PF Transfer Woes: Here is a Workaround

Transfer of Provident Fund from one Employee Provident Fund office to another is a real pain. It's a pain because there is no way to find out if at all the transfer took place involving substantial amount of our hard-earned money (sometimes the only savings that people like me resort to :-) ).

I relocated to Bangalore in September 2007 from Noida and filled up the PF transfer form on the first day of my joining. I wanted to check the status of my PF transfer in one year's time. But I found that the lady from finance department dealing with PF transfer had left the company and now it's handled by some outsourced party. I then contacted the outsourced agency. They had no records if and when the lady filed my PF transfer application. I met some of my friends who relocated from other cities to Bangalore three years back and they told me that their PF transfers were still due. I felt frustrated with the system like many others.

Then I thought that let me re-apply for PF transfer since I was not sure if at all my PF form was submitted. So I reapplied using the standard procedure through the finance department. It was after 1 and half year of my joining the new (was it still new?) company.

In three months' time from my second application, I received a letter from Noida EPF office. The letter was written in pure Hindi. First thing that I understood was that my transfer application was rejected. Then it had a table showing the various reasons for rejecting a PF transfer claim. The reason that they ticked for my case was that my PF of amount ............ was already transferred on so & so date to Bangalore EPF office! I was much relaxed to know that finally my PF was transferred and , damn, I knew the amount too.

So the workaround is to re-apply for PF transfer after a gap of some months or a year of submission of the first application.