How Do You Check GST Registration Status by ARN?

The two Track Application Status screens and the Search Taxpayer screen were checked, and the nine status strings were verified character for character against GSTN's own published list.

Check GST registration status by ARN at Services > Track Application Status on the GST Portal. No login, password or Digital Signature Certificate is needed. Enter the ARN emailed to you on submission, enter the captcha, and click SEARCH. Logged in, the same screen adds a Module drop-down (select Registration) and a third search option, Submission Period, which is how a CA checks a batch of pending applications at once. The portal returns a detailed status with a coloured stage bar and nothing else: no reason, no officer's name, no document list.

These five steps are the logged-in flow.

1. Step 1: Visit the GST Portal (gst.gov.in)
2. Step 2: Click Services > Track Application Status
3. Step 3: Select Registration from the Module drop-down list
4. Step 4: Enter your ARN and the captcha
5. Step 5: Click SEARCH to view your detailed status

The pre-login and post-login trackers are different screens, and step 3 exists only after login. Pre-login the breadcrumb reads Home > Registration > Track Application Status, there is no Module drop-down, and the search options are ARN and SRN/FRN; logged in the breadcrumb reads Dashboard > Services > Track Application Status, the Module drop-down offers Select, Refunds and Registration, and Submission Period is added.

The ARN reaches the registered email address and mobile number within 15 minutes of submitting the application you are tracking. Click the ARN hyperlink on the results screen to download the acknowledgement in PDF format.

The Track Application Status screen does not accept a Temporary Reference Number (TRN). Check a saved, unsubmitted application at Services > Registration > New Registration instead. Select the Temporary Reference Number (TRN) option, enter the TRN, enter the captcha, and click PROCEED. Enter the OTP sent to your mobile number and email address; it is valid for 10 minutes only. The My Saved Application page opens, and the current status sits in the Status column under the Track Application Status section. A TRN is valid for 15 days, after which the TRN and everything filled against it are purged.

1. Step 1: Open Services > Registration > New Registration
2. Step 2: Select the Temporary Reference Number (TRN) option
3. Step 3: Enter the TRN and the captcha
4. Step 4: Click PROCEED and enter the Mobile/Email OTP
5. Step 5: Read the Status column on My Saved Application

The same OTP goes to both the mobile number and the email address, and Click here to resend the OTP sends it again.

A registration application filed on the MCA Portal generates a Service Request Number (SRN), not an ARN. An application filed on the IFSCA Portal generates a Financial Reference Number (FRN). Track either at Services > Track Application Status, selecting Registration from the Module drop-down list and entering the number in the SRN/FRN field. The detailed status screen shows the MCA stages, where COI means Certificate of Incorporation. Click the ARN hyperlink on that screen once a GST ARN has been generated, to open the full GST application status.

1. Step 1: Open Services > Track Application Status
2. Step 2: Select Registration from the Module drop-down list
3. Step 3: Enter the SRN or FRN in the SRN/FRN field
4. Step 4: Click SEARCH to view the MCA or IFSCA stages
5. Step 5: Click the ARN hyperlink for the GST status

The SRN and the FRN arrive at the registered email address on submission at the MCA Portal or the IFSCA Portal.

A 15-character GSTIN that already exists is checked under the Search Taxpayer menu, not on the Track Application Status screen. Click the Search Taxpayer menu available at the GST Portal homepage. Choose Search by GSTIN/UIN, or Search by PAN if you hold only the business PAN. Enter the number and the captcha, then click SEARCH. The portal returns GSTIN/UIN, Legal Name of Business, Trade Name, Effective date of registration, Constitution of Business, Principal Place of Business, Date of Cancellation and Details of Return Filed. A pending application has no GSTIN yet, so a business PAN returns nothing until registration is granted.

1. Step 1: Visit the GST Portal (gst.gov.in)
2. Step 2: Click the Search Taxpayer menu on the homepage
3. Step 3: Choose Search by GSTIN/UIN or Search by PAN
4. Step 4: Enter the GSTIN or business PAN and the captcha
5. Step 5: Click SEARCH to view the active status

SHOW FILING TABLE and Show Return Filing Frequency open the filing history for a chosen financial year. A pending application returns nothing here, because tracking a submitted application and verifying a granted GSTIN are two different lookups on two different screens. To verify a GST number in full, including its structure and what each part of it encodes, use the GST number page.

A GST registration status is the portal's one-line record of where your application sits under Rule 8 and Rule 9, and each string carries a different obligation. Pending for Processing and Clarification filed – Pending for order are waiting states in which you have nothing to file. Pending for Clarification is the only status that puts a deadline on you: 7 working days to reply in Form GST REG-04. Site Verification Assigned means the application has been marked for a site visit under Rule 25, and you file nothing. Approved - Application is Approved and Rejected end the application, one with Form GST REG-06 and the other with Form GST REG-05.

• Pending for Processing: your application sits with the Tax Officer, unqueried. File nothing; allow 7 working days.
• Pending for Clarification: a notice in Form GST REG-03 is open. Reply in Form GST REG-04 within 7 working days.
• Approved - Application is Approved: registration is granted. Download Form GST REG-06 at Services > User Services > View/Download Certificates.

Where Pending for Clarification or Rejected is the answer, the 7-working-day window and the order behind it are worked through on the page about how to reply and reapply.

gst.gov.in colour-codes the ARN on the registration screen: green for the approved registration application, red for the rejected registration application, and orange for the Pending for Processing and Pending for order registration application. The colour legend writes “order” in lower case, and so does the tracker's own Clarification filed – Pending for order.

Withdrawn on a registration application is not the same thing as withdrawing from the Rule 14A option. Withdrawal from Rule 14A is a separate application in Form GST REG-32, filed at Services > Registration > Application for Withdrawal from Rule 14A, and is answered by an order in Form GST REG-33.

What the tracker gives back is a status string and a stage bar, and nothing more. What Search Taxpayer gives back for a GSTIN already granted is longer: GSTIN/UIN, Legal Name of Business, Trade Name, Effective date of registration, Constitution of Business, Principal Place of Business, Date of Cancellation and Details of Return Filed.

How do you read the coloured stage bar?

The detailed status screen draws your application as a row of stages. Stages up to and including the current stage are green, and every later stage is greyed out. A withdrawn application shows only two stages. An application tracked by SRN shows the MCA stages first, where COI means Certificate of Incorporation.

What does the tracker show if you opted for registration under Rule 14A?

An applicant who selected Yes in the Option for registration under 14A field sees a different status screen after clicking SEARCH. Rule 14A is the optional simplified route for applicants whose monthly output tax liability on supplies to registered persons stays within the prescribed limit. Exit from the option is a separate application in Form GST REG-32, answered by an order in Form GST REG-33.

The Track Application Status screen carries this note in the portal's own words:

You may search the status of Application of Withdrawal from Registration under Rule 14A through Track Application Status appearing under Registration Menu.

The route, the form and the order that follow a withdrawal from Rule 14A are set out on the Rule 14A page.

What happens after the status turns Approved?

The registration ID and password are emailed to the applicant when the Tax Officer approves the application. If that email is lost, open Services > Registration > Track Application Status, enter the ARN and the captcha, click SEARCH, and click the click here hyperlink on the detailed status screen to have the login credentials re-sent by email and SMS.

Five different numbers exist around a GST registration and each answers a different question. The Temporary Reference Number (TRN) is generated when Part A is completed, is valid for 15 days, and opens an application you have not yet submitted. The Application Reference Number (ARN) is generated when a submitted application passes validation, and is the only number that tracks a GST-Portal application in progress. The Service Request Number (SRN) and Financial Reference Number (FRN) track applications that originated on the MCA and IFSCA Portals. The GSTIN is the 15-character number granted on approval, and it verifies a registration that already exists.

The 15-day validity of a TRN is not the fifteen days in Rule 8(4A). The TRN's 15 days is the time you have to submit Part B before the TRN and everything filled against it is purged. Rule 8(4A)'s fifteen days fixes the deemed date of submission of the application: the earlier of the date Aadhaar authentication is completed, or 15 days from the submission of the application in Part B of Form GST REG-01. Every period in the status table runs from that deemed date, not from the day you opened the portal.

The ARN receipt is sent to the registered email address and mobile number within 15 minutes of submitting the application, so search that mailbox first. If the receipt is gone, open Services > Registration > New Registration with the Temporary Reference Number (TRN), which opens the My Saved Application page carrying the application and its status. If a CA or GST practitioner filed for you, the ARN is in their portal record. You cannot recover an ARN from a PAN: Search Taxpayer > Search by PAN returns GSTINs already granted against that PAN, and returns nothing at all for an application still pending.

The TRN route works only inside the TRN's 15-day life. No status lookup on the GST portal accepts a PAN for a pending application. The ARN is also printed on the acknowledgement in Form GST REG-02, and the acknowledgement PDF can be re-downloaded from the ARN hyperlink on the detailed status screen.

Every waiting status on the tracker has a statutory period behind it, and Rule 9 of the CGST Rules, 2017 sets all of them. An ordinary application is decided within 7 working days from the date of submission of the application. An application marked for physical verification of the place of business is decided within 30 days from the date of submission of the application; 30 calendar days, not working days. A notice in Form GST REG-03 gives you 7 working days from the date of receipt of the notice to reply. The officer then has 7 working days from the date of receipt of the clarification.

The same periods keyed to events rather than to statuses, with the whole approval calendar worked through, are on the page about GST registration time.

No status on the tracker is entitled to 21 working days. There is no 21-working-day period anywhere in the current GST registration rules; the figure was replaced on 22 December 2020 by Notification No. 94/2020-Central Tax, which substituted 7 working days and 30 days into Rule 9. Pages published and updated in 2026 still repeat it.

A GST registration is deemed approved under Rule 9(5) if the proper officer takes no action within the applicable period: 7 working days from the date of submission of the application, 30 days in physical-verification cases, or 7 working days from the date of receipt of the clarification. Before relying on that, check three things in order. Check whether an ARN was ever generated, because a biometric-flagged or non-Aadhaar applicant who misses the 15-day Facilitation Centre window gets no ARN at all. Check Services > User Services > View Notices and Orders for a notice you have not seen. Then escalate.

• Confirm an ARN exists before counting any days. An applicant flagged into biometric-based Aadhaar authentication, or one who declined Aadhaar authentication, gets no ARN at all if the Facilitation Centre visit is not completed within 15 days, and the application is treated as never submitted. Where the ARN never arrived because something broke on the portal instead, start with GST registration portal errors.
• Read the notices before assuming silence. A notice in Form GST REG-03 is at Services > User Services > View Notices and Orders, and the 7 working days to reply in Form GST REG-04 run from its receipt, not from the day you happen to look.
• Hold the officer to the documents in the form. CBIC Instruction No. 03/2025-GST dated 17 April 2025 permits officers to seek only the documents listed in Form GST REG-01, requires non-risky applications to be approved within 7 working days and flagged applications within 30 days after physical verification, and permits a query only with the approval of the Deputy or Assistant Commissioner.
• Raise a ticket first, on the channel built for it. GSTN's Self Service Portal takes portal and processing failures: go to selfservice.gstsystem.in, choose Report Issue, select the category Registration - New Registration and the sub-category that matches. New Registration-Deemed Approval Pending after 7 days and New Registration-Application not visible to Tax Officers are the two that fit a stalled ARN. Click "No, I want to lodge my complaint" when the auto-served FAQ does not solve it, and keep the ticket number. Track it at selfservice.gstsystem.in/IssueStatus.aspx.
• Use the national grievance portal the GST portal itself links to. The gst.gov.in footer carries Log/Track Your Issue: Grievance Redressal Portal for GST, and, under Help and Taxpayer Facilities, a Grievance Nodal Officers link.
• Send each grievance to the right channel. The national Grievance Redressal Portal handles portal and technical grievances. The CGST Zone email route below handles an officer's conduct on a Central-jurisdiction ARN, under CBIC Instruction No. 04/2025-GST. They are different remedies, so a complaint about a stalled screen and a complaint about a stalled officer do not go to the same place.
• Escalate an officer, not a portal fault, to your CGST Zone. Where the ARN is under Central jurisdiction, CBIC Instruction No. 04/2025-GST dated 2 May 2025 (F.No. CBIC-20016/24/2025-GST) lets the applicant approach the jurisdictional Zonal Principal Chief Commissioner or Chief Commissioner by email, sending the ARN, the jurisdiction and a plain description of the issue. The Instruction publishes no address; each Zone publicises its own, so find the one your Zone has notified. Delhi publicises grievance.cgstdelhi@gov.in in CGST and CX Delhi Zone Trade Notice No. 01/2025, still published at gstdelhizone.gov.in/new-pdfs/grievance-redressal.pdf. Bengaluru publicises its address in Public Notice No. 01/2025 dated 9 May 2025. Below the Delhi Zone, Delhi North publicises cgstdelhin-helpdesk@gov.in and Delhi East helpdesk.cgstdelhie@gov.in; no equivalent is published for Delhi South or Delhi West, where the Zonal cell is the route.
• A State-jurisdiction ARN has no national route. State models differ structurally, so use that State's own grievance channel. Delhi State is the clearest case: the Department of Trade and Taxes has no registration grievance cell, no nodal officer and no equivalent of Instruction No. 04/2025-GST, and what exists is a GST Facilitation Centre at Vyapar Bhawan, IP Estate, and ctt.delhi@nic.in. CPGRAMS at pgportal.gov.in is the universal fallback, and a State grievance sent to a CGST Zone must be forwarded on under paragraph 2(iii) of the Instruction.

The tracker shows the state of the application and not the reason for it. The reason is always in a document, and the document is always at Services > User Services > View Notices and Orders.

Provisional, Migrated, Validation Against Error, Pending for Verification and Cancelled belong to the 2017 provisional-ID and enrolment route, not to a fresh application in Form GST REG-01. A large part of the published advice on GST registration status still lists them as the values the tracker returns. Nor will the tracker return Draft, Pending for Validation, Validation Error or a standalone Pending for Order, all four of which are widely published as status values and none of which appears in GSTN's own status list. The tracker returns exactly nine strings, and they are in the table above.