NEET PG Counselling 2026: MCC Round 1 Dates & Registration

Round 1 registration closes tomorrow — act on the dates, not the rumours

The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) is running Round 1 of NEET PG Counselling 2026 now, and the most important fact in this article is the simplest one: registration and payment for Round 1 close on 21 October 2026 — tomorrow. Choice filling, which the MCC portal shows as resumed, runs to 22 October 2026, the Round 1 result is scheduled for 24 October 2026, and reporting at the allotted college runs from 26 October to 2 November 2026. If you are eligible and have not registered, nothing else in this article matters until the registration is done.

MCC conducts the centralised counselling for 50% All India Quota (AIQ) seats in government medical colleges, 100% of seats in deemed universities and central universities, DNB seats, and seats under the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS) quota, alongside the Central Internal Quota. The final seat matrices for the AIQ, Deemed, DNB and Central Internal Quota pools have been published on the MCC PG portal — download the matrix for your pool and read it before you fill a single choice, because the matrix, not last year's closing ranks, is what Round 1 actually allots from.

The full schedule, round by round

Two operational notes sit behind that table. First, MCC has advised all participating institutes to verify their seat matrix carefully, and any discrepancy in the number of seats shown for a course had to be brought to MCC's notice before Round 1 choice filling closed — if a seat you are targeting looks wrong in the matrix, the window to get it corrected is the choice-filling window itself, not after the result. Second, the portal's "choice filling has been resumed" notice tells you the facility was interrupted and restored during this window; treat the 22 October deadline as firm and finish your list early rather than in the final hours.

Fees and the refundable security deposit

MCC charges two separate amounts at registration, and confusing them is the most common money mistake in PG counselling:

• AIQ / central pool registration fee: ₹1,000 for General/EWS candidates and ₹500 for SC/ST/OBC/PwD candidates. This fee is non-refundable.
• AIQ security deposit (refundable): ₹25,000 for General/EWS candidates and ₹10,000 for SC/ST/OBC/PwD candidates.
• Deemed university registration fee: ₹5,000, with a refundable security deposit of ₹2,00,000.

The deposit is refundable under MCC's rules — it is adjusted or returned when you join a seat, and forfeiture applies in the situations the counselling scheme specifies, such as not joining an allotted seat in the later rounds. The deemed deposit is deliberately large: only register for the deemed pool if you are genuinely prepared to take a deemed seat at deemed fees, because ₹2,00,000 of your money sits with MCC for the duration of the process.

Who is eligible for Round 1

Eligibility rests on the NEET PG 2026 qualifying criteria. The qualifying cut-offs for this cycle are 262 marks for General/EWS candidates and 226 marks for SC/ST/OBC candidates (including the respective PwD sub-categories as notified). Candidates must also have completed their compulsory rotating internship by 30 September 2026. If you are below the cut-off for your category, or your internship completion falls after the cut-off date, an MCC registration will not convert into an allotment — check both conditions before paying the deposit.

Two document-specific notices on the portal deserve attention before you fill choices:

• NRI candidates: a corrigendum dated 14 October 2026 covers the documents NRI candidates must submit. If you are claiming an NRI seat, read that corrigendum and keep the corrected document set ready; NRI allotments are routinely cancelled at reporting for document mismatch.
• PwBD candidates: MCC has pointed candidates to the notice dated 16 September 2026 carrying the National Medical Commission's final guidelines on assessment of Persons with Benchmark Disabilities for postgraduate medical courses, and queries on those guidelines go to the NMC. Complete your disability assessment within the window MCC has notified rather than discovering the requirement at reporting.

How to register and fill choices without errors

1. Register once, correctly.Use the New Registration link for NEET PG Counselling 2026 on the MCC PG portal. The details you enter — name, date of birth, NEET PG roll number — must match your NEET PG admit card exactly; mismatches surface at reporting, when they can no longer be fixed.
2. Pay both components.Registration is not complete until the fee and the security deposit for your chosen pool are paid. Keep the payment confirmation.
3. Download and study the final seat matrixfor your pool — AIQ, Deemed, DNB or Central Internal Quota — and build your preference list from seats that actually exist in Round 1.
4. Fill more choices than you think you need.An unfilled preference cannot be allotted. Rank strictly in your true order of preference: the algorithm gives you the highest choice your rank can reach, so there is no tactical gain in ranking a less-preferred college above a preferred one.
5. Lock before the deadline.Choice filling closes on 22 October 2026. If you do not lock, check the scheme's rule on auto-locking saved choices — and do not rely on it; lock manually and take a printout of the locked list.
6. Report on time if allotted.The Round 1 result is scheduled for 24 October 2026, and reporting runs 26 October to 2 November 2026 at the allotted college with your original documents.

What happens after Round 1

Candidates who do not get a seat, or who get one and follow the scheme's upgrade path, move to Round 2 (6–14 November 2026). Round 3 runs 26 November – 4 December 2026, and the cycle closes with the Stray Vacancy Round, 16–24 December 2026. Running in parallel is the state-quota counselling for the remaining 50% of government seats and state private seats, conducted by each state's own authority on its own schedule — Uttar Pradesh, for example, opens its Round 1 registration on 21 October 2026. Keep the two tracks separate in your planning: an MCC allotment and a state allotment interact under the resignation and upgradation rules, and joining a seat in one track has consequences in the other. Read the information bulletin on the MCC portal for the exact joining, resignation and forfeiture rules that apply to your situation before you act on either track.

Official links

• MCC PG Medical Counselling portal: https://mcc.nic.in/pg-medical-counselling/
• Medical Counselling Committee (MCC): https://mcc.nic.in/

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