Civil Services Application Process And Forms - A Detailed Guide For 2021 - UPSC Civil Services - Exam, Syllabus, Current Affairs

The Civil Services Exam (CSE) in India is a nationwide competitive examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC). Civil Service posts are categorized into two groups- Group A and Group B. About 24 services are there which comes under the civil services exam which includes IAS (Indian Administrative Service), IPS (Indian Police Service), IFS (Indian Foreign Service) etc.

Civil Services jobs are widely considered prestigious in India. The complete process of Indian Civil Services Examination starting from the official Notification of the preliminary exam until the declaration of the final results takes place within a year. Candidates those who get selected are recruited and trained for various services by the Central Government and then different State Cadres are allotted as per preference and ranking.

UPSC Exam Date 2021

The UPSC Civil Services Exam (CSE) 2021 will be held on the following dates:

UPSC Prelims – Sunday, June 27, 2021
UPSC Mains – September 17-22, 2021 (5 days)
Interview – April 26 – June 18, 2021

The official UPSC Notification has been released (March 4, 2021). The last date to submit the application forms online is 24th March 2021.

Applying Online for the IAS Exam in 2021

Apply online for the UPSC CSE 2021 are described below:

Go to the UPSC website, www.upsc.gov.in and then click on- ‘Apply Online’ option, on the homepage. Click on it, and afterwards, you will be directed to a page, and where you will find a link ‘Online Application for Various Examinations’.
You can also directly go to the UPSC website called- upsconline.nic.in.
This website will take you to a new page, where you should click on ‘Part-I Registration’.
Before filling the form, go through the relevant instructions to fill the UPSC Online Application Form.

Some important guidelines to follow while filling the UPSC online application form 2021:

The Commission invites applications for all its examinations on the online mode. Candidates are required to log on to http://www.upsconline.nic.in/ to access the home page of the “ONLINE APPLICATIONS”.

Candidates are required to apply online after going through the detailed instructions given as and when online applications are invited from the candidates simultaneously with the Notification of an examination.
Online application can be filled in and submitted in the web portal of the Commission within the last date of submission of applications as mentioned in the Examination Notice.
Applicants are advised to go through the detailed instructions given at the time of inviting of online applications by the Commission to ensure that their applications are not rejected due to avoidable reasons.
Online Application consists of two parts: Part-I and Part-II.
RID is Registration ID, which is generated by the system when the applicant completes Part-I registration of his application. Candidates should note down the RID for future references.
After completing the process of filling in Part-I of the online application, the candidates are required to fill in Part-II of the online application process, which consists of three steps viz. Payment of Examination Fee (if applicable), uploading signature and photograph and choice of Examination centre.
After completion of the Part-I and Part-II of the online application process, a candidate is to submit his/her RID No. and Date of birth and click at the SUBMIT button to complete the entire application process.

Note- For more details, visit the official guidelines on how to fill out the forms.

Note- Candidates qualified based on the result of a written portion of the Preliminary Exam are requested to fill the Detailed Application Form through the online mode.

Guidelines for the UPSC Application Process

Online Detailed Application Form (DAF)

Candidates need to read the rules of the exam carefully, which include the eligibility criteria etc. as published in the link www.upsc.gov.in (Detailed Application Form for Civil Services Exam).
One should read the following instructions before filling up the online Detailed Application Form.

How to Apply for UPSC CSE:

A. All candidates need to fill up and submit the Online Detailed Application (ODA) Form with the help of the UPSC website – www.upsc.gov.in.
B. All Candidates should ensure that all the columns should be filled No correspondence will be tolerated by the Commission from candidates to change any of the entries made in the online Detailed Application Form.

Guidelines

Candidates who have been declared qualified in the written part of the Examinations have first to get themselves registered before filling up the Online Detailed Application Form (DAF) at the website www.upsc.gov.in.
Candidates will be required to create registration accounts by clicking appropriately on the link provided below the “login” button.
On the registration module, Name (as recorded in the matriculation/ secondary examination certificate), Roll Number (in six-digit format) and Date of Birth (as recorded in the matriculation/secondary examination certificate) and email address are to be provided.
(a) All the fields are compulsory
(b) Candidates should ensure that they have provided a valid and active email address in the email address field as the login credentials will be sent to the respective registered email addresses provided by the candidates.
After clicking the submission button, the candidates will get a message on their screen, clearly mentioning the name and email that they have been registered and a password will be sent to the Candidate’s email address.
After this, the candidates’ will be required to go back to the website (http://www.upsc.gov.in) and login into the login module with their Roll Number (six-digit numbers) along with the password.
Online DAF has SIX modules as indicated above, namely- Personal, Educational Information, Parental Information, Employment Information, Upload documents and Final Submission.
Candidates are required to fill all the modules before finally submitting the Form ONLINE, using the Final Submission Module.
Candidates should save each module after completing the same. However, candidates will have the option to make changes in any module before final submission of DAF. Once Final Submission has been made, no change will be possible Online.
Candidates are required to upload scanned copies of documents like proof of Age, Educational Qualification, Community Certificate, PH Certificate etc. as mentioned in the Instructions to Candidates for filling in the Detailed Application Form.
Candidates may note that some of the fields namely Candidate’s name, Date of Birth, Father’s Name, Mother’s name, email address, Physically Challenged category, Disability percentage etc. have been prepopulated using the information provided by the Candidate at the time of filling up the earlier Online Application Form for writing the Written Examination/Preliminary Written Examination. The Candidate cannot change such fields.

However, if a Candidate notes any error/discrepancy in these fields, he may make a separate detailed representation to the Commission, including all relevant documents, in support of his claim. The Commission will decide each such case on merit, and its decision in such cases shall be final.

Summary/Overview

The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), India’s premier central recruiting agency is responsible for examinations for All India Services and Central Services. At the same time, the Department of Personnel and Training is the central personnel agency in India.

Areas covered in this article

What is UPSC CSE?
Application process
Notification
How to apply

Note- For more information on the official Notification, click on this link

Learn more about the UPSC Civil Services Exam here.