For PTE Academic and Core under Pearson's general policy, your ID should be a valid passport. The physical document presented on test day must be the same ID selected when booking, valid, issued no more than 10 years ago and written in Roman characters. Your booking name, date of birth, citizenship and gender must match it exactly. Academic candidates testing outside their country of citizenship must use a valid passport; Core has separate Canadian-document rules. UK SELT has a distinct eVisa exception, so use its own section of the policy.
General passport rules
The ID must:
- be the same ID selected during booking
- be physical, not a digital image, copy or certified photocopy
- be valid and not expired
- have been issued no more than 10 years ago
- show personal details in Roman characters or equivalent Roman characters
- match your current appearance
Your booking name, date of birth, citizenship and gender must exactly match the document. If you cannot provide acceptable ID, Pearson says you will not enter the test room and will lose the fee.
If your passport is with a visa authority, request it back for test day. If it is being renewed or replaced after loss, wait for the new passport before booking. If the document changes after booking, contact Pearson Customer Support before test day and confirm what must be updated; do not assume a replacement passport is automatically linked.
Academic and Core exceptions differ
For PTE Academic outside your country of citizenship, only a valid passport is accepted. Within your country of citizenship, an alternative may be allowed only if it appears in Pearson's current country and region exceptions list.
For PTE Core, a passport is preferred and accepted anywhere. A Canadian Permanent Resident Card is accepted only in Canada. Pearson also has a pre-booking process for some immigrant, refugee and stateless-person documents.
UK SELT tests have separate rules, including limited UK eVisa and document options. Read the section for the exact test you booked.
Worked example: a small name difference is still a mismatch
Fictional candidate Sofia's passport shows SOFIA MARIA DOS SANTOS. Her myPTE account shows SOFIA M SANTOS. The date of birth and passport number are correct.
The booking still does not exactly match the name. Sofia should contact Pearson through the official support process before the appointment, rather than carrying a letter and hoping the centre accepts it. She keeps the support reference and checks the corrected details in myPTE.
Another candidate, Arjun, has a valid national identity card and is taking PTE Academic in his country of citizenship. He checks the live exceptions list for that country. If the card and document type are not explicitly allowed, he uses his passport.
Final check before test day
Place the accepted physical ID with your booking confirmation. Compare each field character by character, check the expiry date and inspect whether the photo still matches your appearance. Do this early enough to contact support.
Then follow the PTE test day checklist, including arriving at least 30 minutes early. A booking receipt cannot replace the accepted ID.
