Can I hold two IOE seats at once?
No. You must formally cancel an earlier admission before a new one can be recorded, and cancelling costs money.
A candidate may hold only one seat at a time. If you take a seat from the first list and your real choice appears on the second, the earlier admission has to be formally cancelled before the new one can be recorded, and cancelling is not free.
How to think about a safe seat
- It is genuinely worth taking if you would rather study there than not study this year.
- It is not free insurance. You pay to enter and you pay to leave.
- Before paying for a seat you are unsure about, ask what cancellation costs and how long the refund takes, in writing.
The late window, and the trap in it
Seats that fall vacant can still be filled after classes begin, up to 2 December. If you take a seat in that window and later cancel it, the procedure refunds nothing at all, deposit included. Students admitted then receive roll numbers on 6 December.
From the published 2083 procedure. The no-refund term on the late window is the harshest clause in the document and it is easy to miss.
Sources
- IOE Admission Guidelines 2083 (Centralized Admission Monitoring Committee) · published 12 August 2026 · read 18 August 2026
Last reviewed by Ram Raj Thapa, Admissions Officer, Imperial College of Engineering. Every figure on this page is cited to the document it came from.