What happened to the QLTS?

The short answer

The QLTS was replaced by the SQE. The Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme was the separate route through which lawyers already qualified in another jurisdiction could transfer into the solicitors' profession of England and Wales, and it no longer operates as the transfer route for new applicants. If you are a qualified lawyer looking at qualifying here now, the SQE is the assessment you are looking at, and SQE1 is its first stage.

The practical change is that there is no longer a special exam for foreign lawyers. Everyone sits the same national assessment. What survives of the old idea, that an experienced lawyer should not be made to prove things they have already proved, now takes the form of exemptions from part of the SQE, granted on an individual application rather than automatically by qualification or country. Checked 9 September 2026.

• The QLTS was the transfer route for lawyers qualified in another jurisdiction
• It has been replaced by the SQE, which is the route for new applicants
• There is no separate foreign lawyers' exam any more
• Qualified lawyers sit the same SQE1 and SQE2 assessments as everyone else
• Relief from part of the assessment now comes through exemptions, applied for individually

What the QLTS was

The Qualified Lawyers Transfer Scheme existed to answer a narrow question: what should someone who is already a qualified lawyer somewhere else have to demonstrate before practising as a solicitor of England and Wales?

Its answer was a targeted assessment rather than a full requalification. It tested the areas of English law and practice that a lawyer trained elsewhere would not have covered, and it took the rest as read on the strength of the existing qualification. Around it grew a whole industry of preparation courses aimed specifically at qualified foreign lawyers, which is why the term is still so widely searched even though the scheme is closed to new applicants.

That is also why so much QLTS material is still online. A great deal of the course marketing, forum discussion and advice written for the old scheme has never been taken down, and it reads as though the scheme is live. Treat anything that describes a QLTS assessment as historical unless it carries a recent date.

QLTS vs SQE: what actually changed

Three things changed, and only one of them is about the exam itself.

The first is that the route is now common. A graduate in Leeds with no legal experience and an advocate with fifteen years in practice abroad are both assessed against the same published standard, in the same sittings, on the same papers. The regulator's stated intention was consistency: one standard for admission, whatever the starting point.

The second is that the concession for existing experience has moved from the structure of the exam to a separate exemption decision. Under the old scheme, being a qualified lawyer changed which assessment you took. Under the SQE, it does not change the assessment; it may change how much of it you have to sit, and that is decided on your own facts by the SRA.

The third is the work experience requirement. The SQE route requires qualifying work experience alongside the exams, and how existing practice as a qualified lawyer is treated against that requirement is itself part of what you would need to check for your own situation rather than assume.

• One route, one standard, and the same papers for domestic and foreign qualified candidates
• Existing qualifications now feed an exemption decision rather than a different exam
• Exemptions are individual, not automatic by country or by professional title
• The qualifying work experience requirement is part of the picture and needs checking in your own case
• The SRA is the only body that can tell you what applies to you

What a qualified lawyer does now

The honest sequence is short, and the first step is not buying a course.

Start by establishing your own position with the SRA before you plan anything. Whether you can be exempted from any part of the SQE depends on the detail of your qualification, where and how you qualified, what you are entitled to do there, and in some cases your experience. That assessment is made individually, on application, and no article, forum answer or course provider can make it for you. This is exactly the point at which reading a general page and assuming it applies to you is expensive.

Once you know what you actually have to sit, the preparation question is the ordinary one. If you are sitting SQE1, you are sitting the same 360 single best answer questions across FLK1 and FLK2 as everybody else, testing functioning legal knowledge across the full range of subjects, and the fact that you are already a practising lawyer helps less than you would hope on the subjects that are specific to England and Wales.

Be wary of any preparation aimed at qualified lawyers that promises to shorten the exam itself. Nothing you buy changes what you must sit. Only an exemption does, and only the SRA grants those. Nothing on this page is legal advice, and this site is independent of the SRA and of Kaplan. Checked 9 September 2026.

• Establish what you must sit before you buy any preparation
• Exemptions are assessed case by case by the SRA on your own facts
• If you sit SQE1, it is the same exam and the same papers as every other candidate
• Existing practice helps least on the subjects specific to England and Wales
• No course can reduce what you are required to sit
• The full route is set out in What is the SQE?

Related questions

This page answers one question. These cover the neighbouring ones.

• When are SQE1 results released? on the timetable after you sit
• Can you do an LLM or MA Law with SQE1? on bundling preparation into a masters
• What is the SQE?, the hub guide this page sits under