An IEC used to be a one-time registration valid for life. That changed: every IEC must now be confirmed on the DGFT portal between April and June each year — even when nothing about the business has changed — and an IEC that is not confirmed gets deactivated.
This is the single most common reason a working exporter suddenly cannot file, and it is the reason "how to activate IEC code" is such a common search.
What "updation" actually means
It is a confirmation, not a form. You log in, review the details already on record — name, address, bank, directors or partners — and confirm they are correct. If nothing has changed, you confirm and submit. There is no fee.
The common misreading is that an IEC with no changes needs nothing done. That is exactly the case that gets deactivated.
How you find out, and why it is always at the worst moment
There is no doorbell. Nothing stops working on 1 July with a warning. What happens instead is that a shipping bill or a bill of entry fails, or a bank query comes back, and the reason turns out to be an IEC that lapsed months earlier.
Because the deactivation is silent, businesses that ship irregularly — a few consignments a quarter — are the most exposed. They have no routine that would surface it.
Reactivating a deactivated IEC
The good news: you do not reapply. Deactivation is reversed by doing the updation you missed.
- Log in to the DGFT portal with the IEC holder's credentials
- Open the IEC profile and start the update or amendment flow
- Confirm each section — entity details, address, bank, signatories
- Sign with DSC or Aadhaar e-sign, and submit
- Verify the result on Know Your IEC before you file anything against it
Reactivation is usually quick, but "usually" is doing work in that sentence — do not leave it until a container is at the port.
The habit that prevents this entirely
Put a recurring reminder for early April, every year, for as long as the business trades. Do the updation in the first week of the window rather than the last, because June is when the portal is busiest and when a document query leaves you no room.
Treat it the way you treat a licence renewal, not the way you treat a nice-to-have. Bracket it with your other annual credential checks — AD code registrations, RCMC validity, DGFT licence expiry — and do them in one sitting.
What else expires quietly
An IEC is not the only credential that fails silently. RCMC certificates lapse, DGFT licences hit their expiry or exhaust their entitlement, and AD code registrations are per-port. Each has the same failure signature: everything looks fine until a filing is rejected.
This is precisely the problem Eximly's deadline tracking exists for — IEC updation windows, licence validity and RCMC expiry surface as alerts rather than as a rejected shipping bill. See how it works.
Rules change; confirm current requirements at dgft.gov.in.
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