The last date for online applications under SARAS 7.0, for CBSE affiliation session 2027-28, is 30 September 2026. That is Circular No. 10/2026, dated 24 July 2026, which extended the original deadline across every category of application.
The window originally ran from 26 February to 31 July 2026 under Notification No. 07/2026. The Board extended it a week before it was due to close. In its own words, it “has decided to extend the last date for submission of online applications up to 30.09.2026 for Affiliation for the Session 2027-28 across all categories of applications.”
Verified 29 August 2026 against two independent CBSE channels — the SARAS circulars index and the CBSE What’s New list. Circular 10/2026 was the most recent affiliation circular on both. Because this deadline has already moved once, check both before you rely on it.
Who the deadline actually binds
Not every school, and not every application. Notification 07/2026 puts fourteen categories inside the window:
- Approval for Middle Class Syllabus
- Fresh Affiliation up to Secondary, and up to Senior Secondary
- Switch-over from other boards, at Secondary and at Senior Secondary
- Up-gradation to Secondary, and to Senior Secondary
- Branch School
- Extension of Affiliation
- Restoration of affiliation
- Permission of two Shifts
- Section Increase
- Introduction of Additional Subject (Science for Senior Secondary) / NCC
- Closure of School
Six categories stay open all year: land correction, increase or decrease; change of school name; change of Society, Trust or Company name; interchange of school managing entity; transfer between society, trust or company; and site shifting.
Also year-round, verbatim from the notification: “All categories of applications for Foreign/International Schools and Government & Government Aided schools will remain open round the year.” If that is your school, 30 September does not bind you.
One caveat we will not paper over: those six are not the complete year-round set. Notification 07/2026 also opens a further group of Chapter 15 “special provision” categories under Circular 16/2024 dated 19 November 2024. We have not read 16/2024 and will not list what is in it. If you think your application might fall under Chapter 15, open that circular before assuming you have missed a deadline.
Apply for extension first — the rule that costs schools their slot
This is the single most consequential line in the notification, and it appears in none of the news coverage. Note 6, verbatim:
“Schools which are due for extension (whose affiliation is valid upto 31st March, 2027 of the following year) or whose extension is long pending, need to apply for extension first, only then they will be permitted to apply under any other category.”
If your affiliation runs to 31 March 2027 and you were planning to file a section increase or an upgradation this window, the portal will not let you until the extension is in. Schools discover this late and lose the window for the thing they actually wanted.
Three things to finish before you open the portal
Notification 07/2026 makes all three prerequisites, not suggestions.
- OASIS data updated as on date. The SARAS information page is blunt about it: “All existing schools must ensure that their OASIS data is updated as on date. If you have not updated your OASIS data please do it before proceeding for application.” OASIS is at
saras.cbse.gov.in/oasis. The notification cites circular 03/2024 dated 23 January 2024. - SQAAF self-assessment completed. Mandatory before applying. The portal is at
cbseacadit.nic.in/sqaa— note that host, not cbseacademic.nic.in, which is where people usually look first. - Mandatory Public Disclosure published on your own website — the Annexure-IX documents plus teacher details. The notification cites circular 01/2025 dated 8 January 2025.
On that third point: Notification 07/2026 cites circular 01/2025, but the disclosure format was revised again by Circular 01/2026 dated 12 January 2026. We are not going to guess which the Board intended. Work from the current format, and if you want the table generated for you, our free Appendix IX generator builds it as a print-ready PDF and a copy-paste block for your site.
The four 15-day clocks that end applications after the deadline
Meeting 30 September is the start. The SARAS Manual lists exactly four points at which an application is, in its own phrase, “liable to auto-rejection” — each on a 15-day clock:
- Part A compliance, within 15 days
- Filling Part B, within 15 days
- Constituting the Inspection Committee, within 15 days
- Post-inspection compliance, within 15 days
Two other clocks exist and are not auto-rejection, whatever you may have read. If an Inspection Committee member does not consent within 96 hours, that member is automatically changed in the system. If Part C is not filed within 21 days, the grant letter is not generated. Neither rejects your application.
Worth knowing: the Manual contradicts itself on whether Part C comes before or after the grant letter — section 1.9 says the grant letter first, while its own critical-points list says the grant letter only after Part C. The 21-day obligation is certain. The sequence is genuinely unclear in CBSE’s own document, so plan for the earlier reading.
What it costs
From Section 3 of the SARAS Manual. The columns are General Affiliation in India, General Affiliation abroad, Regular Affiliation in India, and Regular Affiliation abroad. All figures in rupees.
| Category | Gen. India | Gen. abroad | Reg. India | Reg. abroad |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approval for Middle Class Syllabus | 50,000 | 2,00,000 | 45,000 | 1,00,000 |
| Fresh Affiliation up to Secondary | 1,50,000 | 2,50,000 | 45,000 | 1,00,000 |
| Up-gradation to Secondary | 1,00,000 | 2,00,000 | 45,000 | 1,00,000 |
| Secondary switch-over from other boards | 1,50,000 | 2,50,000 | 45,000 | 1,00,000 |
| Fresh Affiliation up to Senior Secondary | 2,50,000 | 2,50,000 | 45,000 | 1,00,000 |
| Up-gradation to Senior Secondary | 1,00,000 | 2,00,000 | 45,000 | 1,00,000 |
| Sr. Secondary switch-over from other boards | 2,50,000 | 2,50,000 | 45,000 | 1,00,000 |
| Extension of Affiliation (next 5 years) | 50,000 | 2,00,000 | 25,000 | 50,000 |
| Branch School | 50,000 | 2,00,000 | 45,000 | 1,00,000 |
| Permission for Classes I–V | 25,000 | 1,00,000 | 10,000 | 25,000 |
| Restoration of affiliation | 3,00,000 | 3,00,000 | 20,000 | 50,000 |
| Transfer between societies | 4,00,000 | 4,00,000 | 10,000 | 20,000 |
| Additional Subject (science), per subject | 10,000 | 50,000 | 2,000 | 5,000 |
| Additional Subject (non-science) | NIL — update the subjects in OASIS instead | |||
| Land area increase or decrease | 75,000 | |||
| Land area correction | 10,000 | |||
| Re-inspection / Periodical / Surprise inspection | 50,000 | 1,00,000 | — | |
| Review of application after rejection, post IC | 50,000 | |||
| Two shifts · site shifting | Same as the fresh/up-gradation row for your status | |||
| Name change · interchange of managing entity | 75% of the corresponding row | |||
Before you budget, establish which regime you are in. The table has two — “General Affiliation” and “Regular Affiliation” — and they differ by a factor of three or more. Regular Affiliation is described as ₹20,000 application fee plus ₹25,000 annual fee for five years in India. No source we could read defines which schools fall under which. Ask your Regional Office rather than assuming the cheaper column.
Three more things the table does not make obvious. Fresh affiliation needs an initial KYC payment of ₹10,000, adjusted against the final payment if Part A is accepted. Payment is online only — net banking, UPI, credit or debit card. And the fee is not refundable: the Manual, quoting the Bye-Laws, says it “will not be refunded or adjusted irrespective of the grounds on which the application has been rejected even if the school has not been inspected.”
The land-area distinction is worth ₹65,000, so read it exactly. Correction means “if there is any wrong entry/ typographical error in the OASIS data and there is no change in the land documents”. That trailing condition is the whole test. If your land documents changed, it is not a correction.
One row we will not interpret: Permission for Section Increase shows “--” in all four columns. That may mean nil, not applicable, or determined separately. We do not know, and neither does any source we read.
Mandatory documents
Thirteen for fresh affiliation, nine for extension. Two warnings from the Manual are worth quoting exactly, because both are common rejection causes:
“The land certificate must be as per format prescribed and no other format will be acceptable. Non-submission of the certificate in the prescribed format may lead to rejection of the application.”
“Letter/Certificate/opinion regarding installation or possession of Fire Safety equipment/extinguisher shall not be treated as a Fire Safety Certificate.”
There is an exception to the land-certificate rule that a lot of schools qualify for. Schools on land allotted by an Urban Land Development Authority — DDA, HUDA, MMRDA, GMDA, TDA, BDA, GNIDA, Noida Authority — and by land-owning PSUs, SEZs, Industrial Development Authorities or Corporations, and project companies in power, steel, cement, atomic energy, SAIL and BHEL, “may submit the letter or certificate from the concerned agency in lieu of the Land Certificate”. If that is your land, the “no other format” rule does not apply to you in the way it first reads.
For extension specifically: “3% of such schools as selected by the Board shall be considered for Extension, following a virtual inspection of the school and scrutiny by the Board.” Most extensions are processed without an inspection at all.
Whether you get inspected, and how
- 100% physical inspection: middle class syllabus; fresh affiliation at Secondary and Senior Secondary, including both switch-overs; up-gradation to Senior Secondary; branch school; site shifting; two shifts; restoration.
- Virtual: section increase (at least 10%, case to case); extension (at least 3%, based on School Report Card scores); additional science subjects at 100%. NCC without inspection.
- Scrutiny only: closure; interchange of managing entity; transfer between society, trust or company; land increase, decrease or correction; name changes.
- Automated: up-gradation to Secondary; extension of affiliation (97%).
- OASIS update only: additional non-science subjects at Senior Secondary — update the data in OASIS and offer the subjects as per Board norms. No fee, no inspection. This is the route most existing schools will actually use, and it is the one most often missed.
Rejection, penalties, and missing the window
Rejection at the document stage is blunt and final:
“If the Mandatory documents are not found to be as prescribed in S. No. 1.3, the application will be rejected without further review and the fee deposited shall be forfeited. The school may apply afresh during the next affiliation window, as and when announced by the Board.”
A review is possible within 15 days via FORM RC. After the final rejection letter, “No representation against the final rejection letter shall be entertained.”
If affiliation is granted with a condition, compliance is due within three months. Failing that draws a financial penalty of ₹50,000 and the school “may be debarred… from filling the Registration and LOC of students from Class IX to Class XII”. Not submitting partial compliance within 90 days attracts ₹5,000. This applies to auto-granted extensions and up-gradations to Secondary as well.
On applying late: CBSE’s own fee schedule contains a row reading “Maximum late for Extension of Affiliation — ₹1,00,000”. So a late route exists. But the Board has not published when it is permitted or how it works, and we are not going to invent a process. If you are past the date, ask your Regional Office rather than any consultant.
Two practical notes
The affiliation unit takes queries in person on a fixed window: “MEETING TIME WITH AUTHORIZED OFFICIALS IN AFFILIATION UNIT FOR REDRESSAL OF AFFILIATION MATTERS IS BETWEEN 02:00 PM TO 04:00 PM ON ALL WORKING DAYS (MONDAY TO FRIDAY).”
And CBSE’s own warning about consultants, which we will simply reproduce:
“Schools shall not fall into the trap of unscrupulous persons posing as consultants or intermediaries making false promises to obtain affiliation. The Board does not authorize, promote, or recognize any such entities.”
What we deliberately have not told you
Every figure above came from a CBSE circular or the SARAS Manual, both linked. Where we could not read a source, we have said so rather than filling the gap:
- The consolidated Affiliation Bye-Laws PDF is a scanned image with no text layer. Where a Bye-Laws clause is quoted here, it is quoted as the Manual or a circular reports it, not read at source.
- Everything past the SARAS login is authenticated. We have not described screens or field labels as an applicant sees them.
- Document lists for foreign schools and government schools were not researched. The lists above are the Independent/PSU route.
- We do not state the term length of a fresh affiliation grant. Five years is implied by the fee schedule, but no source we read says it outright.
- Several outlets reported the extension was caused by portal problems. Circular 10/2026 gives no reason beyond “after due consideration”. That causal claim is an inference, not a CBSE statement.