UPSC Notification and Application Form: Registration, Fees, Documents

UPSC announces each Civil Services Examination with an examination notice, and you apply only online, at upsconline.nic.in as the CSE 2026 notice gives it. The application has four parts: an account, a Universal Registration that gives you a lifetime registration number, a Common Application Form you can fill in at any time, and a form for the particular exam, which you can fill in only while that exam's notice is open.

For CSE 2027, UPSC's calendar puts the notification on 13 January 2027 and the last date on 2 February 2027. This guide follows the CSE 2026 notice (No. 05/2026-CSE, dated 4 February 2026); check the new notice for any changes when it is out.

What the notice is

The notice is UPSC's announcement of the exam, derived from the CSE Rules that the Department of Personnel and Training publishes in the Gazette each year. It lists the services and expected vacancies, the eligibility conditions, the fee, the centres, the plan of the exam and the syllabus of every paper. The notice tells candidates to read it and the rules in full, because changes may have been made since the previous year.

The four parts of the application

1. Account creation. Give a valid, active email address: the notice says UPSC may contact you by email at different stages. It also asks you to make sure mail from addresses ending @nic.in and @gov.in reaches your inbox, not your spam folder.
2. Universal Registration. This generates your Universal Registration Number (URN), which is the same for every UPSC exam and is registered only once in your lifetime. Here you give the details of one photo ID: Aadhaar card, Voter ID card (EPIC), PAN card, passport, driving licence, or another photo ID issued by a State or the Central Government. The notice strongly advises using Aadhaar. Carry the same ID to the exam and the interview.
3. Common Application Form (CAF). Your details and documents, common to all UPSC exams. You upload a photograph and also capture a live photograph while filling it in. For your signature, sign three times, one below the other, on plain white paper in black ink, and upload that.
4. Exam-specific module. Filled in only while the notice's window is open. It covers the fee and your centre, and for the CSE also your mains centre, optional subject, medium of the exam and compulsory Indian language paper. Submitting it gives you an Application Number for that exam.

Keep both numbers. The URN stays the same for life; the Application Number changes with every exam. UPSC asks for both in any letter you write to it, with your roll number once you have one.

You can update your URN profile only once. Changes apply only to applications you submit after updating and re-locking the profile, not to ones already submitted.

Information and documents to keep ready

The notice requires supporting documents for each claim you make, such as your date of birth, educational qualification and category. If you don't provide them with the Common Application Form, your candidature is cancelled.

• Date of birth: your Matriculation or Secondary School Leaving Certificate, or an equivalent certificate. It can never be changed once submitted.
• OBC (non-creamy layer): for CSE 2026, a certificate based on income for 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25, issued on or after 1 April 2025 and not later than the closing date, which the notice gives as 24 February 2026 (UPSC's exam page later listed 27 February 2026 as the last date for applications).
• EWS: for CSE 2026, an Income and Asset Certificate based on income for 2024-25, issued within the same dates.
• PwBD: to claim fee exemption, a certified copy of your disability certificate from a Government hospital or medical board. Candidates who need a scribe or compensatory time give those details in the form, with the certificates the notice prescribes.
• Government employees: an undertaking that you have told your Head of Office or Department in writing that you are applying.

The fee

The prelims fee is ₹100, paid by net banking, card or UPI. Women, SC, ST and PwBD candidates are exempt. Candidates who qualify for the mains pay a further ₹200 unless exempt. The fee is never refunded. Details are in UPSC exam fees.

What you can't change after you submit

• Nothing in the form. No correction, alteration or modification of any field is allowed after submission, and you cannot withdraw the application. Don't submit more than one application. For CSE 2026, UPSC announced in February 2026 that it would open a three-day correction window after applications closed, as a one-time measure.
• Your exam choices. The notice says no request to change your mains centre, optional subject, medium or compulsory language will be entertained once the exam-specific form is submitted.
• Your service preferences. You must list, in order, the services you want to be considered for. If you list none, you are not considered for service allocation. The notice permits no change once you have submitted them, other than as its para B.3 allows.
• Your category. UPSC won't entertain a request to change from unreserved to a reserved category, apart from a narrow exception for communities newly added to a reserved list. Nor can you move from one reserved category to another, or change your PwBD sub-category.

After you apply

The e-Admit Card is issued on the last working day of the week before the exam, for download from the same site; UPSC does not post or email it. Prelims centres fill on a first-apply-first-allot basis and you cannot change your centre later, so apply early. After the prelims and mains results, the notice opens windows of 10 and 15 days in which you must log in and update your form; see the selection process.

For problems while applying, the CSE 2026 notice gave a helpline, 011-24041001, and the email address upscsoap@nic.in, open 10:00 am to 5:30 pm on working days during the application window. Before you start, confirm you are eligible and note the dates.