These 3 big changes happened for the first time, every student should know these new rules before registering:

News India Live, Digital Desk: The registration process for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE Mains) 2026, one of the country’s most prestigious engineering entrance exams, has begun. Every year lakhs of students dream of appearing in this examination and getting admission in the top engineering colleges of the country. But this time the National Testing Agency (NTA) has made some big and important changes in the application process, about which it is very important for every student and parent to know.

These changes will not only change the way of filling the form, but can also affect your entire preparation. Therefore, if you are also going to apply for JEE Mains 2026, then understand these three major changes carefully so that there is no mistake in filling the form.

1. Information will be filled directly from Aadhaar, 11th class registration number also becomes mandatory.

This time NTA has taken big steps to make the registration process more secure and accurate than before.

• Aadhaar Authentication: Now during the application, NTA will verify your name, date of birth, gender, photo and address directly from your Aadhar card. This means that before filling the form, make sure that all the information given in your Aadhar card (especially name, date of birth and photo) matches exactly with your 10th mark sheet.
• 11th registration number: This is another huge change this year. Now it will be mandatory for students to fill their 11th class registration number in the form. This step has been taken to verify the educational information of the students.

2. Now ‘Live Photo’ will be available, the size of the document has changed

The method of scanning and uploading old photos has now completely changed.

• Live Photo Capture: This time a new feature has been added to the application process. Now while filling the form, you will have to upload your live photo from webcam or mobile camera.
• Change in document size: The size of the photo and signature has also been changed. Now the size of your recent passport size photo (JPG/JPEG format) should be between 10 KB to 200 KB, in which 80% of your face should be clearly visible. At the same time, the size of the signature must be between 10 KB to 100 KB and the size of the PDF of the 10th class certificate must be between 50 KB to 300 KB.

3. Choosing the center of your choice has become easier, the number of cities has been increased

NTA has also given relief to the students so that they do not have to travel far to take the exam.

• Increase in exam cities: For the convenience of students, the number of cities with examination centers has been increased this year. 33 new examination centers have been added, while 7 old centers have been removed.
• Choice of four cities: Now students can choose four cities of their choice. NTA will try to provide centers to the students as per their choice, so that last minute rush and problems can be avoided.

Remember exam dates

• Session 1: Registration will run from 31 October to 27 November 2025. The exam will be held from 21 to 30 January 2026.
• Second session (Session 2): The second phase examination will be conducted between April 2 to April 9, 2026.

All these changes are a big step towards making the JEE Mains process more secure and student-friendly. All students are advised to read these new rules carefully on the official website of NTA before applying and keep all their documents ready in advance.