{"id":20844,"date":"2026-09-01T10:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/2026\/09\/01\/toefl-gre-testing-iran-suspended-sanctions\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T10:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T10:45:18","slug":"toefl-gre-testing-iran-suspended-sanctions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/2026\/09\/01\/toefl-gre-testing-iran-suspended-sanctions\/","title":{"rendered":"TOEFL and GRE testing in Iran halted due to sanctions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ETS has announced that the administration of the TOEFL iBT and GRE exams in Iran has officially been suspended, a move that could further limit Iranian applicants&#8217; access to two major international tests.<\/p>\n<p>The organisation said on the official TOEFL iBT registration page that the suspension was carried out to comply with a recent change in regulations by the U.S. Treasury Department&#8217;s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). According to the announcement, the restriction applies to the administration of these exams inside Iran.<\/p>\n<p>ETS also said candidates affected by the decision will receive a refund of their test fees. The organisation added that anyone with questions on the matter can contact the official TOEFL department by email.<\/p>\n<p>In response to the decision, Iran&#8217;s science minister Hossein Simaei Sarraf said sanctions against Iranian science have a long history and, according to him, some of the country&#8217;s universities have faced restrictions for years. He also said the National Organization of Educational Testing, which oversees the exams, is reviewing alternative options for international tests.<\/p>\n<p>TOEFL and GRE are among the best-known exams used to assess English-language proficiency and evaluate applicants for further study, especially at foreign universities. OFAC is the Office of Foreign Assets Control at the U.S. Treasury Department, which implements sanctions-related regulations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ETS has suspended TOEFL iBT and GRE testing in Iran, citing U.S. Treasury sanctions rules and offering refunds to affected candidates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-international"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}