How to obtain a PAN card

Who is eligible for the PAN card?

Any individual, company, NRI (non-resident Indian) or anyone who pays taxes in India is eligible for a PAN card. There are 6 categories of PAN: individual, association of persons, body of individuals, trust, limited liability partnership and firm. “Common” people apply for the first type (individual).

Costs for the PAN card

The costs of the PAN card depend on the delivery mode/address. The ePAN costs 72 Indian rupees and will be delivered by e-mail in the form of a digitally signed PDF. The physical PAN is a PVC card and costs 107 Indian rupees if the delivery address is in India and 1017 Indian rupees if the delivery address is outside India. If you apply for a physical PAN, you will get an ePAN as well. If you apply for an ePAN you can always apply for a physical PAN later, but then you will have to submit your documents and passport-sized photographs again. Of course you will have to pay the full fees for the physical PAN too.

Many people just take a printout of the ePAN and have it laminated at a Xerox in order to have a non-digital PAN card. This costs 30-40 Indian rupees. The laminated printout is accepted, as long as the QR code can be scanned properly. You can check this with NSDL’s PAN QR Code Reader mobile app.

Required documents for PAN application

PAN application is quite easy and you only need:

• Duly filled application form
• 2 passport-sized photographs
• Proof of identity
• Proof of address

Examples of documents that are valid as proof of identity and proof of address: Aadhaar card, voter ID card, driving license, passport.

As a foreign national I submitted my passport as proof of identity and foreign bank statement as proof of address (foreign passports don’t have address pages and my OCI card contained my old address).

Make sure that the name on your proofs matches the name you submit in your PAN application. It should be the full name and no initials/first letters or abbreviations are allowed.

How to apply for the PAN card?

1. Visit the NSDL web page for PAN application. It’s best to do this in Microsoft Edge; as per my experience the form doesn’t work properly in Google Chrome.
2. Choose the right form: 49A if you’re an Indian citizen, 49AA if you’re a foreign citizen. Please note that OCI card holders are NOT Indian citizens.
3. Fill in the required fields according to your supporting documents and fill in the CAPTCHA. Tick the checkbox and click on Submit.
4. If you’re a foreign citizen, there are chances that there will be some error regarding your phone number. If so, just fill in a fake number of 10 digits. You can change this later in the form.
5. Now you’ll get an e-mail with a temporary token to login on the website, but you can also continu just by clicking on Continue with PAN application Form. Fill in all the required fields, click on Next and tick the checkboxes of your sources of income. If you get interest on bank accounts or if you expect to get these, you must tick Income from other sources too.
6. Fill in your address. The fields are made for Indian addresses. If you have a foreign address it’s best to first fill in your country and place, then your street with number, then the name of your area. As per my experience it works best if you do it in this order. Otherwise there will be error messages.
7. You need to fill in a valid phone number. Choose the right country code too.
8. Click on Next.
9. You will have to fill in some codes. If you are applying for the category individual and don’t know the code, you can just enter the standard codes: DLC (area code), C (AO type), 35 (range code), 1 (AO NO). If you are applying for another category, it’s better to contact NSDL or a tax consultant to get the right codes.
10. Choose a proof of identity and proof of address from the dropdown menus.
11. Fill in the current place and date.
12. Click on Submit.
13. Pay the fee. VISA, Mastercard, Netbanking and UPI should work.
14. You will get an e-mail with two protected PDFs and password instructions to open these. Print both PDFs, put your signature in the required fields and paste your passport-sized photographs in the marked areas. The required dimensions are mentioned in the PDF.
15. Self-attest the copies of proof of identity and proof of address: write the date on these documents and put your signature along with it.
16. Send the two printouts, signed and with attached photographs and supporting proof of identity and proof of address, to the address mentioned in the second PDF (by post). Follow the instructions mentioned there.

    I sent the documents by speed post when I was in India. It costed me 18 Indian rupees, as I was in Pune and the address is in Pune too. When I applied for the physical PAN card later, I was in Bengaluru and then I paid 47 Indian rupees for sending my documents by speed post.

17. Wait for your (e)PAN. The ePAN will be sent to your registered e-mail address and the physical PAN will be sent to your registered address. You can track the status with the instructions received by e-mail and SMS.
18. It’s possible NSDL will have some questions and/or need additional information and/or documents. In that case you will get notified by e-mail. If you have to send additional documents, you can send these by e-mail to Tininfo@nsdl.co.in with your acknowledgement number in the subject. Only the submission of a new application or update must be done via post; additional information and documents can be sent by e-mail.