The 2026 admission cycle is running roughly two months late. MCC has now published its full schedule and Round 1 opens on 5 August. Several state windows close in the same fortnight. This page tracks what is open, what has closed, and what a Northeast India student can actually apply for — checked against the official portals, not copied from last year.
Last verified · 31 July 2026 · against official counselling portals
The short answer. NEET UG 2026 counselling status. MCC has published its schedule: Round 1 registration runs 5 to 12 August 2026 at mcc.nic.in, choice filling 6 to 13 August, result 17 August, reporting 18 to 22 August. Also open: CENTAC Puducherry until 6 August, ZMC Mizoram NRI quota until 7 August, Gujarat ACPUGMEC until 12 August, and NEIGRIHMS Shillong until 17 August. Already closed: Karnataka KEA, Kerala CEE, Tamil Nadu DME and Mizoram state quota. Every state runs its own registration with its own fee — registering with one gives you nothing in the others.
Why this matters to you. Because the result came two months late, several state authorities opened and closed their registration windows within days of each other in the last fortnight of July. A family that assumed “counselling starts in August like always” has already missed Karnataka and Mizoram state quota. Read the board below before you assume anything about a deadline.
Position as verified on 31 July 2026. Authorities revise these dates without notice — always confirm on the official portal linked in each state page.
| Counselling | Authority | Status on 31 July 2026 | Next Deadline | Detail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All India Quota + Deemed | MCC, DGHS | Schedule out — Round 1 registration | 5 – 12 August 2026 | MCC page |
| Gujarat — MBBS, BDS | ACPUGMEC | Open — PIN & registration live | 12 August 2026 | Gujarat page |
| Puducherry — MBBS, BDS, BAMS, BVSc | CENTAC | Open — National SS & NRI | 6 August 2026 | CENTAC page |
| NEIGRIHMS Shillong — MBBS | NEIGRIHMS | Open — NE domicile only | 17 August 2026 | NEIGRIHMS page |
| Mizoram — ZMC NRI quota | H&TE Mizoram | Open — NRI applicants | 7 August 2026 | Mizoram page |
| Karnataka — MBBS, BDS, AYUSH | KEA | Reopened · registration + linking | Extended to 7 August 2026 | KEA page |
| Kerala — MBBS, BDS, AYUSH | CEE Kerala | Application closed 27 July · CAP next | Allotment schedule awaited | Kerala page |
| Tamil Nadu — MBBS, BDS | DME / Selection Committee | Registration closed · rank list awaited | Choice filling to follow | Tamil Nadu page |
| Assam — MBBS, BDS | DME Assam | Special & category quota open | 11 August 2026 | DME Assam page |
| Maharashtra — MBBS, BDS | MAHACET | CAP Round 1 open | 12 August 2026 | MAHACET page |
| Odisha — MBBS, BDS | OJEE | Registration open | 10 August 2026 | OJEE page |
| Telangana — MBBS, BDS | KNRUHS Warangal | Registration open | 12 August 2026 | KNRUHS page |
| Madhya Pradesh — MBBS, BDS | DME Bhopal | Registration open | 13 August 2026 | DME MP page |
| Punjab — MBBS, BDS | BFUHS Faridkot | Open — application live | 10 August 2026 | BFUHS page |
| Andhra Pradesh — MBBS, BDS | Dr NTR UHS | Qualified list out 31 July | Application notice awaited | NTRUHS page |
| Mizoram — state quota | H&TE Mizoram | Closed 28 July · merit lists out | Selection rounds next | Mizoram page |
Government college seats surrendered to the national pool, allotted by MCC on All India Rank alone. No domicile requirement, which makes this the single most useful route for a Northeast student with a strong rank.
The bulk of government seats, reserved for domicile holders of that state. Assam students apply in Assam, Nagaland students in Nagaland. You cannot buy your way into another state's domicile quota, and anyone who says otherwise is lying to you.
Private and self-financing colleges fill a large share of seats on NEET merit among applicants who registered with the state committee. Open to out-of-state candidates in most states. Any qualifying NEET score is eligible; the fee is what decides.
A defined share of private seats, priced in a higher bracket and requiring documented NRI relationship. Gujarat, Puducherry and Mizoram all run separate NRI application streams with their own deadlines and their own paperwork.
An Assam-domicile student paying to register for Kerala state quota is spending money on a seat category that is legally closed to them. Non-Keralites fall in NK-II and can only compete for management and NRI seats in self-financing colleges. Check the quota before the fee, not after.
ST(H), ST(P), OBC/MOBC, PRC, domicile, Tribal Area Certificate, income certificate for EWS — these take weeks in district offices across the NE, and no counselling authority accepts an application receipt in place of the certificate. Start the paperwork now, not when the merit list appears.
Several of these processes still need physical submission — CENTAC document verification in Puducherry, ZMC forms at the Technical Wing in Aizawl, NEIGRIHMS counselling in Shillong in person. Book travel around the notified date, and read the notice for who must appear and who need not.
Accept a seat in a later round and fail to join, and a deposit of ₹1–3 lakh is gone in most states. Gujarat alone holds ₹10,000 refundable per candidate. OEF's whole strategy is built around getting a family to a decision they will actually honour in Round 1. Read the deposit guide →
Registration and roll number linking both extended to 7 August, following a fresh KEA circular. Seat matrix and KPCF quota details inside.
Why there is no separate NEET form in Kerala, and what NK-I and NK-II mean for an out-of-state applicant.
Three separate rank lists, the 7.5% government-school quota, and where a non-domicile student fits.
Open until 6 August. The National Self-Supporting stream that is genuinely open to NE candidates.
Open until 12 August. PIN purchase, help-centre verification, and the strict Class 10–12 schooling rule.
50 seats, 18 of them NE-open, ₹47,600 first-year fees and a ₹10 lakh bond. Closes 17 August.
State quota merit lists published; ZMC NRI quota still open until 7 August.
The full four-round schedule: Round 1 registration 5–12 August, result 17 August, and where it collides with your state deadlines.
Special quota, category change and the new schooling proforma — all due 11 August. Our home state.
We read all 36,268 names on the provisional list and estimated category-wise closing scores.
CAP Round 1 registration to 12 August. Full 12-step schedule, and why MCC registration doesn't cover this.
Three full rounds plus stray vacancy, registration to 10 August. Odisha domicile only.
Registration open 5–12 August. Same 213/194/177 cut-offs, plus the local-area rule that shuts out most outstation applicants.
Round 1 registration open to 13 August. Full ten-step timeline and the compulsory upgradation-option trap.
Application open 5–10 August. Fees, PwBD rules, and why Punjab is a closed state for most Northeast candidates.
The 31 July qualified list: 33,220 candidates, the full cut-off table, and why AP state quota is shut to outsiders.
Why the General cutoff jumped to 213, and why qualifying is not the same as getting a seat.
How to use this page. Every date here was checked against the official counselling authority's own website on 31 July 2026. State authorities extend and revise deadlines at short notice, sometimes with only a few hours' warning, so treat this page as a starting point and confirm the current date on the official portal before you pay any fee. Orchid Education Foundation is an independent admission guidance firm. We are not an agent of any counselling authority, we cannot influence any allotment, and no seat in India can be obtained without a valid NEET UG 2026 score.
MCC has published it. Round 1 registration and payment run 5 to 12 August 2026, with registration closing at 3:00 PM and payment at 6:00 PM on the last day. Choice filling runs 6 to 13 August, closing 11:00 AM; choice locking opens 4:00 PM on 12 August. Seat allotment processes 13 to 16 August, the result is declared 17 August, and reporting runs 18 to 22 August. Round 2 runs 24 August to 2 September, Round 3 from 10 to 18 September, and the stray vacancy round 28 September to 3 October 2026.
Yes. Qualifying NEET UG 2026 does not register you anywhere. MCC registration covers the 15% All India Quota, deemed universities, AMU, BHU, Jamia Millia Islamia, ESIC and the central institutes. Every state authority — KEA in Karnataka, CEE in Kerala, DME in Tamil Nadu, CENTAC in Puducherry, ACPUGMEC in Gujarat — runs its own separate registration with its own fee and its own deadline. Registering with one gives you nothing in the others. Most students who lose a year lose it here, not in the exam hall.
Partly. Government seats under state quota in those states are reserved for their own domicile holders, so a candidate from Assam, Manipur, Nagaland or any other NE state cannot claim them. What is open to non-domicile candidates is the management and NRI quota in private colleges, deemed university seats through MCC, and the 15% All India Quota. Kerala restricts non-Keralite candidates to the NK-II category, which is management and NRI seats in self-financing colleges only. Read each state's page before you spend money on a registration you cannot use.
As of 31 July 2026: CENTAC Puducherry is open until 6 August for MBBS, BDS, BAMS and BVSc & AH under the National Self-Supporting and NRI categories, which are open to candidates from outside the union territory. Gujarat ACPUGMEC PIN purchase and registration opened on 31 July and runs to 12 August. NEIGRIHMS Shillong is open until 17 August for candidates domiciled in the eight NE states. The ZMC Mizoram NRI quota closes on 7 August. Call OEF on 9085064444 and we will tell you which of these your score and domicile actually qualify for.
No. MCC and every state authority run their own portals, and no consultant anywhere can influence a merit list or an allotment. What OEF does is different: we read the prospectus for you, tell you which quota your score and domicile genuinely qualify for, warn you before a security deposit is at risk, and stay reachable at 11 PM on the night before a deadline. That work is free, and it is the reason families in Guwahati have used us since 2008.
Send us your NEET UG 2026 score, category and home state. We will tell you honestly which of these windows are worth your registration fee and which are not — before you spend the money.