memewest

When doing the points scoring for yourself, how many points does a UK passport holder get for speaking, reading etc....English??

My OH and i thought we qualified for the Proficient, being English, and get 25 points, but i have just read in the Australia & New Zealand magazine that this isn't the case....
Somebody wrote into 'Ask The Experts' in the mag about this and was told that being English only gives you the 15 points for being Competent in the language and that you would have to sit the IELTS to obtain the 25 points....
Is that completely true??
Does anybody out there know??
And what do i put on our application form as points for English for just having a UK passport and not doing IELTS??
We are applying for Subclass 175 Visa. OH is in the IT industry.This may make a difference to our overall points score....

meme xx

RedT

Hiya,

As a UK passport holder and without taking the IELTS exam you can only claim 15 points since last September when the rules changed. In order to claim anything more than 15 you will have to take the test unfortunately.

hope that helps,

Therese

JenniGee

Yep, that's right. Being English passport holders only means we're competent - fifteen points only, my friend.

Obviously my A Levels in English Literature & Language count for nowt! Lol!

memewest

Thanks Guys...

Speaking, reading, writing and listening to the english language for the last 36yrs (38 for my OH) only makes me competent, whereas sitting a test makes you proficient?? like i said earlier....Ughhhh??

Anyway, thanks for clearing this up for me...

See you when i hit the next stumbling block!!

Cheers, meme xx

stephen284362

I think the problem is that you can no longer assume that a UK passport holder can speak english. Without getting into any political arguments over what is right or wrong, it is possible for someone to be born and raised in the UK, thereby qualifying for a passport, to have grown up in a community where they didn't need to speak english. I agree that it is a pain that those of us who have english as our first (and sometimes only) language have to jump through hoops, but I guess we just have to suck it up.

JenniGee

Very true

Dorothy

If you take a look at a lot of the writing on this site, you will see that simply speaking the language does not make one proficient. A lot of supposedly well educated English speakers do not acheive the required minimum 7 in each band of the IELTS, so it's not a given that being educated in the language makes anyone an expert.

PaddyHaHa

My OH spoke to a member of staff at his test centre and she was surprised to hear that a 7, in each category, was required for immigration to another country. Applicants coming into the UK didn't need that level. To be honest my OH didn't clarify what the people coming into UK needed IELTS for - we assumed they needed it to get on UK further education courses but that's just guessing.

These IELTS test have caused us such an issue over the last couple of months that I'm really interested on how other people are doing and their thoughts on them.

Dorothy

7 is not required for immigration to Australia. A minimum band score of 6 is required. 7 is for extra bonus points.

Red_V_Roger

When I was still in the UK, I had a guy come and visit me from Bradford who had been in the UK for 20 years and held a UK passport. He had to come with his boss for translation as he spoke NO English! Obviously this is exceptional, but I expect the reason for the test.

JAJ

And many people who can speak English are incapable of writing competently.

Canadians also get the same exemption based on passport, but 20% of Canadians have French as their first language.

slackbloke

It is pedantic but important; there is no such thing as an English passport. There is a lot of confusion about assuming being English means being a UK passport holder or vice-versa. In fact neither is true. For the purposes of visa applications it is about your passport and there is no passport that makes or implies you are English or can speak English. The visa rules don't mean UK passport holders are 'only competent'. They are simply making a generalisation that passport holders should have a minimum level of competent English (even though this is clearly not true of all passport holders) so in fact it is quite generous.
And as JAJ points out, it about writing as well. For instance, if you are English born and bred and a native English speaker but leave school and can't write you will still get 15 points. That is quite generous considering if you were, for instance, French but had fluent spoken and written English you would get no exception.

charlie-k

[QUOTE=JAJ;5907441]And many people who can speak English are incapable of writing competently.

The younger generation use keyboards these days and their writing skills, although still taught in schools, are being neglected. I recently sat the IELTS test and a young lady there told me that she was dreading the written module as she rarely wrote letters or essays by hand. ( No disrespect to our youth!)