Which language test does Canada accept?
For Express Entry and other economic immigration programs, IRCC accepts exactly five tests. If it is not one of these five, it is not accepted.
Not going to Canada? This page is about Canadian immigration only. If your destination is the UK, Australia, New Zealand or Ireland, skip to what those routes ask for.
| Language | Test | What CLB / NCLC 9 requires |
|---|---|---|
| English | IELTS General Training | Listening 8.0 · Reading 7.0 · Writing 7.0 · Speaking 7.0 — “8777” |
| English | CELPIP-General | 9 / 9 / 9 / 9 |
| English | PTE Core | Listening 82–88 · Reading 78–87 · Writing 88–89 · Speaking 84–88 |
| French | TEF Canada | See the calculator |
| French | TCF Canada | NCLC 7 = listening 458–502 · reading 453–498 · speaking 10–11 · writing 10–11 |
NCLC 7 is a band with a ceiling, not a floor. A TCF listening score of 503 is NCLC 8, not NCLC 7. Many published summaries get this wrong, and it matters when you are working out which points you actually earn.
What is not accepted for economic immigration
IRCC publishes a closed list of five and states: “We don't accept any other third-party test results, even if they're similar.” No IRCC page names and rejects individual tests, so the accurate way to put it is the closed-list way. In practice this catches:
- IELTS Academic — the version most universities require. Not accepted for economic immigration.
- IELTS Online — exists only in the Academic version, and is likewise not accepted.
- PTE Academic, TOEFL iBT, Duolingo English Test — not on the list.
- IELTS One Skill Retake — explicitly rejected. IRCC states, verbatim: “We don't accept IELTS One Skill Retake for Express Entry.” If you retake a single skill, that result cannot be used.
DELF and DALF — accepted, but for something else
This is the point most guides get wrong, in both directions.
DELF and DALF are not accepted for economic immigration. They are accepted by IRCC for citizenship applications, alongside TCF, TCFQ, TEF and TEFAQ.
So DELF or DALF will not earn you CRS points. It can satisfy the language requirement when you apply to become a Canadian citizen. If you are choosing a test right now for Express Entry, choose TCF Canada or TEF Canada.
Why French is worth the effort
From 1 January to 19 August 2026, IRCC issued 119,865 Express Entry invitations. French-language proficiency accounted for 50,500 of them — 42.1 %, the single largest category, ahead of the Canadian Experience Class. The most recent French-category round (19 August 2026) cut off at CRS 382; the most recent Canadian Experience Class round (18 August 2026) cut off at CRS 523. The last general, no-category draw was 23 April 2024, and there has not been one since.
Demonstrating NCLC 7 in all four French skills is worth 50 CRS points if you also have English at CLB 5 or above, and 25 points if your English is CLB 4 or below — or if you did not take an English test at all.
What the tests cost, and how often you can retake
| Test | Fee (CAD) | Retake rule |
|---|---|---|
| TCF Canada | 390 | 20-day minimum wait; all four skills retaken together |
| TEF Canada | 390 (4-module, PR) · 195 (2-module, citizenship) | — |
| IELTS General Training | 335–361 | — |
| CELPIP-General | 299 | — |
| PTE Core | published price could not be verified | — |
The PTE Core fee is left unverified rather than filled with a plausible number: Pearson publishes no static price page. We would rather leave a gap than print a figure we cannot stand behind.
Re-marking: read this before you book
TCF re-marking is suspended. France Éducation international will accept re-evaluation requests only for sessions held up to 31 August 2026, and has announced that the service will be suspended from 1 September 2026, with a planned resumption in autumn 2027. Where re-marking is available, each centre sets its own fee — observed between about CAD 90 and CAD 200 per section.
TEF has no re-marking at all. Its appeal process does not re-score; it offers a free retake. And beginning the appeal cancels your previous certificate regardless of the new result.
In practice: for the next year, the score you get is the score you keep. That is the whole reason to know where you stand before you book.
If your destination is not Canada
Everything above is Canadian immigration. If you are going somewhere else, the test is almost always IELTS — but not the same IELTS. General Training is the version Canada accepts. Academic is the version everyone else asks for. Choosing wrong costs you the fee and the wait.
| You are doing this | You need |
|---|---|
| Express Entry / Canadian permanent residence | IELTS General Training — 8777 for CLB 9 |
| University admission — UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada | IELTS Academic |
| UK Skilled Worker · Australian points test · New Zealand residence | IELTS Academic |
Two things worth knowing before you book. IELTS Online exists only in the Academic version and is not accepted by IRCC. One Skill Retake is explicitly rejected by IRCC for Express Entry. In Canada the paper test was withdrawn on 7 May 2026 — the test is computer-delivered.
SELM practises the IELTS task types today, on both versions, with pronunciation, fluency and hesitation feedback on your own recording and band-criterion feedback in whole integers. The General Training simulator is built — 320 listening and 335 reading questions, plus writing and speaking. The Academic version has reading and writing; it is not accepted for Canadian economic immigration, and the app says so where you choose it.