Are you looking for how to withdraw employee provident fund money kept with your last employer? Do you know the rules related to EPF withdrawal in India? Do you know the EPF withdrawal tax rules? I will answer all these questions, as I have withdrawn my EPF balance twice in my career so far. And I think my experience will be useful for many readers of this blog. Basic EPF Withdrawal rules Before proceeding further I think one should know few basic EPF withdrawal rules after resignation. When you leave a company, at that time only you will be able to withdraw EPF balance. There is a waiting period of 2 months. After that only you can go for EPF withdrawal. You have to go via your previous employer only. And very soon we may expect a to withdraw EPF online also. Employee Provident Fund Withdrawal Procedure The EPF withdrawa l procedure will completely depend up on how co-operative your previous employer is. If they have a proper process then you will get the money quickly. Or else you may have to face some difficulty. In fact for few organizations, there is a dedicated EPF Body, which handles the entire work. In that case also the whole process completes very fast. As you have to wait up to 45-60 days after leaving the company before applying for EPF money. You may collect these forms from your company portal. Otherwise visit EPFO website to download them. Tip: Do not take this form lightly. When I have applied for the first time, the application got rejected due to small mistake and it came back to me again. Due to that I had to re-apply EFP withdrawal and entire process took more than 7 month to get the money. As the money will be sanctioned as a cheque and then deposited in your account. So be careful while filling that form as well. Then send the forms to previous employer office or PF office as instructed by your previous employer. Every company has its own procedure to deal with it. Some company have their own PF trust offices where you can send them directly, otherwise companies will collect all these documents from you and then verify from their end and finally submit them to EPF India office on behalf of you. You can always communicate with the PF body of your previous company, where you have mailed the filled up forms. Check your EPF withdrawal status every 2-3 weeks, if it takes time to get your EPF money. How much time it takes to withdraw EPF? In case any issue, you have to contact to direct PF office only. I have received the EPF money very quickly when I applied for the 2 nd time. It took hardly 2 month to receive the money. So things are improving. There are many advices regarding this question, but I believe if you have continued your EPF account for more than 5 years and changing the company then it is better to withdraw the money. You can withdraw the balance and then put in your own PPF account or invest in better product like mutual fund. The reason I said this is, it is always better to control your money on your own rather than depending on others. Anyway, it is my thought and not necessary that everyone should agree with that. I would love to know more from the readers of this blog, — which one is better. Visit to know your EPF Balance, latest changes in EPF rules and many useful how to guides. Hello Shantanu, I have claimed online through form 31 but it is showing Claim status is REJECTED on the portal, and there is no any reason. I have done all KYCs and all Bank information is also there. But when I goes to the Service History menu on the portal, there is no Date Of Exit updated from my employer side, might be. So can this be a reason of my claim rejected? Claim ID : MHBAN170xxxxxxxxxxx42 Status : CLAIM FORM 19 FOR PF SETTLEMENT FOR MEMBER ACCOUNT NO MHBAN0128xxxxxxxxxxx41 HAS BEEN RECEIVED ON 07. Amit My present age is 43 years. I worked 7 years and 10 month in one of company in Vadodara between period May 1998 to March 2006. I have withdraw the PF while joining other company. Also i got uan and it is activated. Now even my Head office is not bothered to reply for my emails. Now what to do? Hi, I left my previous company in jan end2016 and post which i provided all my pf forms and docs along required for withdrawal. Just wanted to know what would be the next step once pf gets rejected, also how long will it take to get money? Hii shanatu sir, My Dad was working in a company at Tarapur. He left company 20 years before. R there any chances of getting Pf now. He spent 18 years in service in company. Company has shut down long time ago. He is having Pf receipt which he filled in company procedure. Plz reply for the same Thanks. Dear sir plz suggest me what to do the problem is that I ve resigned from a private bank. I was working as Marketing Officer in tw loan collection. I worked there for 5th mnths in April I resigned from my roll,after giving proper notice and LWD. Hello Sir, I worked in a company for eight months. At the time of my appointment my company gave me salary structure of 1 lakh p. I resigned my job after 8 months of working on 17. But I contribute nearly 15,000 rupees. Kindly guide me to claim this amount and also explain the contribution percentage sir… Dear Sir, if i had successfully filled and submitted the EPF form after the verification of previous employer and submitted to EPF office , what if there is an little bit very minor mismatch of Signature i. Now I like to close my PF account and get that money. When I contacted my existing HR they asked me to give Form 19 and a bond which stated reason for not claiming the amount for 9 years. Could you please let me know if you have any format for the bond and is it to be entered in Stamp paper? Thanks in advance My son resigned and settled in abroad long ago. Now he wants to close and withdraw his EPF amount from the inoperative acct. He is not having individual bank acct. He is having joined acct. Whether it is admissible to credit into single NRO bank acct. When I inquired this point with EPF ,they are unable to explain. Can you let me know, how can withdraw my PF? Dear Sir After 7 years and 11 months service, on 30-11-2014, I retired from Private Company in which the retirement age was 60 years of age. Additionally there is amount under Pension Contribution made Rs 541 per moths till I completed 58 years of age. Since 30-11-2014, I am not employed in any service with EPS and EPF contribution. In other words, my PF account is inoperative from December 2014 to which the last contributions were from salary of November 2014. Here are my questions? Can somebody give answers quoting relevant notifications and references? Will I get interest for 36 months for these funds, if I plan to withdraw it on 30-11-2017 i. Will I get some interest for that also? How to qualify my retirement? If at all there is interest , I may decide to withdraw the full amount. In that case which are the best investment option for me? Dear Santanu First of all i want to thank you for this very helpful writeup. I was previously working with a central PSU which was governed by EPF scheme and now i have joined my state govt department which is governed by NPS. I want to know if there is a procedure to transfer my EPF money from previous employer to NPS account. Regards Farhan Hi , I have resigned on Dec31st 2015. Now on Notice period, till Jan30th 2016. My company paid PF till JUne2015. Last 6 months is pending. Once i asked to HR , they said they will pay it later, not getting clear answers. So what should i do? Whether I can go with complaint? Need advice on 1. Is there any duration that these company should follow to pay PF on or before date? Once company paid PF then what time will take me to get it? On where should I give complaint on this? Complaint will take me long duration to resolve things? Hi Santanu, I left my previous job in end of August, 2015. Filled the PF form on my last working day and submitted to HR, so they can send it to PF office after two months. I checked with HR today and they said they have submitted the PF application on time. Kindly try after some time. I am getting this error since 2-3 weeks. Thanks in advance, Avinash Santanu hi, greatly appreciate your help on this blog. I am an NRI since the past 8 years and therefore have nil contribution towards PF. I am attempting to withdraw PF contributed over 15-odd years with 4 organisations and none are consolidated — i. I have 4 PF accounts!! I have the organisation codes from the EPFO website and my old PF account numbers. My last one month pf amount has not been updated in my pf account. Employer is saying that he has deposited the pf amount of that month.. So what should I do in this case. Should I withdraw or wait for the updation of pf amount of last month. Hi Santanu, Nice blog on one of the most important but fundamentally over looked aspects of employment and retirement planning in India I immigrated abroad a couple of months back but still an Indian passport holder. Prior to immigrating, I was working in India for about a decade with multiple employers. I would like to withdraw all my savings in the PF as I could not initiate it before leaving India due to the default wait period after leaving my last employer. Do the withdrawal rules and TDS still be applicable in my case? Can you guide with the procedure considering that I will not be travelling or should I say at least for a few years or so to India any more? What complication can I encounter apart from the logistical nature of issue on hand when it comes to the withdrawal process? Thanks in advance for any guidance on my queries. Regards, Som Hi Shantanu, I relieved from my previous company on 9th june 2015 and joined my current company on 14th july. I have already provided the UAN no to my current company. Please guide as i am in urgent need of money and pf can solve my purpose. I am worried how will I get the rest of the amount as I have not received even a half of it.. I have filled two forms 10c and 19.. Please do guide me… Thanks hi, similar issue happened with me.. Hi Santanu, For PF withdrawl, updating KYC like PAN card or Passport or Adhaar Card is mandatory? If none of the ID proof documents is submitted then will I not be able to withdraw the amount? Also I have worked for more than 5 years in my previous company. I believe the process has become more clumsy now Please advise what can be done now I have recently filed for PF withdrawal through the employer as I have resigned. The employer PF help desk suggested that I submit old cancelled cheque containing only my name. Now my concern is will the bank reject the payment as it will be transferred on my name and the bank account holds two names? Please help me out as I am really worried. By the way after we get sms saying that withdrawal approved and sent for cheque preparatio, how many more days are needed? Thanks in advance Praveen. I left an organization 5 years back and didnt withdraw my PF then. Last 5 years twice i submitted the pf form but my last employer was not very supportive. In last 5 years many employees have moved on and i dont have any relationship with my ex-employer. How can i withdraw my pf money. I left my previous company 2 months back where I had served only for 6 months and before that I was with another company for 4 years and 7 months and I had transferred the PF amount to my previous company. Now I wish to withdraw the PF amount. I would like to know if the TDS is nil only if the PF account from which I wish to withdraw is maintained for more than 5 years or if the total years I ve been in the EPF scheme is more than 5 years. Hi Santanu, Quite informative site, thanks. I was laid off 3 months ago, and currently still searching for a job, I am planning to take a break for couple of years and withdraw my PF. I was working in the last organization for 2. I had my previous organization account where I worked for 3. But there was a gap in employment for around 2 years i. Do you know if I withdraw will the amount be taxable? Or if I withdraw it after 5 years will it taxable. Hi, I am in the same boat. I had worked for a company for 7 years and resigned. Joined another company and transferred that amount to a new account in the new company. I had worked in the new company for 4. Though my last company tenure is less than 5 years my overall tenure is 12 years. Should i still have to submit form 15G inorder to avoid taxes? Hello, I worked in a company for 4 years approx, and then joined company last year in September. Please reply, thank you!! Hi Santanu, Fistly thank you for your help on this blog. But I still have a contact in the firm, do you think they will provide the info? And when I shifted to my 2nd job it is a new PF account again but I have work for 5. I want to go for a withdrawl now, what do you suggest how I should proceed? Appreciate your help mate, tks Hi Santhanu, In my previous company, they started deducting the PF amount since November 2010. I have changed the company recently i. Now i wanted to withdraw my PF amount. My another question is — i have downloaded the passbook. So, do we can withdraw all the amount which were divided in passbook? Please help me on this? Regards, Satya Dear Santanu, I received the message from PF office Jan 2015, stating that my claim is approved and is under process. But till date I did not received any money. Also no further message received. I have sent a mail to PF office but no reply. Can you suggest what should be the next step. Regards Gaurav Sir, At first thanks for giving valuable information on PF withdrawl. I have a question that when I see my PF balance in EPFO website it will not show the current status of balance, if I see today it shows till May 2014. Why EPFO department not updating there records? Please suggest me how can I see my current pf balance. Dear Santanu, I was working in a company for 8. I resigned 6 months Nov 2014 back; i filled the form and given to them. I facing lot of problems; I am sending mails and so many follow ups, they are not even replying the mails. How do we proceed to get the EPF money in this case? Kindly give the solution. I resigned from previous company on 12 December 2014. On that day itself I filled and submitted my PF form along with ECS certificate of bank. I only filed my personal details, sign and bank account number as instructed by them. They said they will fill the balance date and other details and it will submit after 60 days from resignation. Now I am working abroad. Not yet received the claim. I have emailed and called the previous employer several times. They said they submitted it on March. I checked the status of PF claim thorough online portal. It shows no record found…may be because of EPFO not yet received or taken for processing the request. Again I mailed to previous employer to know the reason for delay. They are not responding One of my friends resigned from the same company on December 29, 2014 and submitted PF claim request after me. He got his claim amount on 16th April 2014. How can I know the reason for the delay in my claim? And also how can I know is this previous employer submitted it or not? If they submitted what will be the next procedure? And what to do from my side? Kindly advice Hi Shah, I think many people are facing the same issue. Previous employer have to file your application first to EPFO, then only you can track your application status on EPFO online. Try to get the information form your previous employer, if possible send someone to visit your previous employer and try to get the current status of your EPF withdrawal application. Sir, I have worked almost 2 year in a company and they started to deduct pf from my salary which was 8000 till oct 2014, after that it was 9000. So please Santanu, suggest me what actions to take, what to do?!!!!!! Hi Manidipa, I contacted my previous employer. Should i fill another form and submit it to my ex employer?? Thank u in advance Hi Santanu, Like to appreciate for sharing your experience in this blog. I have few questions to ask regarding how to claim my PF amount. I would like to resign my job since i have some issues in my salary increment for couple of years. I want to claim my PF amount since i have planned to resolve my loans using this amount. I am not aware of the new rule but previously employees informed that i will get my PF amount after 45 days of resigning my job where my organization will itself take care of this and provide the final settlement amount. Could you please clearly explain me that how many days it will take to claim my PF amount and what is the procedure to claim my PF amount? Can i also transfer my PF account to the newly joint company if i get an offer? If I am working in other concern and after that i can claim my PF amount of the previous organization? My PF has been deducted for Past 3 year and 11 months 47 months. Appreciate your explanation to the above questions. Thanks for helping to other peoples as well, Selvakumar. Hi Selva, That waiting period of 45-60 days will be there, as per my knowledge. After that you can contact your previous employer and start following the steps to withdraw pf money. Of-course you can transfer you pf account to new account. Better to apply for UAN number and provide that to your new employer. Now, regarding withdrawal vs transfer, I think you can decide that your own as per the need. I have already shared an article on that, may be useful for you. Hi Nithin, Thanks for your comment. No one is misleading here, this information for those who want to withdraw and they should withdraw. People can have different views on that. Instead of sitting that money idle there why not take it out and put in a long term mutual fund? First time it took around 6 month, but this time it took less than 2 months after submission of my EPF forms properly. Actually first time due to some incomplete information, EPF application got rejected and it returned back to me. Hi As i joined a new organisation and i wish to withdraw my PF from my previous organisation. But My question as below, 1. Plz guid me on above if any is having the idea.
