There two approved English tests and two for French:
IRCC-approved English tests:
IELTS: you must take the “General Training” option and not the “Academic Training”. There are tests location pretty much everywhere in the world (140 countries) and fees are around $320, depending on the country. You can find a location for your test here. You should get your results within 14 days.
CELPIP: you must take the “General Test” option and not the “General LS Test”. You can only take the test in Canada, Dubai, Chandigarh, Manila and New York, and fees vary between $265 and $340 depending on the country. You can book your test here. You should get your results within 8 business days (or 3-4 business days if you add a $100 to $150 fee, depending on your test location).
IRCC-approved French tests:
TEF Canada: you must take either the paper or online based (e-TEF) test. They have locations pretty much everywhere in the world and fees are around $300, depending on the country. You can find a location for your test here. You should get your results within 3 to 4 weeks.
TCF Canada: you can also take this test in various locations around the world, for a fees of around $300. You can find a location for your test here. Results will be available 15 working days after the CEIP receives your session material.
Don’t ask for your language test results to be sent directly to IRCC. You will have to upload a scanned copy of your results with your complete application.
For each test, there is a conversion table from the test mark per ability (speaking, reading, listening, writing) to the Canadian Level Benchmark (CLB). CLBs are the norm for assessing language ability by IRCC. Click on each test below to see the conversion table: