You spent years on this. Thousands of hours. And you cracked JEE.
Now imagine losing your IIT seat not because your rank was bad but because you missed a fee deadline by one day. Or thought a reminder would come. It happens every year to real students during JoSAA. And it is completely avoidable.
Every date here is straight from the official JoSAA 2026 document, so each JoSAA Counselling Date is real, nothing estimated. Read this once. Save it. Come back to it round by round.
Registration Opens June 2. Do Not Wait
JEE Advanced result drops June 1. The next day, June 2 at 5 PM, JoSAA opens. Registration and choice filling start together on the same day, not separately—so treat June 2 as the first JoSAA Counselling Date to lock in.
Choice filling closes June 11 at 5 PM. System auto-locks at that point. No extension, no request window. Whatever is in your list at 5 PM is what gets used. Fill 30 to 50 choices and do not leave it to the last two days.
There are 2 mock allotment rounds before anything is real. Mock Round 1 shows up June 8 at 2 PM. Mock Round 2 comes June 10 at 1 PM. These are not real allotments but they show you exactly where your rank lands across your filled choices. A lot of students open Mock Round 1 and realise their top 10 choices are all out of reach and they have nothing safe below. That is a good thing to find out on June 8, not on actual allotment day. Use both rounds and adjust before June 11 locks everything.
Round 1: June 13 to June 29
Real allotment starts June 13 at 10 AM. The fee deadline is June 26 at 5 PM. Looks like two weeks of breathing room. It is not. Students who wait until June 24 or 25 run into portal traffic, missing documents and failed bank payments. Get Round 1 done by June 16. Seriously. The window being long is not permission to be slow. It is a buffer for when something breaks at the last minute. And something always does for the students who wait. The query response deadline is June 29 at 5 PM—another JoSAA Counseling Date many students miss.
Round 2: June 30 to July 5
Allotment out June 30 at 5 PM. Fee deadline July 3 at 5 PM. Three days. The withdrawal window runs July 1 to July 3 if you want to exit. Query response closes July 5 at 5 PM. Keep each JoSAA Counselling Date saved because Round 2 moves fast.
Round 3: July 6 to July 9
Allotment July 6 at 5 PM. Fee deadline July 8 at 5 PM. Two days. Withdrawal is July 7 to July 8. Query response July 9 at 5 PM. From Round 3 onwards you have no room for a single missed day. Not one. The whole process speeds up right when most students are starting to get tired of checking. That is exactly when it catches people—usually on a JoSAA Counselling Date they assumed they would remember.
Round 4: July 10 to July 15 (Last Exit for IIT Seats)
Allotment July 10 at 5 PM. Fee deadline July 13 at 5 PM. Withdrawal window July 11 to July 14. July 14 at 5 PM is the absolute last date to exit the IIT and IISc seat allocation process, and it is the most critical JoSAA Counselling Date if you are unsure about your seat. After Round 5 begins on July 16 there is no going back for IIT seat holders. If you are unsure about your allotment, that decision has to happen before July 14. Think about it before that date, not on it. Query response closes July 15 at 5 PM.
Round 5: July 16 to July 21 (Final Round for IITs and IISc)
Allotment July 16 at 5 PM. This is the last round for IIT and IISc. Fee deadline July 20 at 5 PM. Everything for IIT seats closes July 21 at 5 PM. NIT plus withdrawal window runs July 16 to July 20. Partial Admission Fee is paid July 22 to July 24. After that CSAB begins for NIT plus system seats. One thing a lot of students miss here: you have to register fresh on csab.nic.in. Your JoSAA login does not work on CSAB. These are two completely separate portals and the choices you filled in JoSAA are cancelled on CSAB. Start from zero there.
The Things That Actually Cost Students Their Seat
All 3 steps are required, not just one
After each allotment you have to respond with Freeze, Float or Slide, upload your documents and pay the fee. All 3 in the same window. Do 2 out of 3 and JoSAA treats it the same as doing nothing. Seat cancelled, no explanation asked. This is in the official rules and it still catches students every single year because they think uploading documents is enough on its own—especially when they miss one JoSAA Counseling Date in the middle.
Round 1 feels long but do not treat it that way
June 13 to June 26 is 13 days. Students relax. Then June 24 arrives and something breaks. Finish Round 1 by June 16 and stop worrying about it.
JoSAA does not owe you a reminder
No SMS guaranteed. No email guaranteed. JoSAA does not promise to reach you. Everything lives on josaa.nic.in only. Open it every single morning from June 2 to July 21. That is 49 days. Put a daily phone alarm on right now. It sounds excessive until the day it saves your seat, because every JoSAA Counseling Date is your responsibility.
OBC-NCL and EWS certificate must be dated after April 1, 2026
An old certificate gets rejected at verification. You drop to General. If your seat was reserved it disappears. Check the date on yours before June 2. Get a fresh one now if it is old.
People Also Ask About JoSAA Counselling Schedule 2026
What is the last date for choice filling in JoSAA 2026?
June 11, 2026 at 5 PM. System auto-locks at that time. Nothing can be changed after. This JoSAA Counselling Date is non-negotiable.
How many rounds does JoSAA 2026 have?
5 rounds. Round 5 on July 16 is the final round for IIT and IISc. NIT plus students move to CSAB after JoSAA ends.
What happens if I miss the fee deadline in JoSAA?
Seat cancelled, removed from all remaining rounds. There is a short payment issue resolution window in each round but once the deadline passes the seat is gone. No reinstatement—missing even one JoSAA Counselling Date can end your counselling.
When is the last date to withdraw from JoSAA 2026 for IIT seats?
July 14, 2026 at 5 PM. End of Round 4. After Round 5 begins on July 16 there is no withdrawal option for IIT seats.
When are the JoSAA 2026 mock allotment rounds?
Mock Round 1 is June 8 at 2 PM. Mock Round 2 is June 10 at 1 PM. Use both to check where your rank lands and fix your choice list before June 11 locking.
What happens after JoSAA ends for NIT students?
Partial Admission Fee is paid July 22 to July 24. Then CSAB special rounds begin. Register fresh on csab.nic.in. JoSAA login does not work on CSAB.
I am an undergraduate student at IIT Bombay, pursuing Electrical Engineering. He is actively involved in academic blogging, student mentoring, and exam-strategy consulting, with a strong focus on JEE-oriented learning and concept clarity. My interests include AI-driven education, integrated topic mapping across Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics, and he is currently learning and working in Machine Learning (ML).
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