Home Office Temporarily Suspends Prominent English Testing Provider Pending Investigation
February 11, 2014
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Educational Testing Service (ETS), an English language testing provider approved for United Kingdom immigration applications, is temporarily suspending services, effective February 10, 2014. The Home Office requested ETS to suspend services amid allegations of fraud.
The Home Office is temporarily deferring the processing of all applications submitted with ETS test results until it decides whether to accept the provider’s results moving forward. The Home Office has advised affected foreign nationals by letter that they can take a new English language test with another approved provider; to take the test, they will have to present the letter and a certified copy of their photo identification. The Home Office will resume processing the application once it receives the new test results.
ETS is canceling all existing test appointments and has stated that they will refund application fees.
Though it requested the suspension of services, the Home Office has not yet decided if it will accept English language certificates issued by ETS.
What This Means for Foreign Nationals
The suspension of testing services at ETS may cause delays in preparing immigration applications, as other testing vendors will likely see a sharp increase in volume, making appointment availability scarcer.
This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].
The Home Office is temporarily deferring the processing of all applications submitted with ETS test results until it decides whether to accept the provider’s results moving forward. The Home Office has advised affected foreign nationals by letter that they can take a new English language test with another approved provider; to take the test, they will have to present the letter and a certified copy of their photo identification. The Home Office will resume processing the application once it receives the new test results.
ETS is canceling all existing test appointments and has stated that they will refund application fees.
Though it requested the suspension of services, the Home Office has not yet decided if it will accept English language certificates issued by ETS.
What This Means for Foreign Nationals
The suspension of testing services at ETS may cause delays in preparing immigration applications, as other testing vendors will likely see a sharp increase in volume, making appointment availability scarcer.
This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].
