FAQ listing

No, degree-level qualifications in English, for example undergraduate or postgraduate will not meet our English language requirement.

You must provide evidence of the required standard of English language skills. We accept International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Academic test or Pearson Test of English (Academic).

No. The temporary pause on transferring qualified lawyer applications does not affect qualified foreign lawyers who wish to appear in the courts of England and Wales for a specific case or cases. In these circumstances, you may apply for a Temporary Call to the Bar (Part 7E of the Bar Qualification Manual) to conduct those proceedings without applying for full admission. 

You do not need to do anything about your Transferring Qualified Lawyers’ application. We have asked applicants who qualified in jurisdictions where English is not the majority native language to sends us evidence of their English language ability. You do not fall in that group, so we will continue to assess your application.  

No, if your application has been formally withdrawn, we cannot reopen or reinstate it. This applies whether the application was withdrawn because you did not respond to requests for information or correspondence, or because you chose to withdraw it. In these circumstances, you would need to submit a new application once the current pause has ended.

Please submit evidence of your previous qualification and any supporting information showing you continue to meet the requires standard of English competence. We will consider whether it meets the requirements. 

Please complete the English language requirement evidence form before the three-week deadline and tell us when you expect to provide the evidence.  

If you have booked an English language test that will take place after the deadline, include evidence of your booking and test date. We will keep your application open until you have completed this test and provided evidence of the outcome. 

An authorised pupillage provider is an organisation that has been approved by us to provide pupillage training. This may be a barristers' chambers, a law firm, a government body, a commercial organisation, a local authority, or another employer. We refer to these approved organisations as Authorised Education and Training Organisations (AETOs). 

If you intend to practise only in Welsh please contact us using the English language requirement evidence form and explain your circumstances. We will consider the information you provide and advise you on your next steps.

You can't submit your application at the moment. Nothing is lost: your application is held from the point you reached and you'll be able to continue once we reopen applications.

If you meet one of the two criteria, complete the eligibility request and we'll look at your case. 

It's an application where we have everything we asked you for. 

We may ask for more information while we assess it. If we ask for something and you don't send it by the date we give you, we may close your application.