Re-scheduling and cancellation policy for those affected by Covid-19

Please note: This is the IELTS cancellation policy for IELTS Academic and IELTS General Training, you can find the IELTS for UKVI cancellation and refund policy here.

IELTS test date transfer policy

You may transfer or reschedule your test date:

  • five weeks before the scheduled test date (first component) – free of charge
  • less than five weeks before the scheduled test date (first component) – a 25% administration fee will be charged*
  • less than three days before the scheduled test date (first component) – no transfers can be arranged, except in the exceptional circumstances stated below.

The transfer test date must be within three months of the original test date. If you are unable to attend on the transfer test date, neither a further transfer nor a refund can be given.

To transfer your test date, please submit your Test Date Transfer request through this link https://www.eventsforce.net/britishcouncil/5604/home. We will review your request and process it by following the Transfer Policies of the exams of which you registered.

IELTS cancellation and refund policy

If you cancel your IELTS test up to five weeks before the test date, you will receive a refund minus an administration fee of 25% of the test fee.

Please note that refunds can take four to six weeks to process.

No refunds will be allowed for IELTS within five weeks of the test date. Exemptions from this policy are:

  • serious illness or medical incident (such as hospital admission or a major injury)
  • bereavement - loss of a close family member
  • hardship or trauma (such as being a victim of crime or involved in a traffic accident)
  • military service

Test centre exceptions

Under certain circumstances outside test centre control, we may have to cancel your test. These circumstance include, but are not limited to, extreme weather conditions, natural disaster, civil unrest, industrial action techinal problems, issues at the venue or other types of disruption or disturbance in the local environment. In these circumstances, your test centre will provide you with as much as possible to give you the choice of either below.

  • A full refund*, or;
  • A transfer to a feature test date.

The British Council is not liable for any losses you incur as a result of test cancellation.

To cancel your IELTS (Academic and General Training) test, please log in to the Test Taker Portal and submit a cancellation request, along with an upload of supporting documentation/evidence.

If a medical certificate confirming illness on the date of the test is provided within five working days of the test date, together with the submitted cancellation request on the Test Taker Portal, the fee is refundable, minus an administration fee of 25% of the test fee.

Only medical certificates in Thai or English are accepted. If we have not received your submitted cancellation request along with an upload of supporting documentation/evidence on the Test Taker Portal by five working day after the test, you will be marked as absent and forfeit all claims.

Please note that we do not accept sick notes issued by family members.

Copies sent by fax or email are not accepted.