Introduction

Thousands of engineering aspirants appear in the JEE Advanced exam every year to get a seat in their desired Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) college. For the 2026 exam, IIT Roorkee (the official exam authority) announced the official eligibility criteria for appearing in JEE Advanced 2026, which is applicable for Indian Nationals and OCI/PIO (I). We briefly analysed this official notification of IIT Roorkee regarding eligibility criteria and summarised it in this blog for your understanding.

Overview of Eligibility Criteria Notification of JEE Advanced 2026 Exam

IIT Roorkee briefly announced the notification regarding JEE Advanced 2026 eligibility criteria on 6 December 2025. This notification is based on 5 key eligibility criteria necessary for the aspirants to appear for JEE Advanced 2026. If you fail to meet these eligibility criteria, then you cannot appear in the upcoming JEE Advanced 2026 exam. A detailed analysis of this notification is as follows-

1. Criterion 1- Performance in JEE (Main) 2026

This criterion is related to the JEE Main exam result, where it is mandatory to score rank among the top 2,50,000 candidates in B.E./B.Tech. paper of JEE (Main) 2026. This also has category-based percentage criteria for each category as follows-

Category	Percentage of Maximum Shortlisted Candidates
General- EWS	10%
OBC-NCL	27%
SC	15%
ST	7.5%
Open for All	Remaining 40.5%

• Note: A 5% horizontal reservation is available for the PwD candidates in each group category.

A detailed overview of the categorisation of the 2,50,000 students with category-based distribution as per Criterion 1 is as follows-

Serial Number	Candidate Category	Number of Top Candidates
1	OPEN	96187	101250
2	OPEN-PwD	5063
3	GEN-EWS	23750	25000
4	GEN-EWS-PwD	1250
5	OBC-NCL	64125	67500
6	OBC-NCL-PwD	3375
7	SC	35625	37500
8	SC-PwD	1875
9	ST	17812	18750
10	ST-PwD	938

OCI/PIO (I) candidates are not eligible for reservation facilities, where they are considered as General category students. This shows that they are only eligible for OPEN (or OPEN-PwD) slots. So, you should rank under 2,50,000 candidates across all categories in JEE Main to appear in JEE Advanced.

2. Criterion 2- Age Limit

The age criteria for JEE Advanced 2026 for different category students are as follows-

• A General category student must be born on or after 1 October 2001 to appear in this exam.
• For ST/SC/PwD categories, a 5-year age relaxation is allowed. They are eligible if born on or after 1 October 1996.

3. Criterion 3- Number of Attempts

You have a maximum of 2 attempts (two consecutive years) to appear in the JEE Advanced 2026 exam. For example, if a student attempts JEE Advanced in one year, then they have to attempt in the next year’s exam without taking any gap between the two appearing years. Advanced students should take their first attempt at the exam either in their final year of high school (Class XII) or the very next year.

4. Criterion 4- Appearance in Class XII (or Equivalent) Examination

The criteria ensure that the candidate must have appeared in 12^th class (or equivalent) with a first attempt in either year 2025 or 2026. The compulsory subjects are Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics in the 12th class program. This ensures that the related board declared the final results irrespective of whether or not the examination was conducted. If a candidate’s result is on hold, then the attempt is still countable as per the two-year consecutive rule.

• Engineering students with 1^st appearance in 12^th class in 2024 or earlier are not eligible for JEE Advanced 2026, irrespective of the total number of subjects attempted.

Exception Case

• If a Class 12 Board declared the 2023–24 results on or after June 18, 2024, then students of that Board who appeared for Class 12 in 2024 are eligible for JEE (Advanced) 2026, as long as they meet all other rules.
• If a Class 12 Board declared the 2023–24 results before June 18, 2024, but a student’s result was on hold due to any specific reason, then he/she is not eligible for JEE (Advanced) 2026.

The primary goal of this criteria-based rule is to stop students who passed Class 12^th earlier and do not reappear multiple times in this exam.

5. Criterion 5- Earlier Admission at IITs

If you take admission in any IIT institute from any specific academic program (according to JoSAA 2025 Business Rules), then you are ineligible to appear in the JEE Advanced 2026 exam. Through any exam, if you accepted a seat, dropped out, or your admission was later cancelled after joining, then you are also ineligible. If your admission got cancelled in an IIT institute due to any specific reason after joining, then you are also not eligible to appear for the JEE Advanced 2026 exam. Some exceptional situations are as follows-

1. If you are admitted for any preparatory course (specific course to build foundational skills) in an IIT institute for the first time in 2025, then you are officially eligible to appear in the JEE Advanced 2026 exam.
2. Candidates with allocated seats in JoSAA 2025 without reporting online or offline/withdrawing admission before the final round or candidates with cancelled admission before the final round, are also eligible for JEE Advanced 2026. It is compulsory to fulfil the conditions mentioned in Criteria 1 to 4.

This law ensures that no student can get the dual benefit of the IIT seat allocation system to prevent misuse of opportunities. You can also access theJEE Advanced 2026 eligibility criteria for a detailed analysis. 

Conclusion

The JEE Advanced 2026 exam eligibility was announced by IIT Roorkee, which is related to JEE Main performance, age criteria, total number of attempts, class 12^th appearance, and no dual admission in IIT institutes. The primary motive of these eligibility laws is to ensure fairness in the exam by offering equal opportunities for everyone. Aspirants should briefly check each criterion before applying for the JEE Advanced 2026.

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