Competent, Proficient or Superior English for Australian PR

Australia’s points test never reads your overall IELTS band. Home Affairs converts your four scores into one of three levels, and each level is a floor in every skill: Competent English (6 in each) earns 0 points, Proficient English (7 in each) earns 10, and Superior English (8 in each) earns 20.

The rules below were read on immi.homeaffairs.gov.au on 11 October 2026; the points table was last updated on 11 June 2026. Migration rules change, so confirm them on the department’s own pages before you book a test.

What are Competent, Proficient and Superior English worth?

Competent, Proficient and Superior English are the three English levels in Australia’s General Skilled Migration points test, and they are worth 0, 10 and 20 points respectively. For the Skilled Independent visa (subclass 189), the official points table lists:

Competent English is a condition, not a bonus. The 189 visa requires at least Competent English at the time of invitation and a points score of at least 65. Holders of a valid passport from Canada, New Zealand, Ireland, the United Kingdom or the United States can prove Competent English without a test.

Seen through CEFR, 7 in each skill is C1 and 8 is C2 on the official IELTS alignment, which we unpack in IELTS to CEFR.

Which overall band gives you which level?

No overall IELTS band guarantees a level, because Home Affairs reads only the lowest of your four scores. Leo measured how loosely the two are linked by enumerating all 130,321 possible IELTS score reports, applying the official rounding rule, and classifying each one under the Home Affairs floors.

According to Leo’s analysis, an overall 8.0 reaches Superior English in only 5 of 791 reports: 8.0 in all four, or 8.0 in three with 8.5 in the fourth. A report as high as 5.5, 9.0, 9.0, 9.0 averages 8.125, rounds to an overall 8.0, and is below Competent English.

These are possible reports, each counted once, not real candidates. We reran the count with every skill between 4.0 and 9.0. The shares at 8.0 and above do not move, and at an overall 7.5 the Proficient share rises only from 5.7 % to 6.1 %.

How many points is an overall band really worth?

An overall IELTS band is worth far fewer points than its label suggests, because most reports at each band carry one weak skill. Leo averaged the English points across all realistic reports at each overall band, counting only reports that are at least Competent:

Two profiles with the same overall show the gap:

The third candidate has the highest overall and the lowest score. Half a band in the weakest skill is worth more than a full band anywhere else.

Do PTE and TOEFL use the same levels?

PTE Academic and TOEFL iBT use the same three levels, but with uneven thresholds per skill, and for tests taken on or after 7 August 2025 the numbers changed. Home Affairs publishes the floors on its Competent, Proficient and Superior pages.

IELTS is the only one of the three with identical floors across skills. PTE asks for much more in speaking and writing than in listening and reading. On the Proficient page, Home Affairs warns about the renamed PTE:

PTE Academic has the same name as the previous version of the test that was accepted before 7 August 2025. However, the test and scores are different.

For TOEFL iBT, the result only counts if you selected “Taking TOEFL for Australia” when you registered. Which test suits you is a separate question, covered in IELTS vs TOEFL vs PTE.

Which tests and dates are accepted?

Home Affairs accepts English tests taken at a secure test centre within three years of your application, depending on the visa, and rejects tests delivered completely online. The English language page lists IELTS Online, OET@Home and TOEFL iBT Home Edition among the online tests it does not accept.

Results from tests taken on or before 6 August 2025 may still be used until 6 August 2028, depending on the visa, and are assessed against the older tables.

How should you plan your English score for Australia?

You should plan an Australian English score by the lowest skill, not the overall. For 10 points, that means 7 in every IELTS component; for 20 points, 8 in every component. A sentence such as “Applicants must lodge the form within sixty days of the invitation”, read once at speed, is the kind of detail an 8 in reading requires.

Find your weakest skill first. Every extra half band elsewhere is worth nothing until that one reaches the floor.

Book a centre-based test, IELTS Academic or General Training, never IELTS Online.

Compare with Canada if you are weighing both. Express Entry also converts each skill separately, as shown in CLB levels for Express Entry.

Where does Leo fit for Australian PR candidates?

Leo fits the comprehension half of an Australian English target: listening and reading at 8 come from a large volume of English heard and read slightly above your comfort level. Leo is built for that, with graded stories and native audio from A1 to C1. The app is not published yet; the waitlist below is the way to hear when it is.

What is the bottom line on Australian English levels?

Home Affairs reads your weakest skill and nothing else. Competent English (6 in each) gets you into the pool with 0 points, Proficient (7 in each) adds 10, Superior (8 in each) adds 20, and an overall band proves none of them.

The levels, test thresholds and points were checked on immi.homeaffairs.gov.au on 11 October 2026. The enumeration of all 130,321 score reports is Leo’s own, computed with the official IELTS rounding rule (tools/australia_band_levels.py). This is not migration advice: verify the current rules with Home Affairs before you pay for anything.