EPFO New Rule: Transgender ID Card Accepted For Name And Gender Change In EPF

The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) made the process of changing name and gender for transgender individuals easier by allowing Transgender Identity Certificate to be accepted for this purpose. In a circular dated December 26, 2025, the regulatory body issued instructions regarding this. “The Competent Authority has decided to accept Transgender Identity Certificate/Card issued through the National Portal for Transgender Person https://transgender.dosje.gov.in/ as a valid proof for effecting a change in Name and Gender in the records of EPFO.”

Inclusion of the Transgender Identity Certificate or the card in the acceptable documents list makes the process convenient for transgender persons.

The acceptable list of documents was issued in January last year through a circular dated January 16, 2025, regarding the simplification of the joint declaration process in the EPF account. The 2025 circular came in superseding the previous circular dated July 31, 2024.

Per the circular, the other documents that are acceptable for changing one’s name and gender include:

• Passport

• Death Certificate

• Birth Certificate

• Driving Licence

• Service photo identity card issued by the Central Govt./State Govt./ UT Govt./ PSU/ Banks

• School Leaving Certificate (SLC)/ School Transfer Certificate (TC)/ SSC certificate/Mark Sheet issued by the board/ University containing the name

• Bank Pass Book having name and Photograph, cross-stamped by a bank official

• PAN Card/ e-PAN

• Ration / PDS photo Card

• Voter ID/ e-Voter ID

• Pensioner Photo Card

• CGHS/ ECHS/ / Medi-Claim Card with Photo issued by State/ Central Govts./ PSUs/ Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) Card

• ST/ SC/ OBC certificate with photograph

• For Full name/First name change requests: PF Member to submit the Gazette notification of the new name along with any supporting documents of the old name, with a photograph (Even for 1st instance of the Full name/ first name change)

• Valid Visa along with a Foreign Passport (valid only) issued to other Foreign Nationals Freedom

• Fighter Card having a photo

• Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card or Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card issued by the Government of India

• Tibetan Refugee Card

Who Can Effect The Change?

For changing the name and gender, Universal Account Number (UAN) plays a crucial role in determining whether the request for changes in personal details can be executed by the member (EPF subscriber), the employer, or EPFO officers.

Category A

Member Id that is linked with UAN (UAN generated based on Aadhaar from October 1, 2017) (For Joint declaration request received online) – Employee can execute changes.

Category B

Member ID that is linked with UAN generated before October 1, 2017, wherein name, dob, and gender were validated by Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) (Joint declaration request received online) – Employee, employer, or Public Relations Officer (PRO) can execute changes.

Category C

Member ID linked with UAN but not Aadhaar validated by UIDAI or without any UAN or belonging to deceased members (JD request filed in physical mode by member/claimant) – Employer, PRO, dealing assistant, or accounts officer can execute the changes.

Notably, if a member ID is without a UAN in Category C, the system will check whether any UAN is linked with the given Aadhaar. If yes, it will be linked with the member ID. If there is no UAN associated with the Aadhaar, a new UAN will be generated for the Member ID.

Online request

The documents for changing a member’s details can be submitted online through Digilocker or by uploading the PDF. At least two of the documents from the list need to be uploaded to effect the change. But, only one document is required if documents are submitted through Digilocker. In case an employee carries out the change, no document needs to be uploaded.

Offline request

When a joint request cannot be filed online, only employers can file the request for change to effect the change. This includes cases where a member is deceased. The employers, in such cases, need to upload a physical joint declaration.

In case of closed entities, a request for change can be submitted after getting the physical ID attested by authorised EPFO officers, along with other required documents.