Sworn oath and character reference: forms and guidance
Fill in these forms if the SIA has granted your overseas criminality exception request.
Documents
Details
If you are applying for an SIA licence and you live overseas, or you have spent 6 continuous months or more outside the UK, you must provide evidence of a criminal record check from the relevant country or countries. The checks must cover the 5 years prior to your application.
If you cannot give us evidence of a criminal record check, you can ask us for an exception. If we approve your request for an exception we will ask you to provide a sworn oath and a character reference instead. You should provide these using the document on this page.
We only approve exceptions if you cannot get a check from an official source. We will not accept a sworn oath or character reference from you unless we have already approved your overseas criminality exception request.
Last updated 3 July 2024 + show all updates
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Updated the 'Details' section to: make it clear that we only grant exceptions in specific circumstances; include a link to where these circumstances are explained in full. Also updated the PDF attachment to change 'police officer' to 'former police officer', with an explanatory note that 'police officers cannot give references if they are still serving'.
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Updated the document so that it is clearer on the types of people who can provide character references.
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First published.