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The onset and stability of a triple cross-diffusive viscoelastic fluid layer is investigated. The rheology of viscoelastic fluid is approximated by the nonlinear Oldroyd-B constitutive equation which encompasses Maxwell and Newtonian fluid models as special cases. By performing the linear instability analysis, analytical expression for the occurrence of stationary and oscillatory convection is obtained. The numerical results show that the elasticity and cross-diffusion effects reinforce together in displaying complex dynamical behavior on the system. The presence of cross-diffusion is found to either stabilize or destabilize the system depending on the strength of species concentration as well as elasticity of the fluid and also alters the nature of convective instability. The disconnected closed oscillatory neutral curve lying well below the stationary neutral curve is observed to be convex in its shape in contrast to quasiperiodic bifurcation from the quiescent basic state noted in the case of Newtonian fluids. This striking feature is attributed to the viscoelasticity of the fluid. By performing a weakly nonlinear stability analysis, the stability of bifurcating solution is discussed. It is worth reporting that the viscoelastic parameters significantly influence the stability of stationary bifurcation though the stationary onset is unaffected by viscoelasticity. Besides, subcritical instability is occurs and the critical Rayleigh number at which such an instability is possible decreases in the presence of cross-diffusion terms. The results of Maxwell and Newtonian fluids are delineated as particular cases from the present study.

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