Change Name MyKad Malaysia 2026: JPN Fees & Forms

Change name MyKad Malaysia is what people search after a wedding, a conversion, a spelling that has been wrong since primary school, or simply a name they have never liked. The search goes badly, because JPN does not run a service called that.

What exists is Pindaan Butiran Kad Pengenalan — amendment of identity card particulars — and the difference is the whole article. Alamak. Its stated legal basis is fixing a particular that is wrong (Regulation 14), not granting a preferred name on request — but JPN’s own document list does recognise specific circumstances where the name itself changes, chiefly a change of religion, each with its own supporting documents.

Quick Answer: there is no general name-change counter in Malaysia. JPN’s identity-card amendment runs on Regulation 14 of the National Registration Regulations 1990 (Amendment 2007), which applies to a card holder who finds particulars that are incorrect. You fill Form JPN.KP16 at a JPN counter, pay RM10.00 to process it, and RM10.00 more for the new card if it is approved.

• Where: any JPN counter, in person. It is not on JPN’s list of online services.
• Cost: RM10.00 processing for citizens and non-citizens, then RM10.00 for a citizen’s replacement card or RM40.00 for a non-citizen’s.
• How long: JPN publishes no charter period for this application at all. What it does publish is card production — 30 minutes at headquarters or a branch with a printing machine, otherwise 5 working days in the Peninsular and 7 working days in Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan.
• Catch: the birth certificate is a separate file with its own rules, and for a name it mostly cannot be changed after the child turns 1.

What it is notWhat changesFee and timing

The Counter Exists. The Service You Imagined Does Not.

JPN lists twelve identity-card services — the first MyKad at 12, late registration, the replacement at 18, cards for non-citizens, replacements for loss and damage, the address-change replacement, register extracts, and one called amendment of particulars. Nothing on that list is a name change on request.

The amendment page states its own reason plainly: Regulation 14 of the National Registration Regulations 1990 (Amendment 2007) provides that the bearer of an identity card who discovers that it contains particulars which to his knowledge are incorrect shall apply to amend them. That is a duty to correct an error, phrased as a duty. It is not a permission to pick a new name.

⚠️ Editor’s Note: two JPN birth-register pages list, among the supporting documents, a “letter of approval to change name from the Identity Card Division, NRD” — in BM, surat kelulusan penukaran nama daripada Bahagian Kad Pengenalan, JPN. So that letter exists, and the Identity Card Division issues it. What none of the JPN pages we read sets out is how you apply for it on its own: no service page, no form number, no fee, no eligibility test. Ask at the counter and get the answer in writing.

What JPN Will Amend, and What It Will Not

Read the supporting-document list and the real shape of the service appears. JPN wants a document proving the particular changed, and the documents it names tell you which changes it expects:

• A religion change. The card certifying embracing of Islam from the Islamic Religious Department or State Islamic Religious Council — required, JPN writes, “regardless of name change or name retention”. For a change from Islam, and for changing a Muslim name to a non-Muslim one, JPN asks for a Shariah court order or certification from the Islamic Religious Council or Department. For Buddhism, Hinduism or Sikhism it asks for a baptism certificate or confirmation of the faith where the religion change affects the name; if the original name is kept, only Appendix “A” is filled at the counter and no supporting documents are needed.
• Entering a husband’s name. Marriage Certificate KC07 issued by JPN — and JPN limits this one to those married to foreign citizens only.
• Anything else the department asks for to support the amendment — an open clause for cases the standard list does not cover.

One thing that looks like this service but is not: a change of address. That runs on Regulation 15, a separate application, for anyone who moves somewhere they will stay 90 days or more — and JPN states flatly that the address on the chip cannot be changed without a replacement card being issued. Photo rules, chip failure, lost cards and fines are all in our MyKad replacement guide; this article does not repeat them.

Fees, and the Timeline Nobody Publishes

There are two fees, not one, and the second only lands if the amendment is approved. Timing is the honest gap: we went through the service page, the identity-card FAQ, the charter page and all 24 pages of the 2026 charter PDF, and there is no charter row for an amendment of particulars anywhere.

⚠️ Editor’s Note — do not read the 3-month row as your answer: that 3 months belongs to a row headed “problematic MyKad application”, and JPN nowhere defines what makes an application problematic or says that an amendment of particulars is one. Worth knowing about the same PDF: it is laid out as a comparison between the June 2024 charter and a May 2026 departmental update, and both columns show 3 months.

What to Bring, and When the Counter Is Open

JPN asks for originals and copies, and it asks for the completed JPN.KP16 — which you get at the counter, not from the website. JPN says plainly that the forms on its portal are reference copies that may not be printed and used for a transaction.

• Your identity card. You must already hold one — JPN states that applicants without an existing identity card may not apply.
• Birth certificate, or adoption certificate, or citizenship certificate, or confirmation of citizenship status, or entry permit — whichever applies.
• Your passport, if you have one.
• A statutory declaration. If the applicant is under 18, it must be made by a parent or guardian — and JPN defines guardian narrowly: grandfather, grandmother, aunt, uncle, elder sister or brother, over 21.
• The document that proves the change, from the list above (unless you are keeping your original name, when only Appendix A is needed). Turning up without the required document is what usually sends people back a second time.

Counter hours, as published on 30 July 2026: most states run Monday to Friday 8.00 am to 4.45 pm; Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu work Sunday to Wednesday with Thursday closing at 3.15 pm; UTC branches run 8.00 am to 7.00 pm on working days and 8.00 am to 5.00 pm at weekends, with no recess except on Friday. Friday recess varies by state, so check the page for yours.

One wrinkle before you plan a morning around it: JPN’s MyJanjiTemu appointment portal publishes different hours — state counters to 5.00 pm, Peninsular UTC counters to 9.00 pm — and still carries a temporary-closure notice dated 2021. Both pages are official. JPN itself advises calling the office first, and says hours may shift for public holidays or Ramadan.

After a Registered Conversion to Islam

The order matters, and it only runs one way: the religious authority registers the conversion and issues the card, then JPN updates the particulars against that card. JPN cannot do the first step, and the second step will not happen without the document from the first.

Registration is state business, so the counter depends on where you live. JAKIM’s national guideline states that a convert whose conversion has been confirmed may be registered at any Islamic Religious Office using the forms provided there. In the Federal Territories that office is JAWI, whose Cawangan Kebajikan Saudara Baru sits on level six west of Menara Pusat Islam, 50676 Kuala Lumpur, open Monday to Thursday 7.30 am to 4.30 pm. In Selangor it is the Bahagian Pendaftaran Muallaf dan Pembangunan PIBK at MAIS, on 03-3361 4000.

JAWI’s published procedure for an applicant aged 18 and above asks for residency in Kuala Lumpur, Labuan or Putrajaya, the original identity card (or passport with a valid visa for a non-citizen, plus a statutory declaration of religious status from their embassy), two identity-card sized photos, and two witnesses who are Muslim, at least 18, of sound mind and carrying an original identity card if Malaysian. The card is handed over only once registration is complete, and the applicant alone may claim it. Under 18, JAWI asks for the birth certificate if under 12 or the identity card if 12 to 17, plus a parent’s or guardian’s consent. The frame is the Administration of Islamic Law (Federal Territories) Act 1993 (Act 505) with the Muallaf registration rules of 2013 — and section 93 makes knowingly giving false or misleading information to the Registrar an offence carrying up to RM1,000.00 or six months’ imprisonment, or both.

⚠️ Editor’s Note — the card has three official names: JAWI calls it Kad Akuan Masuk Islam. MAIS calls it Kad Perakuan Memeluk Agama Islam, or Kad Islam. JPN’s document list calls it the card certifying embracing of Islam, Kad Memeluk Agama Islam. Same document, three counters, three names — so quote the issuing authority’s wording when you are asked for it. MAIS also publishes that a replacement Kad Islam is free of charge and ready in 1 day, subject to its stated terms, with a police report needed if the card was lost or stolen.

On leaving Islam, this guide says one thing and stops: JPN’s own document list requires a Shariah court order, or certification from the Islamic Religious Council or Department, before JPN will amend the particular — so speak to a Syariah lawyer, and see JKSM, the Syariah Judiciary Department, for court procedure. We are not going further than that.

The Birth Certificate Is a Different File

This is where most plans break. A new MyKad does not rewrite the birth register, and the birth register has its own windows.

In Peninsular Malaysia, JPN publishes a name change only under section 15(1), and only within one year of the date of birth — RM5.00, on Form JPN.LM21 with declaration form AM80 and family information form BMK81, applied for by a biological parent or a legal guardian holding a JKM custody letter. After that window, what is published is insertion of a name for a child registered without one: section 15(2)(A) for ages 1 to under 21, section 15(2)(B) for 21 and above, RM50.00 each. Or correction: a clerical error under section 27(2), free of charge, for JPN’s own spelling slips that do not change the facts; or a factual error under section 27(3), RM50.00, which the certificate’s owner may apply for themselves.

Section 27(3) carries the long supporting-document list, and the entries are revealing: the name-change approval letter from the Identity Card Division, an Islamic conversion certificate or card of a parent, a medical report with a Gender Reassignment Technical Committee report from a government hospital, a court order. Registering the birth itself has its own deadlines — that is our birth registration guide.

Sabah and Sarawak run different ordinances, and the difference bites here. Sarawak’s name change sits under section 13, again only within one year of birth, with fees stacked as RM2.00 registration plus RM5.00 approval plus RM5.00 for the extract, on Form VII and Form X with BMK81 and BMK 81A, a statutory declaration, photographs and declaration letters from the school and the Penghulu. Sabah’s factual-error route, section 30, is published as covering errors other than the name of a child — same RM2.00 plus RM5.00 plus RM5.00 stack, on Forms PSB 4 and PSB 4A. If yours is a Sabah or Sarawak name, ask that state’s JPN office before assuming a Peninsular section applies.

The New Card Is Not the Last Step

Two agencies read your card rather than your word, and both publish a counter transaction for it.

• JPJ. Its published list of counter transactions includes Aplikasi Kemaskini Rekod Lesen Memandu di dalam MyKad — updating the driving licence record inside the MyKad — alongside Permohonan Pinda Maklumat Lesen Memandu and Permohonan Pindaan/ Pembetulan Data Kenderaan for vehicle data. A new chip means the licence data living on it is a job of its own.
• Imigresen. A Malaysian international passport is applied for against the MyKad — for an adult born locally the listed documents are the MyKad and, on renewal, the previous passport. Validity is five or ten years from issue. Imigresen publishes nothing we could find about a card-and-passport name mismatch, so ask a passport office before you travel, not at the airport. Our passport renewal guide covers the ordinary case.

Beyond those two we are not inventing a checklist. Banks, employers, insurers, your EPF record — each runs its own procedure, and we found no official Malaysian government page setting out a duty or a deadline for any of them. Call each one and ask.

One Change Coming, Not Yet in Force

The National Registration (Amendment) Act 2025, Act A1769, received royal assent on 15 October 2025 and was gazetted on 28 October 2025. It inserts a definition of biometric data into the National Registration Act 1959 (Act 78) and adds a section 6A letting the Minister prescribe compoundable offences and the Director General compound them for up to fifty per centum of the maximum fine. But its own section 1(2) says it starts on a date the Minister appoints by notification in the Gazette — so until that notification, it changes nothing at the counter, and anyone telling you there is now a compound you can pay is ahead of the Gazette.

Walaoeh Verdict

Decide first whether you are correcting something or wanting something. Correcting a wrong particular is a real, cheap, well-documented transaction: JPN.KP16, RM10.00, plus RM10.00 for the card, with a document that proves the error. Wanting a different name outside a defined circumstance JPN recognises is not a service Malaysia publishes, and no amount of queueing turns it into one.

Two practical rules follow. Bring the proving document your circumstance needs (or confirm you qualify for the Appendix A shortcut) — that single omission is what usually sends people back a second time. And ask the officer, at the counter, to tell you the expected period and put it on your receipt or slip, because JPN publishes no charter period for this application and nobody online can honestly give you one.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Sources

Every figure here comes from an official Malaysian government page — jpn.gov.my, jawi.gov.my, mais.gov.my, islam.gov.my, jksm.gov.my, imi.gov.my, jpj.gov.my or lom.agc.gov.my — each fetched and checked on 14 September 2026. Where two official pages disagree, both are shown above. Three of these documents are scanned PDFs with no text layer and were read by optical character recognition of the page images.

• JPN — Application for Amendment of Identity Card Particulars (the fees, the form, the documents)
• JPN — Permohonan Pindaan Butiran Kad Pengenalan (the BM original of the same page)
• JPN — the full list of identity-card services
• JPN — address-change replacement, the Regulation 15 application
• JPN — Identity Card FAQ (card production times, payment methods)
• JPN — Client Charter summary page
• JPN — Piagam Pelanggan Urus Niaga Utama 2026 (the full charter, scanned)
• JPN — counter operating hours by state
• JPN — e-services index (what is genuinely online)
• JPN — MyJanjiTemu appointment portal (the page with the different hours)
• JPN — change of a child’s name, section 15(1), Peninsular
• JPN — correction of a factual error, section 27(3), Peninsular (the page naming the Identity Card Division letter)
• JPN — correction of a clerical error, section 27(2), Peninsular
• JPN — change of a child’s name, section 13, Sarawak
• JPN — correction of a factual error, section 30, Sabah
• JAWI — conversion registration and issuance of the Kad Akuan Masuk Islam
• MAIS — Bahagian Pendaftaran Muallaf (Selangor documents, replacement card)
• JAKIM — Garis Panduan Pengurusan Saudara Baru (Muallaf)
• JKSM — Syariah Judiciary Department of Malaysia (court procedure)
• JPJ — list of counter transactions (the MyKad licence-record update)
• Imigresen — Malaysian International Passport requirements
• Laws of Malaysia — search the federal legislation portal (National Registration (Amendment) Act 2025, Act A1769)

JPN customer service: 03-8000 8000, fax 03-8880 8288, email [email protected], or e-Enquiry through SISPAA. JAWI Cawangan Kebajikan Saudara Baru: 03-2274 9333. MAIS Bahagian Pendaftaran Muallaf: 03-3361 4000, email [email protected]. One note on sourcing: the brief for this article named legislation.gov.my, a hostname that does not resolve — Malaysia’s official legislation portal is lom.agc.gov.my, run by the Attorney General’s Chambers, and that is what we used.