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Updates on Covid-19 for IELTS test takers

Date: February 2020

At the British Council, the health and safety of our staff, customers and the communities in which we operate is our top priority. We support and cooperate with all local government agencies to put the necessary measures in place to ensure the continued well-being of all with whom we engage in the course of our activities.

The British Council in Vietnam is closely following the directives from the Ministry of Health and other government bodies. Following health advisories from Ho Chi Minh City Department of Education and Training on 28 March 2020 and from Hanoi People's Committee on 31 March 2020, seeking to protect public health and safety from the Covid-19 pandemic, the British Council in Vietnam has suspended all exams, including IELTS, until 15 April 2020 inclusive in Hanoi and until 19 April 2020 inclusive in Ho Chi Minh city.  

All IELTS test takers affected by the suspension can request to reschedule their test date to a future test date free of charge (option A) or take a full refund (option B). 

Option A: Free rescheduling

Please note that the request will take up to five working days to process. All seats in future sessions are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

Please email us below information:

  1. Candidate name (in full)
  2. Date of birth
  3. Test date
  4. Preferred Written Test date 

Option B: Full refund

Please note that the refund can ONLY be processed by bank transfer. The refund may take up to three weeks to process.

For all candidates, please return a hard copy of your VAT invoice (test fee) to the British Council’s office in Hanoi (20 Thuy Khue, Tay Ho District) or the British Council’s office in Ho Chi Minh city (285 Cach Mang Thang Tam, Ward 12, District 10) and email us below information:

  1. Candidate name (in full)
  2. Date of birth
  3. Test date
  4. The name of bank and branch/address
  5. The bank account currency
  6. Account holder’s name (Please type the name with space/hyphen, as written on the bank card; e.g. CHAN Tai Man)   
  7. Account number (Please type the bank account number with space/hyphen)

If you would like to request to make a refund payment to an overseas bank account, please provide us with the following documents/information:

  1. A scanned copy of your passport (the photo page)
  2. Bank Swift code
  3. If the account holder name is different from the candidate name, please provide us with the address, phone number and a scanned copy of the account holder’s passport

Please provide your information and contact our customer services team at exams.hanoi@britishcouncil.org.vn or exams.hcmc@britishcouncil.org.vn or call our free hotline 1800 1299 to reschedule your test or process your refund. 

We wish everyone well during this challenging time and thank you for your kind understanding. 

The British Council in Vietnam