I will just drop in my unscientific "survey" impressions about what other Soto Zen groups do ... it varies.
There are many that say that Jukai is fine any time, even right at the start of Practicing for someone totally new, whenever the recipient feels some resonance. In Japan and China, that is the general attitude too, in my impression, for lay Precepts (Nishijima Roshi was like this in Japan). There are other places in the west that I know that are the opposite, and make it extremely late and formal, with required waiting of a year or more, and all manner of preliminary studies involved. One group in Canada has this policy, for example:
That is very unusual for Jukai, even in Japan. Most places are "in between" (Treeleaf is so), opening the door any time, but suggesting that the person first spend some time here to make sure that there is resonance and they feel "at home" here. We also reflect on the Precepts for several months, sew a Rakusu, and engage in some other practices. (I will tell you that many places in Japan, for example, do not require --any-- Precept study before the Jukai Ceremony, or maybe a few short lectures on the Precepts at most. They also do not ask for sewing of a Rakusu, nor bestow a Rakusu to lay folks in Jukai).
I also am not as restrictive on binding to me or this place as an exclusive teacher/lineage for example, like the place in Canada above, the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives (I think?) and some other western Sangha. Most western Sangha are not so exclusive in attitude either, although some are so exclusive that they don't even honor and recognize a Jukai from some other group (in Japan and America, I myself received Jukai a few times with different teachers who meant something in my life, like these teachers besides Nishijima Roshi:
https://www.treeleaf.org/forums/show...l=1#post257318 ) I feel that someone has a relationship with a place when they feel so and practice there voluntarily, and one can learn from many teachers (who, by the way, I prefer to call "friends along the Way" rather than "teachers").
Next, some folks in Japan and elsewhere believe that the Ceremony itself is all that is required because, mystically, the Ceremony itself works a kind of magic. It is kind of like those empowerments that the Tibetans do, so actually no need to really study the Precepts ... or even to try to live by the Precepts!
The Ceremony somehow takes care of that mystically. That is a very radical interpretation, but it is actually held here and there in the Soto Zen world. Here, at Treeleaf, I believe that lay folks should make some study of the Precepts, but we recognize that we are imperfect human beings, not machines or saints, so we use the Precepts as guides and aspirations, realizing that we sometimes fall down.
Also, I think that the real "Jukai" is how we live each day, both before and after the Ceremony, doing what we can to live gently, avoiding as best we can excess desire, anger, divided thinking and the rest. That is what counts. The Ceremony itself, in my view, is merely a celebration of our seeking to do so. What really matters is how we live all the time.
Finally, in my view, the Jukai does not make one a "real Buddhist." If anything, it should make one more committed to helping other sentient beings, and place oneself a little bit more in a role of service to others in the community. One is a "real Buddhist" I feel whenever one seeks to sit Zazen, study the Buddhist teachings including the Precepts, and to live accordingly. Again, the Ceremony is merely a celebration of our otherwise doing so, and works no "magic" in itself.
Gassho, J
STLah