Apply for an SQE agreed exemption

Updated 13 June 2024

Who can apply

Overseas/internationally qualified lawyers with an agreed exemption for their legal qualification.

Please check what exemption you can apply for.

If you are granted an exemption from SQE2, you will also need to demonstrate your English or Welsh language competence.

This only applies to lawyers who have qualified through a jurisdiction's full legal qualification route and not cross qualified from another one can apply for an agreed exemption. Those who have cross qualified can still apply for exemptions, but this will be assessed on an individual basis.

Who cannot apply

You cannot apply for an exemption from a part of the SQE that you have previously failed. You must retake the assessment and pass to be eligible to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales.

Scottish solicitors

If you are a solicitor qualified in Scotland, you are exempted from sitting the SQE2 assessment. Find out how to apply for this exemption.

Fee

The application fee is £265.

What to do before applying

Make sure you have added all your legal qualifications and jurisdictions in mySRA within 'My profile'. Take care when adding jurisdiction details, including date of qualification to your profile in mySRA. You will not be to apply for an exemption until you do this.

You must have been admitted as you cannot set this as a future date.

To do this, you will need to create a mySRA account. If you already have one, you will need to log in.

Making your application

Once logged into mySRA select 'Start new applications' on the homepage. The application is called 'Apply for qualified lawyer exemption from the SQE assessments'. You will then be asked a series of questions. 

If you have already started it you will find your draft application in 'My profile' under 'Applications and documents'.

Once you have submitted, you cannot apply for another exemption under the same application. For example, if you apply for SQE2, you cannot use the same application and fee to then apply for SQE1 later.

We will let you know our decision on the agreed SQE2 exemption within 180 days. However, it is likely to take significantly less time.

Please be aware that if you apply for an individual SQE1 exemption, alongside the agreed one, it can take us the 180 days to decide on the whole application.