Around 811 indian students in the recent NEET PG 2025–26 admissions quietly changed their status from Indian to NRI. No passports stamped. No relocation abroad. No years spent overseas.

Just paperwork—and a legal loophole.

By exploiting a technical interpretation upheld by the Supreme Court of India, candidates don’t need to live abroad to qualify as NRI. All they need is a blood relative overseas willing to declare financial responsibility as a “Ward of NRI.”

The result? A parallel admission pipeline where money replaces merit, and rank becomes optional.

1. This Isn’t Migration—It’s Reclassification.
Out of 811 applicants who switched to nri status, 698 did so by citing overseas relatives—uncles, aunts, and grandparents. The student remains in India, studies in India, writes the same exam, but competes in an entirely different universe of admissions.

2. The Loophole Is Legal. That’s the Problem.
Legally, this passes. Morally, it collapses. The original intent of nri quotas was to accommodate genuine expatriate families. Today, it functions as a pay-to-bypass system for those who couldn’t clear the merit barrier.

3. The Marks Don’t Lie—and They’re Damning.
Students with shockingly low scores are using this route. One reported case shows a candidate scoring 28 out of 800 (3.5%) becoming eligible for a postgraduate medical seat. In any merit-based system, that score ends a career. Here, it begins one.

4. Low Scores, High Seats.
Roughly 60% of students scoring below 215 marks have climbed into top medical colleges through the nri quota. In the general category, these scores wouldn’t survive the first cutoff list.

5. Competition Disappears—If You Can Pay.
In the general pool, thousands fight for a single seat. In the nri quota, competition is minimal—but the price is astronomical:

• ₹45 lakh to ₹95 lakh per year

• Private and deemed universities dominate this market
  This isn’t education anymore—it’s a luxury commodity.

• 
  

6. Merit Is Being Taxed Out of the System.
What message does this send to students who studied for years, scored high, but lack overseas relatives or deep pockets? That effort is optional, and access is negotiable.

7. Medicine Suffers When Entry Standards Collapse.
This isn’t just unfair—it’s dangerous. Postgraduate medical education shapes specialists, surgeons, and consultants. Lowering the bar at entry doesn’t stay an admission issue—it eventually becomes a public health issue.

Final Word

The NEET PG nri quota, as it currently operates, is no longer an exception—it’s an escape hatch.

A system meant to serve a small, specific group has become a merit bypass for the privileged, wrapped neatly in legality and silence.

When medical seats go to the highest bidder instead of the highest scorer, the damage isn’t abstract. It’s structural. And once merit stops mattering at the gate, no amount of regulation can fix what walks through it.