Only 7 Days Left: NEET UG 2026 Stray Vacancy Round Registration Opens Oct 12

The final central round of NEET UG 2026 counselling is now one week away. The Medical Counselling Committee will open registration and fee payment for the stray vacancy round on October 12, and the allotment result will be declared on October 17. If you are still without a seat, this round is your last organised shot through the central system.

Round 3 closed out last week. The committee published the final seat allotment on September 30, allotting 4,687 MBBS and BDS seats, and allotted students are reporting to their colleges between October 1 and October 9. MCC had added 183 new MBBS and BDS seats to this round. Once reporting ends, whatever seats remain vacant move into the stray vacancy round.

Stray vacancy round schedule: mark these 4 dates

The stray round moves fast. Registration, fee payment and choice filling overlap, and the result is declared within days.

• Registration and fee payment: October 12 to 14, 2026
• Choice filling: October 12 to 15, 2026
• Seat allotment result: October 17, 2026
• Reporting to allotted college: October 19 to 26, 2026

Note the compressed window. In Round 3, choice filling stretched over several days. Here, you get barely three days to register, pay, and lock your choices. Do not plan to do everything on October 14. The portal gets crowded on deadline day, and a failed payment can push you out of the round.

Who can take part and who is out

This is the most important part of the story, and where students make the costliest mistakes.

Only candidates who do not hold a joined seat after Round 3 are eligible. If you joined a seat in an earlier round, you cannot take part. The committee removes joined candidates through Centre-State data sharing, so do not expect to slip through.

There is no resignation from Round 3 seats. The rules are blunt on this point: students who were allotted a seat in Round 3 but chose not to join lose their security deposit and are barred from the stray vacancy round. So this round is truly meant for candidates who remain without any allotment, or who never registered in the earlier rounds.

There is no second try at the stray round. Register once, fill your choices carefully, and check every detail before you lock.

If you were tracking the NEET UG Round 3 seat allotment and the NEET UG 2026 Round 3 final allotment on this page, this guide picks up exactly where those reports left off.

How to register on the MCC portal

Registration happens only on the official MCC website. No other site can enrol you.

1. Go to mcc.nic.in and open the “UG Medical” section.
2. Log in with your NEET UG roll number, application number and password.
3. Complete the registration form and pay the fee before October 14.
4. Open “Available Choices”, add your preferred colleges and courses in order, and save your list.
5. Lock your choices before October 15. Unlocked choices are auto-locked, but you should not rely on that.
6. Take a printout of your locked choice list.

Keep your original documents ready now: NEET UG admit card, scorecard, Class 10 and Class 12 marksheets, allotment letter when issued, photo ID, category or PwD certificate if applicable, and the fee payment receipt.

What to watch for this week

Colleges have been told to treat Saturdays, Sundays and holidays as working days through the counselling period. If you are reporting after Round 3, or visiting a college for verification during the stray round, do not assume the office will be closed on a weekend.

If the portal throws an error during registration or payment, call the MCC helplines early instead of retrying for hours: 1800 102 7637 or 0120-4073500.

For students following this year’s NEET UG 2026 counselling season closely, the stray round timetable means the central process wraps up by late October. After that, only state-level or institutional processes remain for any seats still open. Start your document preparation today, so October 12 is just a formality.