India, Nigeria and Pakistan lawyers: the SRA's exemption list covers SQE2 only — SQE1 is still required

If you are an advocate admitted in India, a barrister and solicitor admitted in Nigeria, or an advocate admitted in one of the Pakistani jurisdictions the SRA lists, the exemption available to you is an exemption from SQE2. You still have to sit and pass SQE1.

This is not an interpretation. It is what the SRA’s own summary of the qualified-lawyer route says, in the layout of its own page: under the heading SQE1, “You will need to pass SQE1”; under the heading SQE2, “You’ll need to pass SQE2 or apply for an exemption.” The conditional appears once, and it is not on SQE1.

A great deal of published advice implies otherwise. Correcting it is the entire purpose of this page.

What the SRA’s exemption data actually contains

The SRA’s SQE exemptions page carries the jurisdiction list itself, embedded in the page. We read all of it on the date below. There are 167 jurisdiction entries. For each, the SRA records a professional title and a status.

Every single one of those statuses that grants an exemption grants an exemption from SQE2 — as either an “agreed” exemption (granted for the qualification as a class) or an “individual” exemption (assessed on your own evidence). Not one of the 167 entries offers an SQE1 exemption.

The only entries that escape the SQE assessments altogether are Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, for which the SRA records that solicitors “do not need to sit the SQE assessments.”

The page itself frames the list the same way in its opening line: “The drop-down list below shows the qualifications we have looked at for an SQE2 exemption. There is also information on the requirements you must meet for an SQE1 exemption.” An SQE2 list, and separately a set of requirements you would have to argue for SQE1.

The three jurisdictions, as the SRA records them

SRA jurisdiction entry	Professional title	Status recorded by the SRA
India	Advocate	“You can apply for an individual SQE2 exemption.”
Nigeria	Barrister and Solicitor	“You can apply for an individual SQE2 exemption.”
Pakistan (Azad Jammu & Kashmir)	Advocate	“You can apply for an individual SQE2 exemption.”
Pakistan (Balochistan)	Advocate	“You can apply for an individual SQE2 exemption.”
Pakistan (Islamabad)	Advocate	“You can apply for an individual SQE2 exemption.”
Pakistan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa)	Advocate	“You can apply for an individual SQE2 exemption.”
Pakistan (Punjab)	Advocate	“You can apply for an individual SQE2 exemption.”
Pakistan (Sindh)	Advocate	“You can apply for an individual SQE2 exemption.”

Two details in that table are routinely missed.

Pakistan is not one entry. The SRA splits it into six separate jurisdiction records — Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Balochistan, Islamabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh. All six carry the same status and the same evidence requirements, but you select the one you are admitted in.

“Individual” is not “agreed”. The SRA’s list contains both kinds. Some jurisdictions carry the status “Your qualification has an agreed SQE2 exemption”, where the SRA has already assessed the qualification as a class. India, Nigeria and all six Pakistani entries are in the other group: you may apply for an individual exemption, and the SRA assesses your personal evidence. Being on the list is permission to apply, not a grant.

The evidence each one requires

Taken verbatim from the SRA’s own entries.

India. “evidence that you have passed the All India Bar exam and evidence of your professional qualification with your local Bar, eg an admissions certificate or a certificate of good standing or, if you completed your law degree before 2010, evidence of your professional qualification”; plus “a reference showing you have at least two years’ legal work experience post-qualification as an Indian advocate”; plus proof of the referee’s own professional qualification.

Nigeria. “a certificate evidencing your professional qualification from the Supreme Court of Nigeria”; plus “a reference showing you have at least two years’ legal work experience post-qualification as a Nigerian barrister and solicitor”; plus a referee certificate from the same Court.

Pakistan (all six). “evidence of your professional qualification, eg an admission certificate or a certificate of good standing”; plus “a reference showing you have at least 18 months’ legal work experience post-qualification as a Pakistani advocate”; plus proof of the referee’s qualification.

Note the asymmetry: eighteen months for the Pakistani entries against two years for India and Nigeria. If you have been working from a summary that says “two years” across all three, that summary is wrong for Pakistan.

Why an SQE1 exemption will not solve this

The SRA publishes a separate page for SQE1 exemptions, and it does not encourage the idea. Its own words:

“SQE1 exemptions are very rare and have a high threshold – only one has been granted since 2021.”

The page also demolishes the specific argument most often made by common-law-jurisdiction lawyers — that their legal system derives from English law and should therefore count:

“There are significant differences between the law of England and Wales and the laws of all jurisdictions reviewed to date. This means relying solely on any other legal system, even if based on English and Welsh law, would not, on its own, be sufficient to justify an SQE1 exemption.”

To succeed you would have to demonstrate that your qualification and experience cover “all the areas assessed in SQE1”, not only “legislation and case law, but the processes and procedures used in legal practice, and their application to real-life situations”, at the standard of a newly qualified solicitor of England and Wales. The SRA adds that “academic study alone (including the Legal Practice Course) will not be sufficient”, and lists among its reasons for rejection that “You expect the SRA to assess partial equivalence — you must meet the full Functioning Legal Knowledge 1 or Functioning Legal Knowledge 2 content requirements.”

One grant since 2021, against a bar written that way, is not a plan.

The order things have to happen in

From the SRA’s questions and answers:

• You may sit SQE1 while an SQE2 exemption decision is pending: “Yes, if you are ready to sit SQE1 you can do this alongside making your exemption application. Any results from this exam will not affect the decision.”
• If the SQE2 exemption is refused, “you will need to have passed SQE1 before you are allowed to sit SQE2.”
• You cannot apply for an exemption from an assessment you have already failed or are awaiting results for. The SRA says failed attempts “will still stay on your record” even after the six-year reset period.
• Decisions take up to 180 days from a complete application, and one application covers one route: “if you apply for SQE2, you cannot use the same application and fee to then apply for SQE1 later.”

The application fee is £265, which the SRA states covers “one or both SQE exemptions”.

What else the qualified-lawyer route requires

From the SRA’s pathways page, a qualified lawyer needs to “have a UK degree in any subject or a qualification or experience that is equivalent to this or an overseas equivalent qualification”, “pass the SQE1 and SQE2 assessments or apply for an SQE2 exemption”, and meet the SRA’s character and suitability requirements.

One genuine advantage that does apply to all three jurisdictions: qualifying work experience is not required. The SRA states that qualified lawyers “do not need two years’ qualifying work experience” because it recognises the existing qualification and experience.

There is also a language requirement attached to the exemption: the SRA says that “If you are granted an exemption from SQE2, you will also need to demonstrate your English or Welsh language competence.”

What we could not read

SQE assessment fees and sitting dates. The SRA’s assessment site, sqe.sra.org.uk, is behind a bot-protection layer that refused our requests. We therefore publish no SQE1 or SQE2 exam fee and no sitting dates on this page. The SRA’s main site does say SQE1 “can be sat twice a year in January and July at test centres in the UK and around the world” — that is the SRA’s own wording and the only scheduling statement we could verify directly. Prices circulating on third-party sites disagree; get the current figure from the SRA’s assessment site yourself.

What to do

1. Budget and plan for SQE1. It is not optional on this route. Any adviser telling you your Indian, Nigerian or Pakistani admission removes it is contradicting the SRA’s own pages.
2. Check your exact jurisdiction entry, especially for Pakistan, where six separate records exist and the experience requirement is 18 months rather than two years.
3. Treat the SQE2 exemption as an application, not an entitlement. India, Nigeria and Pakistan sit in the individual-assessment group; the SRA reviews your evidence and your references.
4. Line up the references early. The SRA requires them to be written for this application, dated within the last three months, on letterheaded paper, from a supervisor who has read the application and reviewed the work samples.
5. Do not build the plan around an SQE1 exemption. One has been granted since 2021.

We do not assess qualifications and we do not decide exemptions. The SRA does, on its own evidence standards, and it publishes a 180-day decision window. What this page does is show you what its current data actually says about your jurisdiction, and where the commonly repeated version of it departs from the source.