English Exam for UK Spouse Visa

[saw87]

Dear members,

I hope I am posting my question in the correct section, apologies if I'm not. I hope someone can help me with the following:

My partner (Turkish citizen) is currently with me in the UK on a general visitor visa. We are returning to Turkey together in January to get married and submit our application for a Spouse visa.

We are about to apply for him to sit the City and Guilds A1 level 'Spouse' English exam in October, in order that we have time to get the results and certificate before January. This exam only tests Speaking and Listening, which I understand is all thats currently required for spouse visa.

However I'm a little worried that the UKBA could change the approved test providers before January. Has City and Guilds always been on the approved list? What's the likelyhood that they could be removed and/or the UKBA could change the required level (i.e. to B1 or to include Reading/Writing) before January?

Any thoughts on this would be much appreciated!

[Mr Rusty]

It's a good idea for your partner to take the test while he is in the UK on a visit, and get this part of the application out of the way.

No-one, unless they have inside knowledge from the appropriate policy unit within UKBA, can give an absolute guarantee that the goalposts won't be moved before next January, but it seems unlikely, particularly with respect to the test providers. The list of approved test providers was massively cut back some 14 months ago to just 5 companies who were regarded as leaders in the field, including City & Guilds. It is almost inconceivable that they would cut it back still further, given that they've had to issue exemptions to several countries because of lack of coverage in those countries. As far as raising the level to B1, who knows? But if they did, they would be going beyond what is required in other European countries - Germany, for example - and they probably wouldn't want to attract a challenge in the European Court.

Look at it this way - apart from the cost of a test and the possible inconvenience of having to take another one if the rules change, what have you got to lose?

[saw87]

Thanks for the reply Mr Rusty. We are trying to get everything prepared as far as possible so I think we will just go with the City & Guilds test and hope the UKBA doesn't change things in the coming months!