You’ve finished the course. You passed. And now you’re staring at your phone, refreshing your online SIA account for the third time today, wondering why nothing seems to be moving. Sound familiar? It’s probably the most common question I get asked by people fresh out of training — how long does an SIA licence actually take, and why does it feel like nobody can give you a straight answer?
Here’s the thing: there is a straight answer, it’s just made up of a few moving parts. Once you understand what those parts are, the waiting gets a lot less stressful. So let’s go through it properly.
Once your application reaches the “checks in progress” stage, the SIA aims to process it in around 10 working days on average — that’s their current published target. But that’s not the whole story. Your overall wait also depends on how fast your training certificate gets uploaded, how smoothly your identity checks go, and whether your criminal record check throws up anything that needs a closer look. Add those together and most people are looking at somewhere between three and eight weeks, start to finish.
An SIA licence is your legal permission to work in the UK’s private security industry. No licence, no licensable work — it’s that simple, and it’s not a grey area either. Turning up to a door supervisor shift without one is a criminal offence, not just a box-ticking issue.
The Security Industry Authority issues these licences, and they exist to make sure anyone working close to the public in a security role has been properly trained and vetted. Makes sense when you think about it — door supervisors deal with confrontation, security guards protect property and people, and CCTV operators are trusted with a lot of sensitive footage. That level of responsibility needs checking.
Most people applying will fall into one of two camps: Door Supervisor licence holders, who work venue security and access control, or Security Guard licence holders, who cover static and mobile guarding roles. CCTV (public space surveillance) licences are common too, especially if you’re heading into control room work. Whichever one applies to you, the training has to match the role exactly — there’s no shortcut there.
I find it helps to walk through this stage by stage, because most of the confusion comes from not knowing where you actually are in the process.
| Stage | Typical Timeframe |
|---|---|
| Training completion to certificate upload | Up to 10 days |
| Application submission and ID verification | A few days, assuming documents match first time |
| Criminal record and background checks | Varies — longer if you’ve lived abroad |
| Checks in progress to decision | Around 10 working days (SIA target) |
| Decision to badge delivery | A few days by post |
| Total, start to finish | Roughly 3–8 weeks for most straightforward applications |
Nine times out of ten, delays come down to something avoidable. Here’s what I see trip people up most:
There’s no paid fast-track, no matter what some websites might imply. But there’s a fair amount within your control:
Log into your online SIA account and you’ll see exactly where things stand. The statuses are fairly self-explanatory once you know what they mean:
It’s worth checking every few days rather than obsessively every hour (I know the temptation). That way you’ll catch any request for extra information quickly instead of it sitting unread while your application stalls.
About the same as any other licence type. Once checks are in progress, the SIA typically resolves things within around 10 working days, though the full journey from training to badge usually runs a few weeks longer.
No — and this one’s non-negotiable. You need your licence approved and issued before you can start any licensable security work, however close you think you are to getting it.
Log into your account first and check the status. Most of the time it’s one of the usual culprits — a document that doesn’t quite match, an overseas check still in progress, or a request from the SIA you might have missed.
Fees are set by the SIA and reviewed from time to time, so check the current figure on GOV.UK before you apply rather than going off an old number you’ve seen elsewhere.
Not officially — there’s no premium option to jump the queue. What actually helps is getting everything right the first time and responding fast if the SIA needs anything from you.
Most of the frustration around SIA licence waiting times comes down to a handful of small, fixable things — a document that doesn’t quite match, a slow reply to a request, an application submitted with a gap in it. Get your documents lined up before you apply, complete the right training for the role you actually want, and keep an eye on your account so you can jump on anything the SIA asks for. Do that, and there’s genuinely no reason your application should drag on any longer than it needs to.