How Can Pakistani Lawyers Qualify as Solicitors in England and Wales?

If you qualified as an advocate or lawyer in Pakistan and want to practise as a solicitor of England and Wales, the route today runs through the Solicitors Qualifying Examination. This post walks through the practical steps, and is deliberately careful about which figures are stable and which ones you should check directly with the SRA before relying on them.

Step one: understand that QLTS no longer exists

Older guidance, including some still circulating online, refers to the Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme, or QLTS. QLTS closed to new registrations in September 2021. Its last multiple choice test sat in 2021, and its last OSCE sat in 2022. If you see a provider or forum post describing “QLTS” as a current route, treat it as out of date. The “QLTS School” brand name persists commercially, but the scheme itself is closed.

Step two: work out whether you qualify for exemptions

Qualified lawyers, including those qualified outside England and Wales, can apply to the SRA for exemptions from part of the assessment, and separately for an automatic exemption from the Qualifying Work Experience requirement, based on their existing qualification and professional experience. This is a distinct application to the SRA, with its own evidence requirements, fee and decision timeline, all of which the SRA updates from time to time. Do not rely on a third-party site’s figure for the fee or the decision window. Check the SRA’s own current guidance for qualified lawyers before you plan around a specific number.

Whether Pakistan specifically appears on the SRA’s list of jurisdictions with agreed exemption arrangements is also something to confirm directly on the SRA’s website at the time you apply, rather than from this or any other secondary source. That list is reviewed and can change.

Step three: expect to sit SQE1 regardless of your exemption position

This is the most practically important point, and the one most guidance skips over. Even where a qualified lawyer secures an exemption from SQE2, that exemption does not usually extend to SQE1. In practice, lawyers qualified outside England and Wales, including a meaningful number from Pakistan, still prepare for and sit SQE1. If your plan is built around “I will get an exemption and skip the assessments entirely”, build a second plan around actually sitting SQE1, because for most candidates that is the more realistic outcome.

Step four: register and sit SQE1

SQE1 is set by the SRA and delivered by its assessment organisation, currently in January and July sittings each year, at test centres in a number of countries. It consists of two papers, FLK1 and FLK2, each built from single best answer questions covering the subjects set out in the SRA’s assessment specification. Exact fees and sitting dates change from year to year. Check the SRA’s assessment pages directly before registering, rather than a figure quoted secondhand.

Step five: prepare properly, on a realistic budget

Traditional course providers in this market are priced for firms sponsoring a trainee, typically running from several hundred to several thousand pounds sterling. That is a difficult budget for an individual candidate outside the UK, and part of why we built LexVerity Academy with PKR pricing for Pakistan-based candidates: full FLK1 and FLK2 content, a cited question bank, mock exams and revision mind-maps, without the traditional course price tag.

What we will not tell you

We will not quote you a specific number of Pakistani lawyers who sit SQE1 each year, because the SRA does not publish one. Its own demographic research on SQE1 candidates does not break candidates down by country of qualification, and the only geographic data point it publishes is that SQE1 and SQE2 assessments have, between them, been sat in fifty different countries. Any more specific figure you encounter for Pakistan alone is not a regulator figure, and should be treated accordingly.

A free account unlocks the first section of every FLK1 and FLK2 subject, so you can see the format before deciding whether to continue.