Import Export Code — DGFT delays and the RTI route

No IEC, no customs clearance for a commercial consignment — which is why every week an IEC application sits “under process”, a small exporter is watching a shipment window close. The Directorate General of Foreign Trade, an attached office of the Department of Commerce, runs the code on its redesigned portal: registration, application, document upload, Aadhaar e-sign and payment all online, and the e-IEC generated electronically against the firm's PAN.

1. **Register on the portal** with PAN and mobile details; the profile creates itself around the PAN.
2. **File the IEC application** — business address, bank account in the firm's name, and the documents the portal asks for (identity proof of the applicant, address proof of the firm, bank certificate or cancelled cheque).
3. **e-Sign with Aadhaar** and pay the ₹500 fee online.
4. **Keep the acknowledgement** — the application number is the handle for every status query and every RTI.

Modification — change of address, bank, or constituent — runs through the same profile, keeping the IEC current for the lifetime of the business.

1. The status of my IEC application no. _____ dated _____,
   and its present stage of processing.
2. The date of each step completed on the application - receipt,
   document verification, e-sign authentication and payment
   reconciliation - with dates.
3. If any document or clarification was required, the date the
   requirement was raised, and whether it was communicated to me.
4. The name and designation of the officer holding the file, and
   the reasons for delay beyond the portal's processing norms.
5. The number of IEC applications received and issued by this
   office in the last 3 months, and the average processing time.

DGFT is a Central public authority — the application trail, the payment reconciliation and the regional office's pendency are all record, and the portal's own tracking makes any gap between status and file visible.

Real example. Kashvi Pathak's first consignment was booked before her IEC had moved for eleven days on a fully paid, fully documented application. Question 3 above brought back a reply: a clarification had been raised internally on the bank certificate and never sent out. The clarification was answered the same day the reply arrived; the e-IEC generated that week and the shipment went.

• The portal's grievance link for application-level complaints — it docketes the query to the regional authority.
• The regional authority's help desk (each RA publishes its contacts on the portal) — a phone call that quotes the application number.
• First appeal to DGFT's FAA within 30 days of silence; second appeal to the Central Information Commission within 90.

₹500, paid online on the DGFT portal with the application; there is no renewal fee — the code is lifetime.

Under the e-IEC system the code is generated against the firm's PAN; proprietorships, firms and companies all apply on the firm's PAN.

The e-IEC is generated electronically once documents, e-sign and payment are in order — typically within days; where it stalls, the RTI above produces the exact step.

Commercial imports and exports require it; only a few notified categories (certain personal shipments, SEZ units with separate registration) move outside it.

The PAN and the Aadhaar e-sign are the spine of the process; entities without them follow the portal's alternate verification route — ask the regional authority in writing before filing.

• How-to-apply guides
• File an RTI online — the 12-step guide
• GST registration rejected — recovery
• The RTI Playbook book

• DGFT — IEC profile management: PAN, bank account and address requirements
• DGFT — official portal

Last reviewed: 26 August 2026. Requirements verified this run against the DGFT portal's IEC profile-management page; fee as per the current application fee schedule. The old page claimed a USD threshold for IEC and a 15-day service-level commitment found in no DGFT source; both have been deleted.