Doctors waiting to begin postgraduate training now have a calendar to plan around. The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) has put out a tentative schedule for NEET PG 2026 counselling, and Round 1 registration opens on Monday, 12 October.
The tentative schedule, generated on 7 October, covers the 50 per cent All India Quota (AIQ) seats, all seats in deemed and central universities, and registration for Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) seats for the 2026 academic year. MCC uploaded its PG Information Bulletin 2026 the same afternoon.
There are four rounds in all: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3 and an online stray vacancy round. If nothing moves, the last reporting date is 31 December 2026. MCC describes every date as tentative, so candidates should treat the table as a working plan, not a promise.
Round 1, day by day
Participating institutes first check their tentative seat matrix from 10 to 12 October. Candidates come in after that.
Registration and payment run from 12 October to 12 noon on Wednesday, 21 October, by server time. The payment facility stays open till 3 pm that day.
Choice filling starts on 13 October and closes at 10 am on Thursday, 22 October. Locking opens at 4 pm on 21 October and ends with choice filling at 10 am on 22 October.
MCC will process the allotment on 22 and 23 October and declare the Round 1 result on Saturday, 24 October. Reporting and joining at the allotted college runs from 26 October to 2 November. Institutes then verify joined candidates and share the data with MCC on 3 November.
Rounds 2, 3 and the stray vacancy round
Round 2: institutes verify seats on 6 and 7 November (till 1 pm on 7 November). Registration runs from 6 November to 12 noon on 11 November, with payment till 3 pm. Choice filling runs from 7 November to 10 am on 12 November, and locking opens at 4 pm on 11 November. The result is due on 14 November and reporting runs from 16 to 23 November.
Round 3: seat verification on 25 and 26 November, registration from 26 November to 12 noon on 1 December, and choice filling from 27 November to 10 am on 2 December. The result is due on Friday, 4 December, and reporting runs from 5 to 12 December.
The stray vacancy round opens with seat verification on 15 December. Registration runs from 16 December to 12 noon on 21 December, choice filling till 11:55 pm on 21 December, and the result is due on 24 December. Reporting closes on 31 December.
What to sort out before 12 October
Money first. The bulletin sets an AIQ registration fee of Rs 1,000 for unreserved and EWS candidates and Rs 500 for SC, ST, OBC and PwD candidates. On top of that comes a refundable security deposit of Rs 25,000 or Rs 10,000. For deemed universities, every candidate pays Rs 5,000 plus a Rs 2 lakh deposit. Refunds go only to the account the payment came from, so pay from your own account or a parent's.
Candidates claiming a disability seat have a separate track, with assessment at designated medical boards before Round 1. We set out those boards and dates in our guide to NEET PG 2026 PwD assessment boards. The number of seats on offer depends on the matrix NMC published last month, covered in our report on the NMC PG seat matrix for 2026-27.
This year's bulletin also changes how upgrades work. A candidate who is happy with a seat chooses Freeze and reports in person. One who wants a better seat in the next round chooses Float, uploads documents and completes joining online without travelling to the college. Exit rules differ by round, and we explain them, with the deposit rules, in a separate guide today.
Keep an eye on the MCC site
State quota counselling is run by each state and follows its own calendar, so a candidate can be in both processes at once. Read the state brochure as closely as the MCC one.
The schedule can change if the health ministry or a court orders it. Any revision will appear on the MCC PG counselling page, and that is the page to check before each deadline, not a forwarded screenshot.
