choose CELPIP, you are required to produce a maximum-level writing performance, while IELTS asks for 8 out of a possible 9. Anyone choosing CELPIP for a high-points skilled application should decide that on the writing requirement, not on the test's reputation for plain everyday English.
Home Affairs also requires the result to have been achieved in the 3 years before your visa application, depending on subclass — a longer window than Canada allows, which matters in the next section.
The one test that covers Canada and Australia
Many people reading this are deciding between two countries rather than committing to one. So here is the overlap, and it is smaller than you would guess.
IRCC's language requirements for Express Entry approve five tests: CELPIP General, IELTS General Training, PTE Core, TEF Canada and TCF Canada. Set that against the Australian list above:
| Test | Australia (Home Affairs) | Canada PR (IRCC Express Entry) |
|---|---|---|
| CELPIP General | Accepted | Accepted |
| IELTS General Training | Accepted | Accepted |
| IELTS Academic | Accepted | Not accepted for Express Entry |
| PTE Academic | Accepted | Not accepted |
| PTE Core | Not accepted | Accepted |
| TOEFL iBT, C1 Advanced, MET, LANGUAGECERT, OET | Accepted | Not accepted |
| TEF Canada, TCF Canada | Not accepted | Accepted |
Exactly two tests appear on both lists: CELPIP General and IELTS General Training. If you are genuinely undecided between Canada and Australia, those are the only two bookings that keep both doors open.
Three traps hide in that table:
PTE does not travel. PTE Academic is approved for Australia and is not an Express Entry test. PTE Core is approved for Express Entry and is not on the Australian list. Same brand, opposite countries, and the names are one word apart — see PTE Academic vs PTE Core if that is the decision in front of you.
IELTS One Skill Retake does not travel either. Home Affairs accepts IELTS results including OSR for eligible visas. IRCC states it does not accept One Skill Retake for Express Entry. A repaired band that fixes an Australian application can be worthless for a Canadian one.
The clocks differ. Australia works to 3 years before the visa application. IRCC requires results less than 2 years old both when you complete your Express Entry profile and when you submit for permanent residence. A CELPIP result can be comfortably live for Australia and already dead for Canada. The general mechanics of that trap are in IELTS score validity: the two-year clock is not run by IELTS, and they apply here unchanged.
What this means if you already hold a CELPIP result
If you sat CELPIP General on or after 7 August 2025 at a test centre, you are in an unusually good position: one result, two countries, no second booking. That was not true a year ago.
If you sat it before 7 August 2025, your result cannot be used for Australia at all, regardless of how high it is, because CELPIP was not on the list that applies to those dates. It remains usable for Canada inside IRCC's two-year window.
And if you sat CELPIP General LS, it does nothing for Australia and nothing for Express Entry — it is a citizenship test. That is the single most expensive mix-up in this topic, because the LS test is cheaper and shorter, which is exactly why people book it by accident.
The practical rule: the cost of choosing wrong is not the test fee, it is the calendar. Deciding your target country before you book is worth more than any preparation you do afterwards.
From the marking side: where a CELPIP level is actually won
We build our own scoring engine, so this is the part we can speak to directly.
Look again at the Proficient and Superior rows. Writing is the component Australia prices highest on CELPIP, and writing is also the component where a raw score tells you the least. CELPIP writing is assessed across several dimensions at once — content and coherence, vocabulary, readability, task fulfilment — and a single level number collapses all of them into one digit. "Level 9 writing" does not tell you whether you lost the level on organisation or on register, and those are unrelated problems with unrelated fixes. We wrote up how register alone leaks into multiple dimensions in CELPIP Writing Task 1.
What Hilingo does about that:
- Writing and speaking come back marked per criterion, not as a single number, so a shortfall points at one dimension instead of at "writing".
- Every objective answer returns the reason it was wrong plus the evidence sentence quoted from the passage or audio, so a reading or listening error is diagnosable rather than just counted.
- An AI teacher built from your own result, with a study centre keyed to your weakest skill — which, on the CELPIP-for-Australia path at Proficient or Superior, is very often the one Home Affairs prices highest.
- Question translation in 50 languages, for when the obstacle is comprehension of the task rather than the English itself.
- 29 approved CELPIP General mocks and 60 IELTS General Training mocks, the two tests that appear on both the Australian and Canadian lists.
The first full scored mock is free and does not ask for a card.
- How CELPIP is scored: levels, CLB, and what a 9 actually needs — how the level scale works before you map it to anything
- CELPIP vs IELTS vs PTE Core — the same choice made for Canada, where the third option is PTE Core rather than PTE Academic
- PTE Academic vs PTE Core — the one-word difference that decides which country a result works in
- CELPIP Writing Task 1: what the rater is actually marking — the component Australia prices highest at Proficient and Superior
- IELTS score validity — why the receiving body, not the test, owns the expiry date
Frequently asked questions
Is CELPIP accepted in Australia?
Yes. Home Affairs approves CELPIP General for Australian visa purposes for tests taken on or after 7 August 2025, at a secure test centre. CELPIP Online is explicitly not accepted, and CELPIP General LS is not on the list. Confirm the current position on the Department's English language visa requirements page before booking.
What CELPIP score do I need for an Australian visa?
It depends on the English level your visa subclass requires, not on the test. Home Affairs publishes CELPIP General requirements of 5 in each component for Vocational English, 7 in each for Competent, 9 listening / 8 reading / 10 writing / 8 speaking for Proficient, and 10 listening / 10 reading / 12 writing / 10 speaking for Superior. Check your own subclass's eligibility page, because the subclass decides which of those levels applies to you.
Can I use one test for both Canada and Australia?
Yes, and there are exactly two of them. CELPIP General and IELTS General Training are the only tests on both the Home Affairs approved list and the IRCC Express Entry list. Note that IRCC does not accept IELTS One Skill Retake for Express Entry even though Home Affairs accepts OSR for eligible visas.
Is PTE Core accepted in Australia?
No. Home Affairs lists PTE Academic, not PTE Core. PTE Core is the Pearson test approved by IRCC for Express Entry. They are different tests with similar names, so check which one your target country needs before you pay.
Does my old CELPIP result work for Australia?
Only if you sat it on or after 7 August 2025. CELPIP was not on the list of tests approved for earlier dates, so a result from before that cannot be used for an Australian visa. Results on the older list — IELTS, PTE Academic, TOEFL iBT, OET, C1 Advanced — may be used until 6 August 2028 inclusive, depending on the visa.
How long is a CELPIP result valid for an Australian visa?
Home Affairs requires the score to have been achieved in the 3 years before your visa application, depending on the subclass. That is longer than IRCC's window, which requires results less than 2 years old when you create your Express Entry profile and again when you submit for permanent residence — so the same result can still be valid for Australia after it has expired for Canada.