How to Apply for a PPSC Job and Get Your Roll Number Slip

The Punjab Public Service Commission charges Rs 600 to apply for a one paper written test and Rs 1,000 for a competitive examination. You pay it by generating a 17 digit PSID on the PPSC site and paying the biller called GoPb. The fee is not refundable, and it does not move to another post.

Applications are accepted online only. The Commission does not accept a paper form, and it does not accept the old challan form any more.

We read the Commission's instructions, application procedure, fee manual and photograph rules on 21 September 2026, and tested its portal pages the same day. The official site is ppsc.gop.pk. Note the ending. It is not a .gov.pk address, and the Commission has a standing public notice about fake PPSC websites. English searches for PPSC also return coaching sites for the Indian Punjab civil service, which is a different body.

What it costs, and who pays nothing

Most guides quote a flat Rs 600. The Commission's own instructions set two figures, and list two groups who pay neither.

On 21 September 2026 every one of the 27 posts open under advertisements 09/2026 and 10/2026 showed Rs 600 in the fee column. Check the column for your own case number before paying, because the amount is listed per post.

Pay the PSID at an ATM of any 1Link member bank, through internet or mobile banking, through JazzCash, EasyPaisa or U Paisa, or over the counter at a 1Link member branch. The amount is fetched automatically once the 17 digits are entered, so you should never be asked to add anything on top.

Two rules here cost people money every cycle. A fee deposited for one post is not considered for any other post. And all payments are non refundable, including when you later find you were not eligible.

The same PSID system runs the other provincial commissions. Sindh's own competitive exam also charges Rs 1,000 and collects it the same way, which we cover in our guide to the Sindh PMS through the SPSC CCE.

The six phases of the application

The form is not one long page. It saves in stages, and it resumes where you stopped.

1. Personal profile. Select the post, read the instructions, tick the undertaking, enter your CNIC, then enter and verify your email address and mobile number. Add date of birth, gender, employment type, disability status and armed person status.
2. Fee payment. The system generates your PSID. Pay it through any channel above.
3. Images. Upload your photograph and the front of your CNIC.
4. Qualifications. Add each qualification and save.
5. Service record. Only if you have one.
6. Final submission. Read the undertaking, tick it, and submit.

Submitting returns an application number on screen, and the Commission sends an application number and token number by email and SMS. If you close the site halfway through, start again from the Apply Online button with the same CNIC and the system resumes from where you left off.

One warning that catches government servants and overseas applicants in particular. The email address and mobile number you give cannot be changed at any later stage. Use your own, not an agent's.

The photograph rule that has two answers

Your photograph must be recent and passport size, at least 4.5cm high by 3.5cm wide, in JPG, in colour, on a white background. It must show your full head, face and shoulders, with no cap and no glasses, looking straight at the camera. It cannot be cropped out of a larger picture. The CNIC image must be the front side, scanned clearly, at least 5.4cm by 8.6cm.

The file size is where the Commission contradicts itself. Its online application procedure says the image must be less than 25KB. Its photograph guidelines say not more than 60KB. We could not find a notice resolving the two, so build your file to under 25KB, which satisfies both documents. The guidelines also state plainly that if the photograph and CNIC picture do not comply, you will not be allowed to sit the exam.

If you lose your application number or token

Those two numbers are how you edit your form, reprint it and track your case. The Commission publishes a recovery page for each one, and we tested both on 21 September 2026. Both loaded normally. Both are also circular.

The page for a forgotten or unreceived token asks for your CNIC number and your application number. The page for a forgotten application number asks for your CNIC number and your token number. Each page needs the credential the other exists to hand you. If you still have one of the two, recovery works in a moment. If you have lost both, no page on the site will help you, and your only route is the helpline on UAN 042-111-988-722 or the office numbers 99202761 and 99202762.

So save both numbers the day they arrive, somewhere that is not only your phone's inbox. Editing is available until the closing date, and it includes correcting your date of birth. After that the form is fixed.

Your roll number slip will not be posted to you

This is the single most common misunderstanding about PPSC. Admission letters for written tests are uploaded collectively to the website. No candidate is issued one individually, by post or otherwise.

The sequence the Commission follows is fixed:

1. A tentative test schedule appears on the website at least seven days before the test.
2. An SMS and email with the actual date, time and venue go out to candidates together, preferably five days before, telling you to download your roll number slip.
3. A reminder SMS, email and website flash message follow three days before.

Download the slip from the admission letter page by entering your CNIC and selecting the post. Print it on legal size paper, 8.5 by 14 inches, because it can run past two pages. If nothing has reached you three days before your test, ring the helpline rather than waiting.

Carry your original valid CNIC. If it has expired or been lost, you may be allowed to sit provisionally on an original valid passport or an original CNIC that expired not more than six months before the test, and you will have to sign an undertaking to produce a valid one at interview.

Changing your examination centre

The Commission issued a fresh policy on this, number PPSC/Estt-1/2025/83 dated 19 January 2026, which supersedes its earlier instructions from 2020 and 2024. A change is not a right, and every request needs documentary proof.

Six grounds are listed: medical, a clash with another major competitive examination such as CSS or CCE, the marriage or death of an immediate family member, pregnancy or maternity, natural calamities or a law and order situation, and exceptional emergencies such as a change of residence, a transfer, or a specially abled candidate whose allotted centre is hard to reach.

The deadline is the part people miss. A request must reach the Commission at least seven days before the written test. Later requests are ordinarily not entertained. A decision is communicated within three to five working days where feasible, and the Chairman can refuse. For a marriage or a death you will need a Family Registration Certificate from NADRA. PPSC's own employees must opt for Lahore and cannot move to a regional office.

What gets an application rejected

Eligibility is judged as at the closing date, not the date you apply. Age, qualification and experience are all counted up to that date. Where a post is filled through a written examination, age is instead reckoned on 1 January of the year the examination is to be held, and being over age by a single day makes you ineligible.

Your domicile certificate must be from a district of Punjab and issued on or before the closing date. It must be from the same district you entered on the form, or the application is rejected. A married woman may use her husband's district until she gets her own.

A foreign degree is accepted only if recognised by HEC, PMC, PEC, PNC, IBCC or another competent authority, and an equivalence certificate must be produced at interview. If you claim equivalence and cannot produce the certificate that day, your candidature is cancelled.

If you are a specially abled candidate, two things depend on the form itself. Your disability certificate must be issued on or before the closing date, and a reader or writer must be requested when you apply. A request made on the day of the test will not be entertained. See our guide to the disability certificate and special CNIC for how that certificate is obtained.

If the payment fails or the money is taken twice

PPSC runs a complaint management system at ppsc.gop.pk/cmsnew, which answered normally when we checked it. Sign up or log in, and file under the category for complaints related to online payments. Keep the PSID, the transaction message and the receipt, since the system sends an SMS, an email and a PDF receipt on a successful payment.

For anything else, the helpline UAN is 042-111-988-722. Correspondence must quote your web generated application number, the name of the post and your CNIC number.

Common questions

How much is the PPSC application fee?

Rs 600 for a post filled through a one paper written test, and Rs 1,000 for Competitive Examinations. Specially abled persons and PPSC employees are not required to deposit it.

Can I use one fee payment for two posts?

No. A fee deposited for a specific post is not considered for any other post the Commission advertises, and payments are not refundable.

How do I download my PPSC roll number slip?

From the admission letter page on the PPSC site, using your CNIC and the post. Slips are uploaded collectively and no candidate is sent one individually.

What if I lose both my application number and token number?

The two recovery pages each ask for the other number, so neither works when both are gone. Ring the helpline on UAN 042-111-988-722.

Can I change my examination centre?

Only on one of six documented grounds, and the request must reach the Commission at least seven days before the written test.

Can I correct my date of birth after applying?

Yes, until the closing date. Your email address and mobile number can never be changed.

Last checked and sources

Last checked 21 September 2026. We read ppsc.gop.pk on that date, together with its Important Instructions to Candidates dated 16 January 2026, its online application procedure, its e-pay user manual and its photograph guidelines. The fee of Rs 600 for one paper written test and Rs 1,000 for Competitive Examinations, the exemption for specially abled persons and PPSC employees, the rule that a fee paid for one post is not considered for another, the refusal of bank drafts, pay orders, cheques and the old challan form 32-A, the six phases of the form, the bar on changing an email address or mobile number, the availability of editing until the closing date, the collective upload of admission letters, the seven day and five day and three day notice sequence before a test, the provisional admission of a candidate whose CNIC expired not more than six months earlier, the requirement to request a reader or writer at the time of applying, the domicile conditions and the treatment of foreign degrees are all taken from those documents. The seven day deadline and the six grounds for a change of examination centre are from policy number PPSC/Estt-1/2025/83 dated 19 January 2026, which supersedes the Commission's earlier instructions of 15 October 2024 and 14 October 2020. The fee column showing Rs 600 against all 27 posts open under advertisements 09/2026 and 10/2026 was read from the live jobs page on the same date. The circular behaviour of the two credential recovery pages is our own test of those pages on that date, and both returned a normal response, so it is a design limitation rather than an outage. We could not resolve the conflict between the 25KB limit in the application procedure and the 60KB limit in the photograph guidelines, and we could not open the advertisement PDF for 10/2026 directly, so nothing here is quoted from the advertisement itself. Eligibility for any particular post is decided by the Commission on your documents, so confirm your own position with it before relying on any figure here.