How do universities verify your native language? Many universities require that your native language be English or you will have to submit proof of language proficiency.  

Usually if you lie and say English is your native language while all other evidence shows otherwise (e.g. country of birth, country of citizenship, university degree language, etc.), universities will likely suspect that you are lying.

However, suppose my native language is not English but I can read, write, listen, speak as fluently as a native speaker.  If I satisfy one or more conditions below, do universities have any reason to suspect that English is not my native language?


I am a citizen of a country where English is the official language (though I may not be born / living there)
I graduated from a university where English is the official language
Actually, there are no universal requirements for waiving testing. For instance, at MIT, you establish eligibility for a language waiver by attending primary and secondary schools that have English as the language of instruction or by attending an American university for your undergraduate education. At Yale, you must have attended an English-language university for at least three years to establish eligibility. Ohio State only grants exemptions for students graduating from universities in Australia, Belize, the British Caribbean and British West Indies, Canada (except Québec), England, Guyana, Ireland, Liberia, New Zealand, Scotland, the United States and Wales.

So this unfortunately becomes an example of "every school is different, and you need to check the rules for each school."