UK SQE Roadmap: Dates, Six-Year Clock, QWE and Admission

Qualifying as a solicitor through the SQE is a sequence with clocks in it. SQE1 runs twice a year and SQE2 four times; results take weeks for SQE1 and months for SQE2; a six-year window opens on the day you sit your first assessment; and on the standard route two years of qualifying work experience (QWE) must be done and confirmed before you can be admitted. This page lays out every 2026–27 date the SRA has published, the rules that turn those dates into a plan, and the final steps to admission, with a planner for your own start date. The SQE assessment website (sqe.sra.org.uk) now sits behind a security check we did not bypass, so its pages are quoted from Wayback Machine captures, with the capture date given. ProSyllabus is an independent study site. We are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) or Kaplan, which delivers the SQE for the SRA; every rule below is quoted or summarised from their published pages, and the SRA decides every application.

SQE booking-windows page (Wayback 20 Jul 2026); SRA QWE page; SRA annual report 2023/24.

Four rules from the SQE website turn this table into a plan. SQE2 can be booked only after you pass SQE1 (or hold a full SQE1 exemption). Booking closes about five weeks before a sitting. SQE1 results arrive five to six weeks after the sitting and SQE2 results 14 to 18 weeks after, so in practice SQE2 resits are at least about six months apart. And from 2027 the April SQE2 window starts a week earlier and runs for about four weeks, because April is the largest SQE2 sitting; the other windows are typically two to three weeks long.

The SQE website puts it plainly: "You have six years in which to complete SQE1 and SQE2. The six-year period starts from the first day you sit your first SQE assessment. You have up to three attempts at SQE1 and SQE2 within this time." Under regulation 4.3 of the SQE Assessment Regulations you must sit FLK1 and FLK2 in the same window, unless you are resitting the one paper you failed, or the SRA has approved mitigating circumstances or reasonable adjustments that allow otherwise. Fail both and you retake both together; fail one and you resit only that one. The clock does not start when you register, validate your degree or apply for an exemption — only when you sit. Regulation 7.4 lets the SRA extend the six years, but only in exceptional circumstances and at its discretion, so do not plan on it. The SRA's exemptions Q&A adds that there is no time limit on when you must sit any remaining assessment after an exemption is granted. Twice-yearly SQE1 sittings mean six years hold up to twelve SQE1 windows, far more than three attempts need; the clock is more likely to bite a candidate who passes SQE1 and then delays SQE2 for years.

For an Indian law graduate who is not yet enrolled, the retrospective rule matters: legal work already done in India can count as QWE, as long as a solicitor of England and Wales with direct knowledge of the work, or a COLP, can confirm it. That confirmation, not the location of the work, is usually the hard part for someone who worked outside a UK-regulated firm. An enrolled Indian advocate whose professional qualification gives current rights to practise is a qualified lawyer in the SRA's sense, and qualified lawyers need no QWE (see our guide for Indian advocates).

A timing trap for autumn 2026. The SRA's voluntary early character and suitability assessment is closed from 1 August to 31 October 2026, its busiest time for admissions. Anyone who wants an early assessment once it reopens after 31 October is asked to complete background screening no earlier than 1 October 2026. If something in your history (a conviction, a financial or regulatory issue) needs an early view, plan around that window; the SRA aims to decide within 120 days of a complete application.