Round 1 applications open at 10:00 on 22 October 2026 and close at 16:00 on 19 November 2026. The MSRA itself runs in January and February 2027, although NHS England had not published the exact exam-window dates by 3 August 2026.
The split sometimes quoted for those months belongs to the 2026 cycle. That arrangement put all MSRA specialties in January and reserved February for applicants to GP, Core Psychiatry or both, subject to capacity. No equivalent allocation rule or set of window dates had been published for 2027. The confirmed recruitment milestones are separated from that earlier pattern below.
The confirmed Round 1 dates
| Stage | Date or window | Who it applies to |
|---|---|---|
| Applications open | Thursday 22 October 2026, 10:00 UK time | Round 1 applicants |
| Applications close | Thursday 19 November 2026, 16:00 UK time | Round 1 applicants |
| Priority-status review deadline | 24 November 2026, 17:00 UK time | Applicants requesting a status review |
| Interview window | 11 January to 2 April 2027 | Applicants whose specialty has an interview stage |
| Initial offers released by | Tuesday 6 April 2027, 17:00 UK time | Round 1 applicants eligible for offers |
| Offer hold deadline | 9 April 2027, 09:00 UK time | Applicants holding an offer |
| Upgrade deadline | 14 April 2027, 16:00 UK time | Applicants who opted into upgrades |
| Final hierarchical deadline | Thursday 15 April 2027, 16:00 UK time | Round 1 applicants |
Our Oriel walkthrough puts the form, status review and offer decisions in date order.
The priority-status review deadline is easy to skim past. It is a firm cutoff. For 2027 recruitment, NHS England says the application form will collect the information used to determine status automatically and Oriel will display the result. If you believe that result is wrong, the request for review must be made by 17:00 UK time on 24 November, before shortlisting begins. The live rules and review dates are on NHS England's prioritisation page.
The definition of the 2027 priority group may still change. The government expected regulations on significant NHS experience and/or immigration status in early autumn 2026, but no text was available on this page's update date. Check the linked NHS England page again before you submit, particularly if you are relying on trust-grade or LED experience.
What remains unpublished
The national Round 1 timeline now covers applications, interviews and the main offer deadlines. What it does not supply is the start and end of the January and February 2027 MSRA windows or the booking window around them.
Booking invitations follow the application and eligibility checks, and you then book through Pearson VUE from the appointments available for your allocation. Use the invitation in Oriel as the instruction that applies to you, and cross-check the NHS England MSRA page. A date copied from somebody else's specialty page may belong to another sitting.
What last year's split means for GP and Psychiatry
For the 2026 cycle, February was intended for applicants who applied only to GP, Core Psychiatry or both. Anyone who also applied to another MSRA specialty was allocated to January. NHS England made that arrangement capacity-conditional: if February filled up, some GP and Core Psychiatry applicants could be moved to January.
NHS England had not issued the matching rule for 2027 by 3 August 2026. A GP-only application therefore gives you no published entitlement to February. January remains the safer planning date until your own allocation arrives.
Round 1 and Round 3 are different applications
Round 1 is the main recruitment round for the 2027 intake. Round 3 is specialty-agnostic: NHS England says that not all specialties will advertise and that the round is not limited to CT1/ST1 or ST3/ST4. The vacancies depend on the adverts published for that round, so a Round 1 specialty list cannot tell you what will appear later.
The NHS England table labels the later process as 2026 Round 3, although applications close on 29 July 2027. It appoints to posts starting from January to March 2028. Round 1 feeds the 2027 intake; the round closing in July 2027 does not.