2. New York Bar Exam Application for Foreign Candidate
Foreign Candidate’s eligibility in summary
- Complete the “Foreign Evaluation Form”
- Submit supporting documents to New York State Board of Law Examiners (“NY Board“)
- Satisfy NY Board that your education background is good enough, which generally means you have either:
- (1) JD from an ABA-approved law school;
- (2) bachelor law degree from common law jurisdiction (e.g. UK, Australia, Hong Kong); or
- (3) bachelor law degree from civil law jurisdiction AND LLM from an ABA-approved law school.
Step 1: Create a BOLE account & Submit the “Foreign Evaluation Form”
- Create BOLE account: https://portal.nybarexam.org/
- Submit “Foreign Evaluation Form”: https://www.nybarevaluation.org/Intro.aspx
Step 2: Ask your law school(s) to submit the supporting documents
- NY Board only accepts supporting documents prepared and sent directly by your law school(s), but not by you personally. So be polite when asking your law school to do you a favour!
- Supporting documents generally include at least:
- (1) “Official Transcript”
- (2) “Proof of Fulfillment”
- The following supporting documents may or may not be required, depending on the situation:
- (3) “Degree Certificate”
- (4) “Accreditation Statement”
- (5) “LLM Certificate of Attendance Form & LLM Transcript” (if you are a US LLM graduate)
- Read more at Paragraph VII here: https://www.nybarexam.org/foreign/ForeignLegalEducation.htm
Wait…what does (2), (3) and (4) mean?
Step 3: Wait patiently
- Confirm with your law school on the dispatch date and the delivery method (e.g. is there a tracking number?)
- NY Board claims that it could take up to 6 months for the evaluation
- Wait patiently for NY Board’s emails that acknowledge receipt of the supporting documents and determine that you are eligible to sit for the exam
After all steps above, you are good to go! You can apply for the NYBE!