JEE Advanced 2026: IIT Roorkee announces five eligibility criteria for IIT admissions

The Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) has notified five criteria to be eligible for the Joint Entrance Examination Advanced (JEE Advanced 2026), qualifying exam for IIT admissions. Only the top 2,50,000 rank holders of JEE Main 2026 to be conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) will be eligible.

JEE Advanced 2026 eligibility criteria for the academic year 2026 for Indian nationals, OCI, PIO have been hosted on the 2026 admission portal, jeeadv.ac.in. All candidates should fulfil each one of the five criteria to appear for the IIT JEE Advanced.

IIT Roorkee announced the JEE Advanced 2026 exam date recently. The IIT entrance exam will be conducted on May 17.

JEE Advanced eligibility criteria 2026

Candidates who qualify the JEE Mains 2026 should meet the following five criteria to appear for JEE Advanced 2026.

Performance in JEE Mains 2026 – Candidates should be among the top 2.5 lakh rank holders in BE, BTech paper of JEE Main 2026. As per the reservation policy, 10% will go for General-EWS, 27% for OBC-NCL, 15% for SC, 7.5% for ST, and the remaining 40.5% is open for all. Within each of these five categories, 5% horizontal reservation is available for PwD candidates.

Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) or Person of India Origin (PIO) candidates are not eligible for benefits of any reservation.

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Age limit – Candidates should have been born on or after October 1, 2001. Five years age relaxation will be given to SC, ST, and PwD candidates. ie. reserved category candidates should have been born on or after October 1, 1996.

JEE Advanced 2026 number of attempts – A candidate can attempt JEE Advanced maximum of two times in two consecutive years.

Qualifying exam - Candidates should have appeared in Class 12 board exam for the first time in 2025 or 2026 with physics, chemistry, and mathematics as compulsory subjects.

Those who have passed Class 12 in 2024 or earlier are not eligible for JEE Adv 2026, irrespective of the number of attempts.

Previous IIT admission - A candidate admitted in an IIT under any programme irrespective of whether they accepted the allotted or continued in the programme will not be eligible for the 2026 admission. Candidates whose admission to IITs was cancelled after joining IIT are also not eligible.

However, candidates who have been admitted to a preparatory course in any of the IITs for the first time in 2025 can appear in JEE Advanced 2026.

Those who were allocated a seat in an IIT through JoSAA 2025 counselling but did not report online, withdrew before the last round of allotment, or had their seat cancelled before the last round, will be eligible for JEE Advanced 2026.