Kamal Ghorui
The National Testing Agency (NTA) in India recently shared an important update for Indian expat students across the Gulf regions. Candidates who have registered to attend the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2026 in Dubai, Kuwait and Bahrain centres can now access more verified information about the exam. On Thursday, the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi shared the NTA’s advisory on the city of examination for India’s engineering entrance exam. NTA will be conducting the JEE (Main-2026) Session 2 in Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode. The exam will be conducted from April 2 to April 8, 2026, in India and a few cities outside the country. “The City Intimation Slips for candidates in Kuwait and Dubai have now been released,” revealed NTA.
Change of city option
While Dubai and Kuwait candidates can now view their assigned exam cities, students registered from Bahrain remain in a holding pattern. “For the candidates registered from Bahrain, the NTA is in coordination with the Indian Embassy,” added the agency.However, candidates who wish to request a change of examination city for JEE (Main) 2026 Session 2 can call the NTA helpline at 011-40759000 or write to jeemain@nta.ac.in. Moreover, candidates are advised to regularly check the official NTA website at nta.ac.in and the JEE Main portal at jeemain.nta.nic.in/ for the latest updates ahead of the April exam window.
Relief to Indian expat students
The announcement has brought in massive relief for thousands of Indian expat families in the Gulf countries who had been anxiously waiting for clarity on where their children would sit in the high-stakes exam. The parents and children have been surrounded by a consistent cloud of ambiguity ever since the beginning of the US-Israel-Iran war. While earlier their exams had been postponed, they were subsequently cancelled, leaving them confused over the grading system that would decide their results. This would also affect their future academic prospects in terms of entrance examinations and college admissions. However, now CBSE has specified a specialised grading system for students of Class X and XII. Under the hybrid evaluation system Gulf countries will combine marks from completed exams with calculated averages for papers that were not conducted. For those unsatisfied with their results, improvement examinations are also an option. The announcements have helped clear the fog for thousands of Indian expat students across the Gulf who had been heavily anticipating some assurance from the authorities.
