International school admissions deadlines: 2026 by region

Why deadlines matter more than parents think

International school admissions cycles are not a queue, they are a market with a clearing event. The published "deadline" is usually the date by which the school will have completed its first round of offers, but the binding decision the school is making is which children to call in for assessment, which references to chase and which sibling priorities to honour, all of which happen in the weeks before the application closes. Parents who hit the published deadline often miss the substantive cycle, because the strongest schools have already made firm offers to early applicants and have moved to managing the waitlist.

The single most important time-shifting move parents make is applying twelve to fourteen months before the intended start date for any Tier 1 school, regardless of the published window. The schools encourage this informally. Their admissions teams will tell you on the phone that they would much rather hear from you in October than in February. The calendar below uses formal opening and closing dates for completeness, but the working assumption should be that the early window matters more than the official one. For the document side of the process, our admissions document checklist walks through what to gather in advance.

UAE and the wider Gulf

Gulf admissions cycles for September entry typically open in October of the preceding year and close in late February. Tier 1 schools in Dubai (Dubai College, GEMS Wellington, Brighton College, Repton Dubai) typically run formal taster days through October and November, with assessment days in January for entry the following September. The waitlist for the most oversubscribed year groups, particularly the entry years at FS1, FS2 and Year 7, can sit at 12 to 18 months. For families confirmed to be moving on a known date, applications should be submitted within two weeks of the contract signing rather than waiting for school cycles. Abu Dhabi and Sharjah run similar windows.

Doha and Riyadh operate slightly later cycles, with applications typically opening in November and offers running through to April. Bahrain and Kuwait sit between the two, with their main international schools opening applications in October and closing in March. For the granular Dubai picture, our Dubai pillar covers the school-by-school detail.

Singapore and Hong Kong

Singapore's August-entry cycle opens in September of the preceding year and closes in March. Tagora Hill, Singapore American, UWCSEA Dover and Tanglin Trust run the most structured cycles, with rolling waitlist management throughout the year. The Singapore waitlist position is genuinely position-based, with offers made strictly in order, so very early applications matter even when the published deadline is months away. The Singapore Ministry of Education permission for the foreign system school place adds an additional process layer that runs alongside the school's own admissions, and families should plan for both.

Hong Kong runs a more compressed August-entry cycle, opening in October and closing in late January. The dominant complication is the debenture and capital levy structure, where the strongest schools require a substantial corporate or individual debenture to secure priority status. Without it, parents may be applying in good faith to a school where almost all available capacity has been allocated to debenture holders before the public cycle opens. ESF schools, the Hong Kong publicly subsidised English-medium network, run their own central allocation through a points-based system that closes in early January.

Europe: September entry, October to March cycle

Most European international schools follow a September-entry cycle that opens in October and closes between January and March, depending on country. The Netherlands operates one of the more structured cycles, with the publicly funded international stream schools opening in November and offers running January to April. Germany, Belgium and Switzerland tend to open in October and close in February. France runs through the Agence pour l'Enseignement Francais a l'Etranger network for French international schools, with a more bureaucratic central process running October to March, alongside parallel cycles at the private British, American and IB schools in Paris.

The Swiss boarding-school cycle is the longest in Europe, with formal applications often opening 18 months in advance for the most oversubscribed schools. Day schools in Zurich, Geneva and Basel run more conventional October to February cycles. UK independent schools serving expatriate families on home leave operate a UK-style cycle, with 11+ and 13+ entry tested in autumn of the year preceding entry. For the broader cluster context on admissions across schools and regions, see our admissions calendar pillar.

The Americas and Australia

The Americas and Australia follow a January or August academic year start depending on country and school, which inverts the application calendar relative to the rest of the world. Brazil, Argentina and Chile follow a February-entry cycle with applications opening in May to August of the preceding year. Mexico and Costa Rica run an August-entry cycle similar to North America. Canadian and US international schools mostly follow August entry, with applications opening in October and offers running January to March, mirroring the standard North American private-school calendar.

Australian international schools run a late-January or February entry, with applications typically opening in March of the previous year and closing in September. The local Australian state and private school system runs through individual school enrolment offices, with selective schools requiring tests in March or April. Specifics vary by state. New Zealand follows a similar calendar to Australia, with applications opening in February to April of the previous year.

Asia outside Singapore and Hong Kong

Japan, Korea and the wider Asian region run similar August or September entry cycles. Tokyo's main international schools (American School in Japan, Tokyo International School, British School in Tokyo) open applications in October and close in February for August entry. Seoul's main international schools follow a similar window. Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh City run more flexible rolling-admissions models with formal application windows October to March but real capacity often available year round outside the entry years.

Mainland China operates a separate, more complex picture, with strict regulation about who may attend an international school. Beijing and Shanghai's flagship international schools typically require evidence of foreign passport for the child and at least one parent. Applications open in October with offers running January to April. The Hong Kong-style debenture model does not apply, but capital levies and registration fees are higher than the European equivalent.

When the published cycle does not apply

Three scenarios sit outside the standard regional cycle and deserve explicit mention. First, mid-year relocations, where a family arrives in November or April rather than at the start of the academic year. Most international schools can absorb a mid-year arrival in years not at the entry point, particularly outside year groups where peer-group continuity is at a premium. Mid-year offers tend to be made within four to eight weeks of application, regardless of the published cycle. Schools generally prefer to see academic reports from the home school for the preceding two years, and a brief reference from the current school's head of year.

Second, scholarships and means-tested bursaries, which usually have their own much earlier deadlines, often six to eight months ahead of the standard application cycle. The schools that offer them rarely advertise this clearly. Parents intending to apply for any fee reduction should ask explicitly about the scholarship calendar at first contact. Our piece on financing school fees covers the bursary landscape in more detail.

Third, places at schools that operate primarily through a queueing system rather than competitive admissions. The Dutch DSO schools and Stockholm's publicly funded English-track schools are the clearest examples. In these cases the deadline conversation is functionally meaningless, what matters is queue position, and the relevant action is to join the queue as soon as the move is plausible rather than confirmed. Stockholm and the Netherlands are particularly clear-cut on this; see our Stockholm pillar for the detail.

The practical timeline

For September 2026 entry at a Tier 1 school in any of the major regions, the working timeline starts in summer 2025. By the August before the entry year, the family should have a confirmed shortlist, gathered the last two years of school reports, secured a passport copy, drafted a parent statement, and identified the right contact at admissions for each shortlisted school. By October 2025, applications should be in for Tier 1 schools. By December 2025, taster days and assessment days should be scheduled. By February 2026, formal offers should be in hand. By April 2026, the family should have accepted, paid the deposit, and confirmed any sibling places. By June 2026, the move logistics should be running, with school transport arrangements made and uniforms ordered.

For mid-Tier or rolling-admissions schools, the timeline can compress to two to four months from first contact to confirmed place. For Tier 1 schools with debenture or capital priority structures, the timeline expands to eighteen to twenty-four months. The single most useful piece of advice we offer relocating families is to call the admissions team directly at the moment the relocation is confirmed, before completing a formal application, because every school will give you an honest read of capacity for your child's specific year group. That honest read is worth more than any calendar.

Related guides

• The admissions document checklist
• CAT4 explained for parents
• Admissions interview preparation