If you are still diarising DIR-3 KYC for 30 September every year, that diary entry is out of date.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has moved director KYC from an annual filing to a three-yearly one, and shifted the deadline from 30 September to 30 June. The change came in through the Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Amendment Rules, 2025, notified vide G.S.R. 943(E) dated 31 December 2025, with effect from 31 March 2026.
What changed
| Before | From 31 March 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| How often | Every financial year | Once every three consecutive financial years |
| Deadline | 30 September | 30 June of the year following every third financial year |
| Form | DIR-3 KYC (e-form) or DIR-3 KYC-Web | Single unified Form DIR-3 KYC Web |
| Change of mobile / email / address | No separate deadline | Must be intimated within 30 days, with fee |
| Does an update reset the cycle? | n/a | No |
The detail that catches people
The three-year cycle is anchored to the financial year in which the DIN was allotted — not to the date you last filed.
That is counter-intuitive, and it is the source of most of the confusion we are hearing. You do not count three years forward from your last KYC. You count from the DIN allotment year (or the last KYC-compliant financial year), and the filing falls due by 30 June of the year immediately following every third consecutive financial year.
So when do you actually file?
The MCA advisory gives worked illustrations. In short:
| Your situation | Years you skip | Next filing due |
|---|---|---|
| DIN allotted on or before 31 March 2025, and you filed KYC for FY 2025-26 | FY 2026-27 and FY 2027-28 | April – 30 June 2028 |
| DIN allotted during FY 2025-26 | FY 2026-27 and FY 2027-28 | April – 30 June 2029 |
| DIN allotted during FY 2026-27 | FY 2027-28 and FY 2028-29 | April – 30 June 2030 |
| DIN already deactivated for a missed KYC | — | Immediately, with the ₹5,000 fee |
So for most directors reading this in 2026: if you filed your KYC for FY 2025-26, you have nothing to file this September, and nothing again until the window opens in April 2028.
Who still has to file
Every individual holding a DIN as at 31 March of the relevant financial year. Holding the DIN is what creates the obligation — not holding a directorship. That includes:
- directors of dormant, non-trading and Section 8 companies;
- people who resigned but still hold the DIN;
- designated partners of LLPs holding a DIN;
- independent directors and foreign nationals holding a DIN;
- anyone allotted a DIN for a company that was never incorporated.
The 30-day rule that has not gone away
This is the part that gets lost in the good news.
Any change to your mobile number, email address or residential address must still be intimated to the MCA within 30 days of the change, by filing Form DIR-3 KYC Web with the prescribed fee. That applies whether or not you are in a KYC year.
And filing that update does not reset your three-year cycle. If your DIN was allotted in FY 2025-26 and you change your address in FY 2027-28, your periodic KYC is still due April–June 2029.
In practice this is a tighter obligation than the old annual filing, because 30 days is short and nobody thinks of the MCA when they change their phone number.
What it costs
- Periodic KYC, filed on time — nil.
- Periodic KYC, filed late — ₹5,000.
- Reactivating a deactivated DIN — ₹5,000.
- Change of mobile / email / address — prescribed fee under the Fees Rules; higher if filed after 30 days.
The ₹5,000 is a flat amount per DIN. It does not scale with how late you are, and it does not multiply across years.
Who signs it
Another simplification worth knowing:
- Routine periodic KYC with no change in particulars — no digital signature and no professional certification. Verification is by OTP to the registered mobile and email.
- Any update of particulars, or reactivation of a DIN — the form must be digitally signed by the DIN holder and certified by a practising CA, CS or CMA.
If your DIN is already deactivated
It does not fix itself, and the new three-year cycle does not help you. File Form DIR-3 KYC Web selecting Reactivation of DIN, pay the ₹5,000, and it reactivates.
Do it before you need it. A deactivated DIN blocks every MCA filing that requires that director — annual returns, financial statements, resolutions — across every company they sit on. In a two-director private company, one deactivated DIN can stop the annual filings entirely, and the ₹100-per-day additional fee keeps running while you sort it out.
One more thing: any DIR-3 KYC form sitting in Draft or Pending for DSC upload and payment as at 31 March 2026 was automatically cancelled. If you left one half-finished, it is gone — file fresh.
What to do now
- Work out which cycle each director is in. It depends on the DIN allotment year, so it will differ across your board.
- Check every DIN’s current status on the MCA portal. A DIN deactivated in an earlier year is still deactivated.
- Confirm the registered mobile and email still work. The whole process runs on OTPs to those two. This is the single most common reason a five-minute job becomes a two-week one.
- Put the 30-day rule somewhere you will see it. When a director moves house or changes number, that is now an MCA filing.
- Diarise the right year. Not September, and not annually.
We track KYC cycles for whole boards
Send us the DIN list and we will tell you which cycle each director is in, which year each one is due, and whether any DIN is currently deactivated. If something needs filing, we file it — MCA forms from ₹999, status confirmed to you in writing after submission.
Our free compliance calendar lays out every filing your entity owes across the year.
Check my board’s KYC position → · Build my compliance calendar → · +91 92898 96117
Based on the Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Amendment Rules, 2025 — G.S.R. 943(E) dated 31 December 2025, effective 31 March 2026 — and the accompanying MCA advisory. General information, not advice for your situation. Confirm the current position before relying on it.
