- The EPF Scheme, 2026 defines the UAN as an identity number allotted to an employee on a permanent basis.
- Since 1 August 2025, new UANs are generated through Aadhaar face authentication on the UMANG app.
- Employees must give you their Aadhaar, an Aadhaar-seeded bank account, PAN and UAN.
- Members with an Aadhaar-validated UAN can fix most profile errors themselves, with no documents.
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How does a new joiner get a UAN in 2026?
The employee generates it on their own phone, and you no longer create it from the employer portal.
That is the 1 August 2025 change. EPFO’s circular of 30 July 2025 moved first-time universal account number generation to Aadhaar Face Authentication Technology inside UMANG. KPMG’s flash note on the UMANG circular sets out the exceptions.
| Joiner type | How the UAN is created |
|---|---|
| Indian first-time member | Face authentication on UMANG, by the employee |
| Indian with a previous job | Existing UAN reused, new member ID linked |
| Foreign national (international worker) | Employer route |
| Nepal or Bhutan national | Employer route |
Here is where foreign employers slip. A returning hire who has worked in India before already has a UAN, and their past service sits on it. Reuse it.
So ask for it in the offer pack. Hence your employee onboarding checklist should collect the UAN before day one, not during the first payroll run.
What else changed for UAN holders in 2025?
Two fixes reduced employer paperwork. Since January 2025, members can correct name, date of birth, gender and similar fields themselves if their UAN is Aadhaar-validated. Employer sign-off is still needed in some cases where the UAN was issued before 1 October 2017.
EPFO expected about 45% of correction requests to be self-approved, per the Labour Ministry’s release on profile corrections.
From April 2025, most PF transfers on a job change also stopped needing employer approval. Fewer emails. Bulk UANs created without Aadhaar stay frozen until Aadhaar is seeded. Fix that early.
The UAN also matters when your staff move providers. In an EOR switch, the employee keeps the same UAN and the new employer simply links a fresh member ID. Because every member ID links back to one UAN, contributions from two employers for the same month show up on a single record, which matters if dual employment is a concern.
How does Remunance manage UANs when you hire in India?
Remunance collects or helps generate each UAN during onboarding, links the new member ID and checks the Aadhaar, bank and PAN seeding before the first ECR. That is part of how we onboard in as little as 2 working days from a signed contract.
See how Remunance manages employee onboarding, then plan your first India hire with our team.
What else do people ask about UAN?
Does a UAN change when you switch jobs?
No. The UAN is permanent. Only the member ID changes with each employer, and the old balance can be transferred into the new account.
Can an employer generate a UAN in 2026?
Only for international workers and Nepal or Bhutan nationals. Everyone else generates it through Aadhaar face authentication on UMANG.
Do foreign employees in India get a UAN?
Yes. A foreign national on Indian payroll joins EPF as an international worker, and the employer generates their UAN through the employer route instead of face authentication.
Planning a hire in India?
Our founding team has run payroll and hiring in India for 22+ years, first as Remunance Systems, which was later acquired by ADP.