How are numerous UANs for EPF accounts merged? A comprehensive how-to

Having a single Universal Account Number (UAN) and linking all of your EPF accounts to it is recommended. However, an employee could get many UANs for a variety of reasons. If you don’t provide your new employer your old UAN information when you change employment, they may register you for a new UAN.

For those who don’t know, the UAN is a 12-digit number that is assigned to a person and remains the same throughout their career, even if they change jobs. The same employee may be given different member IDs by each company. By acting as a single hub and linking all of these member IDs, the UAN offers a consistent picture of EPF contributions made by employees in a variety of jobs.

Although combining several UANs directly online is not possible, you may begin the consolidation process online and complete it by following a few offline procedures. Here’s a how-to tutorial for that:

Send in the problem.
Send an email to EPFO at: Provide your active UAN at this time and the UAN or UANs you would want to combine in an email to [email protected].

Inform your employer: Tell your present employer about the situation. They could even start the transfer on your behalf. They can help you through the procedure.

Verification of EPFO and deactivating
After verifying the information, EPFO (Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation) will deactivate the prior UAN.

Transfer of funds (Offline)

To move the money from the deactivated UAN to your current UAN, you will need to complete a paper claim form (Form 13) once the previous UAN has been deactivated.
Form 13 is available for download on the EPFO website.
Information from both your current and previous employment is required on this form. Their signatures could be needed for verification.
Send the completed form to your employer so they can process it.
Prior to starting the process of merging many UANs into a single EPF account,

Verify that all of your KYC information—Name, Address, Date of Birth, etc.—matches on all UANs in order to expedite the verification process.
Keep a copy of the completed Form 13 for your records.
Using your UAN, check the transfer status on the EPFO website.
The online component expedites contact with the EPFO, even if it just kickstarts the procedure. You may also ask your present employer to guide you through the offline processes.