Swearing in

For California - unlike New York - you don't have to go to a ceremony for your admission.

You'll get a card in the mail once you meet all the requirements (i.e. passing moral character, MPRE, CA bar exam), into which you have to fill in some details (more on this later) - but the primary importance of which, is that you have to swear an oath before someone qualified to attest to it, who will then acknowledge this on the card, which must then be posted to the California State Bar. You can apparently do this anywhere (you don't even need to be in the U.S.A., much less California itself).

Re: the details on the card - be aware that EVERYTHING you put on the card will be put online, and will be put online without any "gate" to prevent the automated harvesting of, say, your email, phone number and address (this is not like New York, where the information they have is mostly not publicly posted, and what they do put up needs someone to go through a captcha hurdle at least). So be very careful as to the information you put up (particularly if you're not currently in a firm, so what you have is a home address and number - I don't actually know if you can omit any of this information). Someone I know was really unhappy about the information that was put up (she has had a stalker problem).

Further, while this information can be edited online subsequently, you need an "access code" that will be printed on the first dues payment statement that is sent to you - so in the time period in-between (which could be a long time?) you're apparently out of luck.

Anyways -

Even though I live on the other side of the planet from the U.S., because I only got around to doing my moral character determination after I took the exams (note: they weren't kidding about the determination taking several months to complete) the schedule worked out such that I could, and decided to, fly over for one of the ceremonies. They're held throughout multiple locations throughout CA each time (example). This is the one I went for (held in a hotel ballroom - most of them are, though a few are in cooler places) -

I do think that it was nicer to be admitted like this, instead of "just posting a letter" (as my friend who did do that said - after having gone through all the hassle and exams etc., it's kind of anticlimactic). If your schedule allows for it (and if you've friends!), you definitely should.

... aaaaand that's it.

It's done.