AVE 2027 Key Dates: Every Deadline for the 16 April MCQ Examination

AVE 2027 Key Dates: Every Deadline for the 16 April MCQ Examination

The next sitting of the AVE Preliminary (MCQ) Examination is Friday, 16 April 2027. It runs once a year, on a single day, and there is no late registration of any kind. (For what the paper is actually like on the day, see our guide to the MCQ format.)

That combination is what catches people out. Miss a deadline in January and you are not waiting a few weeks for another window — you are waiting until 2028.

This guide sets out every date AVBC has published for the 2027 cycle, the order they have to happen in, and — just as importantly — the dates AVBC has not published yet, so you know what you are still waiting on.

The 2027 dates at a glance

What	When	Notes
AVBC application portal opens	10.00am Monday 5 October 2026 (AEDT)	Covers both new eligibility applications and MCQ 2027 applications
New AVE eligibility applications close	Monday, 11 January 2027	May close earlier at short notice
MCQ (Preliminary) applications close	Monday, 25 January 2027	May close earlier at short notice. No late applications
AVE Preliminary (MCQ) Examination	Friday, 16 April 2027	One day, once a year
2027 Final (Clinical) Examination	Not yet published	See below

All dates above are from the AVBC notice published 14 July 2026. We explain why that publication date matters in the source note at the end.

A note on names

Many preparation providers — us included, in casual conversation — call the MCQ "Part I" and the clinical exam "Part II". AVBC does not use those labels. The official names are the Preliminary (MCQ) Examination and the Final (Clinical) Examination.

When you are reading AVBC's own pages, forms and correspondence, look for the official terms. It matters when you are searching a portal or a handbook for the right form.

1. The portal opens: 10.00am Monday 5 October 2026 (AEDT)

AVBC states:

"The AVBC application portal will open for acceptance of new AVE eligibility applications and MCQ 2027 applications at 10.00am Monday 5 October 2026 AEDT."

Two things to notice.

First, it is a single portal opening for both application types. Whether you are applying for an eligibility assessment for the first time or you are already eligible and applying for the MCQ, 5 October is your date.

Second — and this is the step people miss — you must register as a Contact in the portal before you can submit an eligibility application. That is a separate administrative step. If the portal opens at 10.00am and you are still creating an account, you are already behind. Register your Contact details in advance so that on 5 October you are submitting, not signing up.

This is also the only AVE date AVBC publishes with a time of day and a timezone attached. Treat it as precise.

2. Eligibility applications close: Monday, 11 January 2027

AVBC states:

"The closing date for submission of new AVE eligibility applications will be Monday, 11 January 2027."

And attaches this warning:

"The AVE Eligibility Assessment application portal may close earlier, and at short notice, due to AVBC operational requirements."

That caveat is not boilerplate. In the 2026 cycle, AVBC paused new eligibility applications once MCQ places had been allocated. The published deadline is a ceiling, not a plan.

AVBC also advises that an eligibility assessment "may take up to six weeks to process", and that incomplete applications take longer.

3. MCQ applications close: Monday, 25 January 2027

This is the most strongly documented deadline in the 2027 cycle — it appears on three separate AVBC pages. AVBC states:

"Applications for the AVE Preliminary (MCQ) Examination will close on Monday, 25 January 2027."

With two hard conditions:

"MCQ Applications may close earlier, and at short notice, due to AVBC operational requirements."

"No late applications or payments will be accepted. No payment terms can be offered."

Read that second one carefully. There is no late window, no grace period, and no payment plan — the examination fee falls due with the application. If you are budgeting, the money needs to be available in January 2027, not April.

The trap in the calendar: work out the order, not just the dates

Here is the part that a simple list of dates hides.

You cannot apply for the MCQ until AVBC has assessed you as eligible. The two deadlines are only 14 days apart:

5 Oct 2026        11 Jan 2027   25 Jan 2027              16 Apr 2027
     |                 |             |                        |
  portal          eligibility      MCQ                      MCQ
   opens         applications  applications                 exam
                    close         close
                      |<-- 14 days -->|

Now put the six-week processing time next to that 14-day gap. An eligibility application lodged close to 11 January has no realistic prospect of being assessed before MCQ applications close on 25 January.

AVBC does not comment on how those two deadlines interact, and we are not going to tell you it will be fine. The safe reading is the conservative one: the 11 January date is the last date AVBC will accept an eligibility application, not the last date on which lodging one still gets you into the April exam.

If you intend to sit on 16 April 2027, treat 5 October 2026 as your real deadline and apply when the portal opens.

What AVBC has NOT published yet

This is where a lot of 2027 planning advice goes wrong, so we will be explicit about the gaps.

There are no 2027 Final (Clinical) Examination dates. None. The most recent AVBC statement goes only as far as:

"The next available Clinical Examination session will be held between November and December 2026. Exact dates will be provided to eligible candidates in due course."

That is the 2026 session — a candidate passing the MCQ on 16 April 2027 cannot sit it. AVBC's Step 3 page says the clinical exam is "usually in November" and that a mid-year session "may sometimes be offered mid-year at the discretion of AVEC and subject to demand." Usually and may sometimes are not commitments. If you see a confident "November 2027" clinical date anywhere, it has been extrapolated from the pattern, not published.

Also not yet published for 2027:

• The MCQ results release date. The handbook says results are sent by email "within six weeks." That is a service standard, not a calendar date — do not count backwards from a date you calculated yourself.
• The 2027 venue list. AVBC lists current MCQ venues (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Perth; Auckland, London, Dubai, New Delhi, Singapore) but does not attach a year to them or confirm them for the April 2027 sitting.
• Whether 2027 places are capped. Places for the 2026 MCQ were explicitly limited and were fully allocated. AVBC has made no equivalent statement about 2027 — in either direction. The standing "may close earlier" warnings are the only signal, and they are a reason to apply early rather than evidence of a specific cap.
• 2027 fees. AVBC's published fee schedule shows current amounts, but it carries no effective date, no financial year, and no fee-change notice. Because MCQ payment falls due in January 2027, confirm the fee at the time you apply rather than relying on any figure — including ours — published today.

New for anyone heading to the clinical exam

If your plan runs past the MCQ, there is a change you need to start on now rather than later.

AVBC has moved the Practical Anaesthesia and Practical Surgery sections to an OSCE (model-based) format, and introduced a mandatory case log. AVBC states:

"The OSCE assessment format and case log requirement will first apply to all enrolments in the 2026 November and December clinical examination sessions."

Because it takes effect from those sessions onward, it will apply to 2027 clinical candidates — that is our reading of an effective-from statement, not something AVBC has said about 2027 specifically.

The case log requires three anaesthetic and three surgical cases, and the conditions attached to it matter as much as the number:

• Cases must be in cats and/or dogs only
• They must be supervised by an approved supervising veterinarian
• They must be submitted on the forms in Appendix 6 of the Candidates Handbook
• They must be "deemed satisfactory by the AVE Committee"

That last condition is the one to plan around: completing six cases does not guarantee they are accepted. Note also that AVBC's notice refers to submission "prior to enrolment," while Appendix 6 asks for the log with your formal expression of interest in a session — which comes earlier. Work to the earlier trigger.

This is a lead-time requirement. Supervised cases, correct paperwork and committee approval cannot be assembled in the weeks after an MCQ result.

The rules that have no date attached

These are not 2027 deadlines, but they shape when you should sit. We cover them in depth in the AVE timeline guide:

Rule	Requirement
3-year rule	You must attempt the Final (Clinical) Examination within 3 years of passing the MCQ
5-year rule	You must complete the entire AVE within 5 years of passing the MCQ
English test validity	Approved test results are valid for 3 years, and must be current when you lodge
Repeated MCQ failure	Three MCQ failures require a 2-year wait before re-sitting

The English requirement is the one that most often derails a timeline. If English is not your first language, you need a current pass in an AVBC-approved English test (OET, IELTS Academic, TOEFL-iBT or PTE Academic), and the result must be submitted with your eligibility application — not sent on afterwards. Booking and sitting a test, then waiting on results, is frequently the longest lead-time item in the whole process. Start it before October.

The clinical exam itself is nine sections over five days, assessed as Oral (viva voce) and Practical components, held at an Australasian veterinary school — usually the University of Queensland Gatton campus. You must reach the required standard in all nine sections.

Working backwards from 16 April 2027

By when	Do this
Now → September 2026	Sit your English test if required; gather certified copies and translations of your qualifications; register as a Contact in the AVBC portal
5 October 2026	Submit your eligibility application the day the portal opens
October → December 2026	Allow up to six weeks for assessment; respond immediately to any request for further documents
As soon as eligible	Apply for the MCQ — do not wait for the January deadline
25 January 2027	Absolute outer limit for MCQ applications, fee paid in full
16 April 2027	Sit the Preliminary (MCQ) Examination
After results	If you pass, begin your anaesthesia and surgery case log immediately

Before you rely on any of this — check the current notice

One genuine hazard when you go looking for these dates yourself: AVBC has older notices still live on its site with nearly identical titles. One from July 2025 announces the MCQ sitting as 17 April 2026. Another news page still carries dates from 2022. Both are reachable from search, and neither is flagged as superseded.

Every date in this article comes from the AVBC notice published 14 July 2026, cross-checked against the AVE Step 2 page and the Information for AVE Candidates handbook (May 2026 edition), all accessed 20 July 2026. Note that the May 2026 handbook contains no 2027 dates at all — it is authoritative on rules and exam structure, not on this cycle's calendar.

AVBC publishes these dates year by year and can change them. Two material AVE changes were announced in the three months before this article. Confirm every date against AVBC directly before you lock in a booking, a flight or a resignation:

AVBC — Australasian Veterinary Examination (Step 2)

Where we fit in

The dates above are AVBC's. What you do with the six months between them is the part you control.

Our AVE Part I course covers the full written syllabus for both MCQ papers — foundational veterinary science and case-based clinical reasoning — mapped to the subject categories and species groups in AVBC's published candidate information, and written to exam depth with Australian drug schedules, local toxicology and notifiable disease content.

If you are sitting on 16 April 2027, a 12-month enrolment now covers your entire run-up and the exam itself.

Explore AVE Part I preparation

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This article summarises publicly available AVBC information as at 20 July 2026 and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council. Dates, fees and requirements are set by AVBC and are subject to change. Always confirm current details directly with AVBC before making decisions.