PAN Card Form 49A: New Forms and Documents

A customer walks up with a crumpled printout of Form 49A that a friend gave them. They want a PAN card, and they want it today. You open the form, and then you stop, because you’ve heard the forms changed in April.

You heard right. Here’s what changed, which new form to pick, and which papers to put next to each part of it. We’ll go slowly, because a wrong form or a wrong proof is the kind of mistake you only find out about after the customer has paid.

UTIITSL’s PAN portal, checked on 18 October 2026, will not accept Forms 49A, 49AA or Change Request after 31 March 2026. The Income Tax Department’s guidance says new applications from 1 April 2026 use Forms 93, 94, 95 or 96. So before you collect a single scan or print a single page, work out whose PAN you need.

Does the April 2026 change affect an existing PAN?

No. The same Income Tax Department guidance, checked on 18 October 2026, says applications pending on 31 March 2026 remain valid, and existing PAN numbers remain valid. Nobody who already has a PAN needs to apply again because of the new forms.

So if you find an old downloaded form lying around, don’t fill it in. Check it against the current official list first.

It also pays to ask one simple question early: does this person already have a PAN, even if the card is lost? If yes, you may be looking at a correction or a reprint, not a new application. For an existing PAN, Protean’s downloads page, as of 18 October 2026, keeps change-request forms for individuals and non-individuals apart from fresh applications. Settle which service the customer wants, and only then pick a form.

Which form does the applicant need?

Protean’s downloads page, checked on 18 October 2026, pairs Forms 93 and 94 with Indian citizens and Indian entities, and Forms 95 and 96 with foreign citizens and foreign entities. The heading of each official form gives the exact applicant description, so open the PDF and read it.

NRI means non-resident Indian. RNOR means resident but not ordinarily resident. Form 93 offers three residence-status options: Resident, Non Resident, and Resident but Not Ordinarily Resident. Ask about citizenship and residence as two separate questions. A foreign postal address doesn’t make someone a foreign citizen.

What about a business?

Ask whether the applicant is a person or an entity. The Form 94 instructions, checked on 18 October 2026, say a sole proprietor should apply in their own name. They list entity categories such as a company, firm, trust and Hindu undivided family (HUF). A shop with a board outside isn’t automatically an entity. Plenty of shops are just one person.

Which documents prove identity, address and birth date?

Many people think one good document does everything. It doesn’t. For an Indian citizen’s individual application, Protean’s Form 93 document matrix, checked on 18 October 2026, treats proof of identity, proof of address and proof of date of birth as three separate things.

These are selected Form 93 rows as of 18 October 2026. Use the linked matrix for the complete list and conditions, and don’t use this table for an entity or a non-citizen.

Three things catch people out.

• Aadhaar. Form 93’s instructions make the Aadhaar number mandatory except for exempt categories. Look at the table again: Aadhaar covers identity and address but not birth date. If you use it for the first two, you still need a listed birth proof.
• How old the address proof is. The matrix sets a three-month age limit for listed electricity, telephone or broadband, water, bank-account, depository and credit-card records. So check the date on the document, not just the address printed on it.
• Copy or original. Some certificate alternatives are listed as originals. Read the row before you decide what to photocopy.

If you want a plainer walk-through of papers by applicant type, SiOnline also has a post on new PAN documents by applicant type.

What changes for a minor?

Quite a bit. Form 93’s instructions, checked on 18 October 2026, make the representative assessee (RA) section mandatory for a minor. The RA is the adult who signs and acts for the child. Every applicant, minors included, must affix two recent colour photographs. They need a white background and should measure 4.5 cm by 3.5 cm. The declaration provides for the applicant’s or RA’s signature or left thumb impression.

For an Indian-citizen minor, UTIITSL’s document checklist, page 4, says that, along with the minor’s Aadhaar, the listed parent or guardian documents are deemed proof of identity. Note 3 on the same page deems them proof of address, as of 18 October 2026. And for a child born on or after 1 October 2023, Protean’s matrix makes the specified birth certificate mandatory.

Keep the child’s papers and the parent’s papers in two separate piles, and label every scan before you put the file together. It’s very easy to attach the parent’s address proof in the child’s slot. There’s more in the post on the PAN card for a minor checklist.

What if the applicant lives abroad or is not an Indian citizen?

Citizenship decides the form. The address doesn’t. As of 18 October 2026, Form 93 describes an individual who is a citizen of India and Form 95 an individual who is not. Write down citizenship and the mailing address as two separate answers.

• Non-resident or RNOR (Form 93): a passport number is mandatory, and the notes require an RA with an Indian address for the specified NRI and RNOR cases. Entering an overseas home address doesn’t complete that requirement.
• Non-citizen individual (Form 95): the official form asks for the country of citizenship and a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), which is the number the person’s home country’s tax office gives them. Note 3 requires an Indian address when RA details are provided, except for foreign portfolio investors and minors.
• Documents: Protean’s foreign-applicant list includes passport and specified Indian-origin or overseas-citizenship documents. It lists other identification documents separately, with attestation requirements. Check the exact row for each proof, and ask which attestation route applies before you arrange an apostille or a consular appointment.

What evidence does an entity need?

For an Indian entity, UTIITSL’s document checklist, pages 5 and 6, gives these selected requirements as of 18 October 2026.

A karta is the HUF representative named in the checklist. For an HUF, read the full affidavit requirements instead of writing a generic declaration of your own.

Dates are another trap. The Form 94 instructions, as of 18 October 2026, distinguish incorporation, agreement, partnership-deed and trust-deed dates. Find out which event the form is asking about before you copy a date from a paper. If the papers show different events, ask the applicant which record supports the date the form wants.

The same instructions require the RA or authorised representative’s identity and address proofs, plus address evidence when the communication address differs from the office address.

For an entity formed abroad, the official Form 96 requires a TIN and sets its own representative requirements, including a foreign-portfolio-investor exception. UTIITSL’s checklist, pages 7 and 8, gives foreign-entity registration-document and attestation alternatives. Don’t use an Indian firm’s partnership-deed row as the checklist for a firm formed abroad.

What should you check before the applicant signs?

Download the form from the official page. Look at the form number printed inside the document, and compare its applicant description with your checklist. Save the download source and the date you checked it with your notes.

Form 93’s instructions, as of 18 October 2026, also require:

• the full name without abbreviations in the main name field, with the expanded name alongside the Aadhaar name where Aadhaar shows only initials;
• for a paper application, English block letters and preferably black ink, with the photograph to be signed across kept separate from the one left unmarked.

Then read the completed details back to the applicant and get their agreement before you submit. A wrong spelling in a name field is much easier to fix at the counter than after submission.

What does this look like with a real walk-in?

Here’s a made-up example, just to show the order of thinking. A customer arrives with an old Form 49A and says they haven’t applied before. You don’t copy their answers into a new form. You ask: are you an Indian citizen? Is this PAN for you or for a business? Do you already have a PAN number somewhere? Say the answers are yes, for me, and no. That’s Form 93, so you download it fresh and read it from the top.

Next you sit down with the proof table. Identity and address might come from Aadhaar, but birth date needs another document, so you ask for a matriculation certificate or another listed birth proof. You label each scan with its purpose. You read the name back. Only then do you move to the application.

Notice what you didn’t do. You didn’t convert the old form, and you didn’t start before the questions were answered. If citizenship or entity status is still unclear, stop and settle that first. Scans prepared for the wrong category are wasted work.

What mistakes should you avoid?

• Keeping old blank forms in the pack. Remove obsolete blanks so nobody picks one by mistake. Keep the papers of any application that’s already pending. Don’t throw those away.
• Trusting a file name. A PDF saved as “new PAN form” tells the next person nothing. Open it, read the form number, and label your copy with the applicant type and the official source.
• Treating one document as proof of everything. Check the identity, address and birth date columns separately.
• Picking the form from the postal address. Citizenship and place of formation decide the form.

A counter checklist you can follow

1. Find out whether this is a first PAN or an existing one.
2. Write down the applicant type, citizenship or place of formation, and the mailing address, and compare them with the official form description.
3. Write the proposed document next to each proof category. Leave a category open until it matches the official list.
4. Check the representative section where it applies, and keep the applicant’s details separate from the RA’s.
5. Fix any missing document or unclear field before payment and final submission.

If an application comes back with problems, the post on PAN application rejection reasons is a good next read. And if you’re working from a PSA login, see how to file a PAN application from a PSA login.

Ask the receiving counter which services it can accept for your case. This guide doesn’t promise that a SiOnline account supports every national route. For counter reference material, use SiOnline’s downloads page. Existing agents who need account guidance can use the Help Centre.

Sources

Rules and form and document lists checked on 18 October 2026: Income Tax Department forms guidance; UTIITSL’s public PAN portal and document checklist; Protean’s downloads page, Forms 93 to 96 and applicant-document matrices. Check the applicable official list again when you prepare the application.