Where A2 sits on the partner route
A partner or parent on the five-year family route meets the English requirement three times. A1 speaking and listening for the first visa. A2 speaking and listening for the extension after two and a half years. B1 speaking and listening at settlement, which becomes B2 for applications from 26 March 2027. The A2 step is the one GOV.UK describes under "applying to extend your visa after 2.5 years".
A2 is not a new idea in the rules; it has been the extension level since 2017. What has changed is the pressure around it. The settlement step is about to jump to B2, so people who are at the A2 stage now are the ones who will face B2 in 2029 or 2030. Treat A2 as a staging post, not a finish line.
Who needs the A2 test and who does not
You need A2 if you are extending as a partner or parent and your previous test was at A1.
You do not need A2 if any of these applies:
- you passed A2, B1, B2, C1 or C2 for your first visa. GOV.UK says you can use that result again for the extension, as long as the test is still on the approved list and the certificate has not been withdrawn by the provider. The two-year validity does not bite here.
- you have a UK degree, or a degree from another country that Ecctis has confirmed as UK degree standard and taught in English
- you are 65 or over, or have a long-term physical or mental condition confirmed on the Home Office form by a doctor
- you are a national of one of the majority English-speaking countries on the GOV.UK list (Australia, Canada, Jamaica, the USA and the others). Ireland is on the list for citizenship only, not for family visas.
- you were exempt at the first application. Then you need A1 for the extension, not A2.
If you have been in the UK on a family visa for five years and are extending rather than settling, GOV.UK lists you as not needing to prove English for that extension.
The four approved A2 tests
Only a Secure English Language Test from the current GOV.UK list counts. In the UK that means one of four:
| Test | Length | Format | Result | UK price, Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trinity GESE Grade 3 | 7 min | one examiner, one candidate, a conversation; on a Trinity tablet at the centre | by 9am next day | £160 |
| IELTS Life Skills A2 | about 20 min | one examiner and two candidates together | within about a week | set by the centre, from about £182 |
| LanguageCert International ESOL SELT A2 | 9 to 11 min | computer-based with a live examiner, five parts | 3 working days | from about £160 |
| PTE Home A2 | 25 min | computer, speaking recorded and machine-scored | usually within 2 days | £170 |
Trinity's Grade 3 is the shortest. The examiner asks about your daily life, your home, your family, your job, your free time and your plans, and you answer in short full sentences. There is no Topic Form at Grade 3; that starts at Grade 4. IELTS Life Skills pairs you with another candidate, which some people find easier (you talk to a peer) and some find harder (you depend on them). LanguageCert and PTE are on a computer and give the quickest provisional results.
What A2 sounds like
The CEFR puts A2 at "simple and routine tasks". In practice the examiner wants to hear:
- the present simple for routines: "I take my daughter to school at half eight, then I go to work."
- the past simple for what you did: "Last weekend we went to my sister's house in Leicester."
- plans with "going to": "Next year I am going to start a college course."
- "can" and "can't", "like" and "don't like", "there is" and "there are"
- short questions back: "Do you like Indian food?"
An A2 candidate makes mistakes and still passes. "She go to school" at A2 is marked as a slip, not a fail, if the meaning is clear and the answer has content. What fails is silence, one-word answers, or not understanding the question after it has been repeated once.
Book A2 or go straight to B1?
Many advisers tell partners to skip A2 and take B1 at the extension stage, because a B1 pass is reused at settlement under the rule above and saves a test. Until now that was sound advice. After 26 March 2027 it is less useful on the family route: a B1 pass cannot be reused for a B2 requirement, so a partner who settles after that date needs a B2 test anyway. B1 at extension still satisfies the A2 step and is better preparation, but the money it saves is at settlement, and that saving has gone for most partners.
The honest advice in October 2026: take the test you can pass comfortably at extension (A2 or B1), then spend the next two and a half years getting to B2 in speaking. The spouse visa page sets out the whole ladder and the dates.
Booking, ID and the day
Book on the provider's own site, in the name on your passport. Bring the original passport or travel document, or an eVisa share code for tests in the UK. The test must be taken no more than two years before the date of your extension application. After a pass you get a reference number (UER for Trinity, UKVI number for IELTS, Candidate URN for LanguageCert, SELT URN for Pearson) and you type it into the application; the Home Office verifies it online.
Practising for A2
Two weeks of speaking out loud, ten minutes a day, is enough for most people who already use English at the school gate or at work. Talk about yesterday, today and tomorrow. Record yourself answering "Tell me about your family" and "What do you do at the weekend?" and listen for full sentences. The free practice here runs at B1, one level up; if you can hold four minutes with the AI examiner on a Grade 5 subject, A2 is not going to be a problem.
