JoSAA Counselling 2026: Dates, Registration, Seat Allotment

The JoSAA (Joint Seat Allocation Authority) is the counselling process to take admission in India’s best engineering colleges, including 23 IITs, 31 NITs, 26 IIITs and 40 GFTIs. If you have cleared JEE Mains or Advanced, this complete guide will help you to get the complete information about the JoSAA counselling.

JoSAA Counselling Dates 2026

The official schedule is typically released after the JEE Advanced results. Here is the projected timeline for 2026:

Step-by-Step Counselling Process

1. Registration

When the Registration process starts, go to the official JoSSA portal and login ther with your application number and password that you entered on the NTA Website. Verify your personal details in the portal because errors may lead to difficulties in the registration.

Upload a recent photograph of yourself and your signature in the portal in JPG or JPEG format, less than 100KB. JoSAA accepts all the payment options like UPI, Net-banking, debit and credit cards.

2. Choice Filling & Locking

This is the most important step of counselling. You can add college and branch combination as you like, but note that if your rank is low, and you fill higher cutoff colleges may not get any college, so choice filling is important.

Pro Tip: Always fill your dream college and branch at the top, even if your rank is low. But also add a safer college option that you can easily get into at your rank.

Locking: Remember to lock your choices before the deadline. If you forget, your last saved choices will be auto-locked. You have 7 days to submit your choice filling list at the portal.

3. Mock Seat Allotment

The first two rounds are mock rounds to show you which college you might get based on your rank. If you have any problems or want to update your choice filling, then you can refine your list.

4. Seat Allotment & Response

If you get the seat in any round of the couselling than you have three options:

1. Freeze: You are satisfied with your current seat and want to secure it, so you select this option.
2. Slide: You accept the seat in the college, but you want a better branch within the same college than the one you select this option.
3. Float: You accept the seat, but you are open to a different college and branch than the one you selected.

5. Pay Seat Acceptance Fee

You have to pay the seat acceptance fee of 40 thousand to lock it within 2 to 3 days after getting the college. This amount will not go to counselling and will be deposited into your first semester fee.

6. Document Verification

After the fee payment, the portal asks you to verify the documents that are listed below in the list. There is no requirement for physical verification, although some colleges ask you to do so. All the documents are in the PDF format with less than 1 MB. It is recommended to upload scanned photos of documents rather than captured photos from a mobile camera.

Documents Required for Verification

• Class 10th Marksheet for Date of Birth proof.
• Class 12th Marksheet for qualification proof.
• Category Certificate, if applied, and for OBC-NCl and EWS certificates, it must be issued after 1 April 2026.
• JEE Main and Advanced scorecard and admit card
• Medical Certificate given by JoSAA.
• Crossed check or bank passbook for the fee refund purpose.
• Proof of fee acceptance slip.

Eligibility Criteria for JoSAA 2026

General and OBC candidates must have at least 75% in Class 12, and for Reservation Candidates, 65% is required, or you must be in the 20 percentile of their respective boards. Admission in IITs is based on your advanced rank, and NITs, IIITs, and GFTI use your JEE Main Rank.

Note: There is no fee for JoSAA registration. Only the Seat Acceptance fee must be paid once a seat is allocated.

Reservation Percentage in JoSAA

Note – The female category also has a reservation of 20% if the seat is not filled, in which case it automatically transfers into the male category.

Final Advice for Aspirants

Don’t wait until the last hour to fill your choices. Server traffic can be heavy, and technical glitches are common. Research the Opening and Closing Ranks of previous years to make an informed list.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q. Can I change my choices after locking them?
Answer – No. Once you lock your choices, they cannot be modified. If you do not lock them manually, the system will automatically lock your last saved choices on the final day of registration.

Q. Is the JoSAA registration fee refundable?
Answer – There is no fee for registration. You only pay a Seat Acceptance Fee if you are allotted a seat. If you choose to withdraw from the counselling later (before the last round), a portion of this fee is refunded after a small processing deduction.

Q. How many Rounds are there in the JoSAA Counselling?
Answer – There are 6 Rounds in the JoSAA Counselling. If the seats are not filled in the 6th round, then it moves into CSAB Counselling.