Guide · the transfer

FIBA letter of clearance for an overseas basketball transfer

What a FIBA letter of clearance is, who actually requests it, and how that basketball document differs from the visa and from the contract. This is for a player moving to a club in another country, including a college player on a first overseas deal. It is not legal advice, and it is not a form you can file on this site.

What a FIBA LOC is

A FIBA letter of clearance is the certificate people mean when they say LOC. Article 3-64 describes it as a certificate issued by FIBA. It confirms two things: the player is free to transfer internationally, and a new national member federation is allowed to issue that player a license.

FIBA issues the certificate. The player's old club does not. An agent does not. A camp does not. Article 3-65 says a letter may not be issued to more than one national federation at the same time. Article 3-66 says the letter may not be limiting or conditional. A document that clears you only if you pay someone, or that clears you for two countries at once, is not what those two articles describe.

The same chapter applies whether you count as a national or a foreign player in the new country (article 3-69). A second passport can change whether a league's import rule has room for you. That question lives on path via passport. It does not skip the letter. Article 3-62 invites each federation to write its own rules for a transfer inside one country. The letter on this page is the international one.

When an international basketball transfer needs one

You need one when a national federation is about to license you and you are coming from outside that federation. Article 3-71 says that whenever a federation receives a request for a license from a player seeking an international transfer, it must obtain a letter of clearance from FIBA before it grants the license under its own regulations.

That is the ordinary pro move: a club in one country wants to license a player who last belonged to a federation, a club, or a school in another. It is also the move from a US college to a club abroad. Book 3 treats academic institutions in their own articles, covered below. It is not the move between two clubs in the same country. Those clubs follow that federation's domestic rules, which we do not reprint.

FIBA has no single global transfer window. Each league sets its own registration deadlines. The six-day clock below is not that window. A letter that arrives after the league has closed its roster can still leave you unsigned for the season. Those league dates, where we have sourced them, are on the play-overseas guide and in the rules index.

Article 3-100 calls two situations an illegal transfer: an international transfer that took place without a letter of clearance, and an international transfer before a player's 18th birthday without FIBA's authorisation. Article 3-101 says an illegal transfer is invalid, and that a sanction may be imposed on the player, the clubs, the agents and the federations. The practical reading is the obvious one. Do not start the season on a promise that the letter is "in process."

Who requests the letter

The new national federation requests it. Not the player, as a member of the public with a FIBA login. Article 3-72 says the request is submitted exclusively through the FIBA Information System. It has to name you, your nationality, your passport, your date and place of birth, and every nationality the federation knows you hold. It has to name the federation of origin, meaning the federation you are transferring from. Where an agent is involved, it has to include that agent's name and FIBA license number.

A request is complete only when three things are true (article 3-73): the required information is in the system, any applicable administrative fee has been paid by the requesting federation, and the request has been submitted to the federation of origin. Until then, the reply clock has not started.

The new club is who usually pushes its federation to file, because the club is who wants the license. Your job is to give that club, or the federation it names, the facts and the passport. USA Basketball's forms page says this in plain language for players leaving the United States: if you wish to submit a letter of clearance, the process must be done through the receiving national federation, and you should contact that federation. Source: USA Basketball forms and applications. That page does not offer a player application.

If an agent represents you in the process, article 3-67.g says FIBA may refuse the letter when that agent is not a FIBA-licensed agent. The license check is two minutes on FIBA's own directory. How to choose who to write, and the rule that a legitimate agent is not paid upfront to find you a club, is how to get an agent.

College players, and anyone never licensed before

Book 3 does not use the words NCAA, NAIA or junior college. It does have a path for players transferring from academic institutions and other organisations that do not recognise FIBA's international-transfer regulations (articles 3-96 to 3-98). A college that is not a FIBA-licensed club sits in that category. Read the article that matches your history. Do not sign a declaration that erases a license you actually had.

• Never licensed by any national federation (the common case for a player whose basketball has been school and college only). Article 3-98 says the new federation may license you once it receives a letter from FIBA, and that no administrative fee is charged. The federation of the country where the school is based is the origin. You must submit a written declaration, signed by you, that you have never been licensed by a national federation. For a school in the United States, that origin federation is USA Basketball.
• Licensed by a federation before the school. Article 3-97 still requires a letter from FIBA. The origin is the federation of the country where the school is based, and the article says no administrative fee for that one. If the federation that last licensed you is not the federation now requesting the license, that earlier federation is an origin as well.
• A first registration that is not the college path. Article 3-72.c also says a first registration includes a signed declaration that you have never been licensed by any national federation, and that no administrative fee is charged. "First registration" in article 3-63 means you hold a different nationality from the federation that is registering you, and you have never been registered or licensed under any national federation.

Article 3-67.i says FIBA may refuse a request when the information in it is inaccurate, misleading or false. A declaration that you were never licensed, signed when you were, is that kind of information. If you are unsure whether a youth federation, a pro club or a previous country ever licensed you, say so to the new club and let them ask. Guessing "never" to save a step is the wrong guess.

Article 3-99 says transfers between a FIBA team and an NBA, WNBA or NBAGL team are governed only by the bilateral agreement between FIBA and that league. This page does not restate that agreement. If your last team was one of those three, ask the new club which process they were told to use, and do not assume the college articles apply.

International transfer is not permitted before a player's 18th birthday, except in special cases the Secretary General decides after looking at the matter (article 3-78). The steps on this page are the adult path. They are not instructions for moving a player who is under 18.

How the letter differs from the visa and the contract

Three different permissions get talked about as if they were one stamp.

• The contract is the club's offer: pay, housing, length, what happens if you are released. You sign it yourself. The checklist is what to verify before you sign. A contract is not a license from the new federation, and it is not the letter.
• The letter of clearance is FIBA's certificate that the new federation may license you. Without it, article 3-71 says the federation is not supposed to grant that license, and article 3-100 treats the international transfer as illegal.
• The visa or work permit is the destination country's immigration decision. The club usually files it after a real offer, because the club is the employer. The sequence we could source is in the visa guide. A letter of clearance does not admit you at the border, and a tourist entry does not satisfy either paper.

You can hold a signed contract and still be waiting on the letter. You can hold the letter and still be waiting on the visa. Keep a flight refundable until the club confirms you can enter to work. That caution is already on the visa guide. The letter does not change it.

There is a fourth paper clubs and federations deal with after the letter, and it is easy to mix up with the LOC. For foreign players in a country's 1st and 2nd divisions, article 3-103 says the national federation must obtain an annual Foreign Player "A" License from the FIBA regional office. The packet for that license includes the letter of clearance, a statement for players from academic institutions, a photocopy of the passport, and a recent passport-style photo (article 3-105). Players in FIBA club competitions need a separate "B" license. For the 3rd and 4th divisions, the same article asks the federation to register a list of foreign players with the regional office, which is not the same as the "A" license. Article 3-107 says each regional office sets its own deadline for that registration before the season. None of these licenses is something you order from a middleman.

What the player should have ready

The federation types the request. You supply the facts the articles name, and you supply them to the new club or the federation, not to an address that emailed you first.

• Passport. Article 3-72 says the request provides the player's passport. Article 3-105, for the later "A" license, describes the copy they use: full name, any former name, date and place of birth, legal nationality, and expiry. Check the expiry yourself before anyone asks. How many months a country wants left on a passport is an immigration rule, covered as a pattern on the visa guide, not a FIBA number.
• Every nationality, and where and when you were born. Article 3-72.d and 3-72.e. "I might have another passport through a parent" is a thing to check before the form is submitted, not a nationality to claim on the form and sort out later.
• Your license history, in order. Which federation, if any, last licensed you, and whether you have ever been licensed at all. That answer picks article 3-97, 3-98 or the ordinary transfer. Write the clubs and the seasons. If a previous pro contract is still in force, have your copy, including the end date.
• The declaration, if you have never been licensed. Articles 3-72.c and 3-98.b require a written declaration signed by the player. Read it. Sign the sentence that is true.
• The agent, if you have one. Name and FIBA license number, taken from FIBA's directory, not from a signature block. If you have no agent, the article says the name is included where applicable. Do not invent one to make the form look staffed.
• A phone and an email you answer. The regulations do not list this. It is our practical note. A federation that needs a correction cannot start the six-day clock while your side is missing, and article 3-73 is what makes a request complete.

The clocks in the regulations, and what they are not

Once the request is complete, article 3-74 says the origin federation must reply within six days. The six days start on the day the request is complete, measured in Central European Time. The reply has to agree or disagree, say whether you were actually licensed by that federation (and, if not, whether you ever played basketball in its territory), and say whether a sanction is in force against you. If the origin federation says you are under contract past the scheduled transfer date, it has to attach that contract, dated and signed, with a certified English or French translation.

Six days is that federation's reply deadline. It is not a promise that you are cleared on day six. The rest of the sequence, still from the book:

• If the origin federation disagrees, FIBA reviews the reply and, if it looks complete on its face, sends it to the new federation (article 3-75).
• The new federation then has three days, from the day FIBA transmitted that reply, to say whether it disputes the answer.
• In a dispute, article 3-76 says FIBA decides within seven days from the moment it is informed of the dispute, unless circumstances dictate otherwise.
• The same article says FIBA may, in its discretion, investigate further instead of deciding on the replies alone. That investigation has no published length in the articles we are citing.

Add the days that are not in the regulations at all: the days before the new club asks its federation, the days while a passport copy or a contract translation is missing, and the league's own registration deadline. Those are why a transfer that "only takes six days" on a forum can still miss training camp. We are not publishing a typical total. We do not have one.

USA Basketball publishes a narrower note, and only for requests in which it is involved. Its forms page says it processes requests via the FIBA Map, in the order received, as of 11:00 Mountain Time on weekdays, and that requests are typically addressed within 2 to 6 business days, with weekends and holidays able to delay the response. Read that as USA Basketball's description of its own queue. Book 3 calls the filing system the FIBA Information System, and USA Basketball's page says FIBA Map. Those are the names each source uses. "Typically 2 to 6 business days" is not the time Book 3 gives FIBA to issue the certificate.

The fee the book publishes, and the fee that is a red flag

Article 3-348 lists the administrative fee for a letter of clearance request as CHF 250. Article 3-73 says any applicable fee is paid by the requesting national federation. It is not returned if a duplicate request is filed for the same player. Article 3-349 says FIBA distributes that fee as CHF 150 to the federation of origin, CHF 50 to the new federation, and CHF 50 to FIBA. Article 3-68 says the fee is charged even if a letter for the same player was refused before, unless a specific article provides otherwise.

Those "otherwise" cases are written on the page. No administrative fee is charged for the first-registration declaration in article 3-72.c, or for the academic-institution path in article 3-98 when you were never licensed before the school. Article 3-97 says no administrative fee for the federation of the country where the school is based. If that article also names the federation that last licensed you, because it is not the federation requesting the license, it does not say that second leg is free.

The CHF 250 is a federation fee in the book. It is not an invoice with your name on it from an agent, a camp, a "FIBA processor," or a personal account. USA Basketball's current forms page, which tells players to use the receiving federation, lists no fee for the player to pay. We do not have a public schedule of what every other national federation adds on its own. If a federation's own page lists a charge, that page is the source. A figure that exists only in a direct message is not.

A four-figure "clearance fee," "registration fee" or "release fee" asked of the player, outside the federation, is the red flag this page is for. It is a different animal from the CHF 250, and a different animal from the agent's commission. Agent pay related to a player contract is capped at 10% of that contract, and it is not a charge to open a letter. The cap is explained in agent fees, and the license check is the one linked above.

Book 3 also lists maximum participation fees for the separate foreign-player licenses, which are not the letter. The table at article 3-348 caps the "A" license at CHF 400 for men and CHF 250 for women, plus a CHF 15 issuing fee, and caps the "B" license at CHF 1,200 for men and CHF 600 for women, plus the same issuing fee. The article says FIBA or the regional office may charge those, up to the maximum. It does not say the player wires them to a private contact, and it does not say every league charges the maximum. We are not quoting a club's invoice.

If the old club says you are still under contract

Article 3-67 lists the reasons FIBA may refuse the letter. The one that catches players who already signed somewhere is 3-67.a: the player is under contract to play for their club beyond the scheduled transfer date. The article points at 3-74 for that point, which is the duty to send the contract with a certified translation. Other listed reasons include a FIBA ban on your international transfers, a ban on the new club registering players, a suspended new federation, an earlier illegal transfer, the administrative fee not arriving, an unlicensed agent in the process, a duplicate club or player entry in the system, and information that is inaccurate, misleading or false.

A different sentence in the same article matters just as much. A letter of clearance may not be delayed or refused because of a monetary dispute between a club and a player. Unpaid salary is not, on that sentence, a reason to hold the letter. A contract that still has playing time left on it can be. Those are not the same dispute. If you are leaving a club mid-contract, the release or the buyout has to be real before the new federation's request is honest. What a release clause should say, before you sign the next contract, is on the contract checklist. This page is not advice on breaking the current one.

The regulations use the phrase "scheduled transfer date" and do not define it in the articles cited here. In a dispute, the date the origin federation is arguing from is the date on the contract it submits. Have that page. Do not accept a verbal "you're clear" from the old club with no document the federation can attach.

Red flags

• Anyone who is not the new club or the new federation, asking you to wire a clearance fee, a processing fee, or an expedited fee to them. The published FIBA fee is CHF 250, paid by the requesting federation. USA Basketball's current page lists no player fee and no expedited menu.
• Anyone who says they can issue the letter. Article 3-64 says FIBA issues it.
• A letter described as conditional, or as valid for two federations at once. Articles 3-65 and 3-66 say the opposite.
• An agent on the request who is not in FIBA's directory. Article 3-67.g makes that a reason to refuse. Check the license before your name sits next to theirs.
• Pressure to play, or to train as a licensed player, before the letter exists. Article 3-100 treats an international transfer without a letter as illegal.
• A request that you send passport scans to a new contact who found you first. The passport belongs in the federation's request. The same caution is on the visa guide.
• An old letter-of-clearance application that quotes a player fee and a one-day rush charge. USA Basketball's current forms page does not. Use the current page, and the receiving federation, not a PDF that has been circulating for years.

Before you treat it as done

1. A real club wants to license you, and you know which national federation will file. The first-contract guide is where that club usually is.
2. You know whether any federation has licensed you before, and you have told the truth about it.
3. If a previous playing contract runs past the move, you have the release or you expect the letter to be refused under article 3-67.a.
4. If an agent is on the file, the name matches FIBA's directory.
5. You have asked the club whether the request is complete. Incomplete does not start the six days.
6. You are not buying a non-refundable flight on the letter alone. The visa is a separate yes. Visa guide →
7. You know the league's registration deadline, which is not FIBA's six-day reply. Rules index →

We cannot see your request, and we cannot chase a federation. The club that wants the license can. If a stranger's fee is the only way you have been offered to "get the LOC," you do not have a transfer yet. You have an invoice.

FAQ

What is a FIBA letter of clearance?

A FIBA letter of clearance, often called an LOC, is a certificate issued by FIBA. Book 3 says it confirms that a player is free to transfer internationally and that a new national federation is allowed to license that player. It is not a visa, not a work permit, and not the playing contract. The letter may not be limiting or conditional, and FIBA may not issue it to more than one national federation at the same time.

How do I get a letter of clearance for basketball?

You do not file it yourself. When a national federation is asked to license a player who is making an international transfer, Book 3 says that federation must obtain the letter from FIBA before it grants the license. The request goes only through the FIBA Information System. USA Basketball's current forms page says the same thing in its own words: a letter of clearance has to go through the receiving national federation, and the player should contact that federation. Give your passport and the facts the form asks for to the new club or that federation. Do not pay a stranger to "submit" one for you.

Who requests a basketball letter of clearance for an overseas transfer?

The new national federation, the one that would license you for the new club. It names the federation you are coming from. That origin federation has to reply. FIBA then decides whether to issue the certificate. The new club is who usually asks its federation to start this, because the club is who wants you on the license. If an agent represents you in the process, Book 3 says that agent's name and FIBA license number go on the request, and FIBA may refuse the letter if that agent is not FIBA-licensed.

Is a FIBA LOC the same as a visa or a work permit?

No. The letter is a basketball document about whether a new federation may license you. A visa or residence permit is the government's permission to enter the country and, where the job is paid, to work. You can need both. A letter does not let you cross a border or get paid. A visa does not replace the letter. Book 3 treats an international transfer that happens without a letter of clearance as an illegal transfer.

How long does a FIBA letter of clearance take?

Book 3 does not publish one end-to-end promise. Once a request is complete, the origin federation must reply within six days, counted in Central European Time from the day it is complete. If that federation disagrees and the new federation disputes the reply, the new federation has three days to say so, and FIBA says it will decide a dispute within seven days unless circumstances dictate otherwise. FIBA may also investigate further, in its discretion, which sits outside those clocks. An incomplete request does not start the six days. USA Basketball says that when it is the origin federation it typically addresses requests within 2–6 business days, and that weekends and holidays can delay that. That is USA Basketball's note about its own queue, not a FIBA guarantee.

What does a FIBA letter of clearance cost?

Book 3 lists an administrative fee of CHF 250 for a letter of clearance request. The same book says any applicable fee is paid by the requesting national federation, and that it is not returned if the same player is requested again. FIBA then distributes that fee: CHF 150 to the origin federation, CHF 50 to the new federation, and CHF 50 to FIBA. Several paths charge no administrative fee, including a first registration of a player who has never been licensed, and the academic-institution path for a player who was never licensed before school. USA Basketball's current forms page lists no player fee. A large "clearance fee" invoiced to the player, outside that federation process, is not the fee in the book.

Does a college player need a letter of clearance to play overseas?

Yes, if a federation outside your school's country is going to license you. Book 3 has a path for players coming from academic institutions and other organisations that do not recognise FIBA's international-transfer regulations. If you were never licensed by a national federation, the federation of the country where the school is based is the origin, you sign a declaration that you have never been licensed, and the article says no administrative fee is charged. If a federation licensed you before college, and that federation is not the one now requesting the license, article 3-97 treats that earlier federation as an origin as well. NCAA, NAIA and junior-college eligibility are separate from this certificate. This adult path is not the rule for a player under 18.