ICAI CA Foundation Registration 2026: Check January Dates, Form Correction, Link, Process, Fees

ICAI CA exam form are hosted at the official website of the conducting body. No other website is authorised to host the application form, admit card or result download link. Candidates who wish to register for the CA course in India must fill the registration for at icai.org website or icaiexam.icai.org website. These are the two official websites where they can not only register for the course but also find relevant information and study material related to CA Foundation, CA Intermediate and CA Final courses as well as other certifications. Shiksha shares the direct link to apply for CA exams for every phase as soon as it is activated at the ICAI website. You can check the link here: https://www.shiksha.com/accounting-commerce/accounting/icai-exam-application-form

PCC or IPC is the first stage of the Chartered Accountancy course curriculum wherein only working knowledge of core and allied subjects is covered.

The objective of the PCC course is to lay a strong foundation for Chartered Accountants in the preparation and presentation of financial statements. In PCC, candidates also learn the computerized accounting system. The course curriculum includes the following subjects:

• Advanced Accounting (100 Marks)
• Auditing and Assurance (100 Marks)
• Law, Ethics, and Communication (100 Marks) 
• Cost Accounting and Financial Management (100 Marks)
• Taxation (100 Marks)
• Information Technology and Strategic Management (100 Marks)

Yes, candidates can fill the CA form partly before and complete it later but they must ensure to complete the form filling and submission process before the last date so that their application is accepted. The ICAI provides late fee submission facility to candidates for a week, however candidates should submit the form at the earliest, to avoid paying the late fee. Until the ICAI CA exam form is submitted and fee amount is paid, the form will remain incomplete. Thus, candidates must comply by the registration deadline to be eligible to appear for the exam.

CA Foundation form correction window opens the next day of application form submission deadline. The form correction remains open for 2 days during which candidates can login to SSP portal and edit course group, test city and medium of exam. No other field of the CA Foundation application form is editable. If any student wishes to update their photo, they can do so at the SSP portal but before the application form submission.

The time duration of ICAI CA exams varies for each paper. For some papers, the duration is three hours whereas for some papers it is two hours. The time limit of CA Foundation paper 3 and 4 is 2 hours and for the rest of the papers across levels is three hours. There is no sectional time limit in the CA exams. Candidates have to solve the paper in the given time frame. They must prepare in such a way that they are able to solve maximum questions in the given time limit.

The CA exams are conducted one paper per day and there is no break in between. Candidates have to complete the paper in one go.

ICAI certification for CA professionals has a lot of credibility across the world which is why many candidates living abroad pursue this course. Members of Indian communities who live abroad also pursue the CA course by ICAI. The exam is conducted in eight cities for all course levels. They are:

1.     Abu Dhabi

2.     Bahrain

3.     Thimpu

4.     Doha

5.     Dubai

6.     Kathmandu

7.     Muscat

8.     Kuwait

Candidates living in the above mentioned cities can pursue the CA course and appear for the level while exams by registering at ICAI website. The test city will be allotted to candidates as per the choice mentioned in the ICAI CA application form.

The fees for registration of CA Foundation course is INR 9,000 for single group and the exam fee is INR 1500. Candidates have to pay the CA exam fee at the time of form submission. They must do so before the deadline set for the CA Foundation exam of a particular phase to avoid penalty of late fee of INR 600. The fee is non-refundable. The fee payment is to be done through credit card, debit card or net banking. Unless the fee is paid, the course or exam application form will not be submitted. Upon successful payment of fees, candidate will receive the intimation.

The fees for CA Intermediate/ Intermediate (IPC) (Old and New Schemes) is INR 1,500 for single group and INR 2,700 for both groups, to be paid at the time of form submission. Candidates must pay the fee before deadline of form submission to avoid penalty of late fee (INR 600). The fee is non-refundable. The fee payment is to be done through credit card, debit card or net banking. Unless the fee is paid, the course or exam application form will not be submitted. Candidate will receive acknowledgement in mail upon successful transaction.

No, candidates do not need to create fresh login for every attempt of CA Foundation exam. Students can register for the CA Foundation exam with the login created for the first time. The same login ID remains valid for the entire course. Students must note that to apply for the exam, they have to create a login at SSP portal of the ICAI exam and not on the home website. The SSP Portal login is valid upto 3 years for Foundation. Candidates can revalidate their login upon expiry by paying INR 300.

In the CA course, candidates can make any number of attempts until they clear a particular level. They will be eligible to register for the next level only after clearing the previous level. For example, a candidate needs to clear the CA Foundation level to be able to register for CA Intermediate. For appearing in CA Final exams, a candidate needs to clear both Foundation and Intermediate levels.
Since, the level of difficulty of this course is very high, a maximum percentage of students make multiple attempts. Candidates who decide to pursue CA course, need to make sure that they are well prepared to a marathon of studies, preparation and exams. 

The Integrated Professional Competence Course or IPCC examination is an improvised version of the PCC examination for Chartered Accountants in India. A student can register for IPCC after completing the CA CPT (Foundation) exam, without article registration.

After clearing the Group-I papers of the IPCC, the aspirant can register for the articles. Under the new scheme of IPCC, the student is eligible to appear for the final year examination during their last six months of their article ship.

All the candidates who had registered for the PCC examination on or before January 2009 were eligible to appear in the new version of the IPCC examination. They have to complete the nine months of the study course and a hundred hours of orientation course and Information Technology Training before taking up the final Group-II examination of CA Intermediate course.  

Candidates need to score 40 per cent in each paper of every group/course level and 50 per cent in aggregate in all the papers of a group/course level. This minimum mark criterion is applicable to all three courses - CA Foundation, CA Intermediate and CA Final. Candidates cannot move to the next level of the Chartered Accountancy course until they clear the previous level. A very few percentage of candidates get a high score as the scores of All India toppers are usually below 75%. Candidates can take any number of attempts to clear a course level. The process includes practical training as well.

CA exams for all the three levels are being held thrice in a year from 2025. The first phase exams are held in May and June and the second phase exams are held in September. The third phase exam is held in January. Registrations for the May-June exams is held in February-March and registrations for September exam is done in July and registration for January exam is done in October-November. Candidates can register and appear for the exam as per their preparation and articleship completion. For any phase of exam, they need to fill the form and pay exam fee through registered login ID.

The mode of examination of CA courses was earlier offline .i.e. it was conducted in pen and paper mode. However now the exams for CA Foundation, Intermediate and Final courses are conducted in online mode, i.e. computer based test mode. Candidates have to appear for the exam at designated test centres and punch in their answer on the computer screen. Every test taker is allotted a computer system. They have to login with their registration ID and use the computer mouse to punch in their answers. The exam duration varies for different papers.