Apply for an SQE agreed exemption

Updated 7 March 2023

Who can apply

Internationally qualified lawyers with an agreed exemption for their legal qualification. 

Check that you have an exemption before applying.

If your qualification does have an exemption, you will still need to apply for this.

Please note agreed exemptions only apply to lawyers who have qualified through a jurisdiction's full legal qualification route and not cross qualified from another jurisdiction. Those who have qualified this way can still apply for exemptions, however the application will be assessed on an individual basis.

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 your legal qualifications and jurisdictions in mySRA within 'My profile'. You will not be able to apply for the agreed 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 at a later date.

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 application as a whole.