An IBJJF membership is required to compete in all championships run by IBJJF. Additionally, athletes who want to ultimately certify their Black Belt will need active membership registrations to count towards their degrees.

Previously, all IBJJF accounts needed to be registered under a unique email address. Since June 2024, Legal Guardians with more than one child may register all of their children under a single email address by creating a Legal Guardian profile and linking the profiles of the minor athletes to this account.

Please note that Athletes older than 18 years old must still register under a unique email address.

Moreover Adult athletes who wish to register their children do NOT need to open a new account as a Legal Guardian since the minors can be linked to their existing profiles.

In order to compete, athletes need to apply for an IBJJF membership under a registered academy and have one of the listed instructors sign their membership application.

Unfortunately, athletes are not allowed to register under professors or academies that are not registered at IBJJF.

We advise you to talk to your private instructor to discuss what academy you may be able to register under.

Please note the membership request will not be submitted for review until all of the required documents have been uploaded to the online request and until the professor approves the request via their own IBJJF account.

As of June 2024, professors have 7 days to approve their students’ requests via their own account.

If they do not approve the request within this time frame, the request expires and athletes are required to upload the membership form.

If that is the case, athletes will be notified by email.

Please note that Minor Athlete’s requests are slightly different as their accounts need to be linked to their Legal Guardian’s profile, if you have questions about Kids’ requests, please consult the KIDS / MINOR ATHLETES section of our FAQ.

If an athlete/parent completes payment for membership, but is not able to complete registration for the championship they wish to compete in, the membership fee cannot be cancelled or refunded.

Membership approval can take up to five business days after all documents are received and the request is approved by the professor. Once you are approved and completed payment, your membership is immediately active and you can register for open championships and rules seminars.

If any documents are missing in your request, the request will not be forwarded for review. Please make sure your request states “Doc. Waiting Approval”. If your request shows “Doc. Pending”, you have not yet uploaded all required documents.

Please keep in mind that if your professor does not approve the request on time and you are required to upload the Membership Form your request will only be reviewed after the form is uploaded.

If you wish to update any information on your membership WITHOUT RENEWING please follow the instructions below:

• Visit https://app.ibjjfdb.com/ and log into your account. Click on the “Update your membership” button directly below your information.
• Click on the “Update Data” option.
• Choose the information you would like to update and fill the sections accordingly.
• If you are updating your Belt Rank, Professor or Academy information, ask the listed professor to approve the change via their own IBJJF account.

Please be sure to use your existing account and do not create additional/duplicate accounts.

Please note that after confirming the information, it cannot be altered until the end of your update process.

Your data will be sent to the selected professor so that he can approve it online. You will be able to view the approval status in the tracking dashboard after your update data process is finished.

Keep an eye on your email inbox. Don’t forget to check your spam folder.

Be advised that by choosing the option to update your data the validity of your card will remain the same and you will not receive a new physical membership card, only the digital card will be updated.

To update or renew your membership please follow the instructions below:

• Visit https://app.ibjjfdb.com/ and log into your account. Click on the light blue button directly below your information.
• Choose “Early Renewal” to open a new membership request.
• Open a new membership request in your profile with your current belt rank, academy and professor
• Upload the required documents
• Ask the listed professor to approve the request online on their own IBJJF account.

Please be sure to use your existing account and do not create additional/duplicate accounts. 

If you cannot remember your login, please access https://app.ibjjfdb.com and follow the instructions to retrieve your account details.

Once all documents have been approved and payment is completed, you will be able to register for any future IBJJF tournament with open registration.

By choosing this option, a new expiration date takes place. The card expires 365 days from payment date and a physical card is issued. Please make sure all information is corrected since this card will only be printed once with no re-issues.

If the address on your membership request is incorrect, please contact our customer service at https://ibjjf.deskpro.com/en/new-ticket so they can cancel the request for you.

To change your email address, please access  https://app.ibjjfdb.com/.

Click on the link “Forgot your email?” and fill out the requested information. Once it reveals your registered email address, click “This is not my current email” to proceed with updating your account with a new email address.

Once you input the existing password and new email address, click “Update Email” to complete the process.

If you forgot your password, you are able to request a new one at https://app.ibjjfdb.com/

After entering your email address, click on “Next”. Then choose “Forgot your Password” to select the method where you would like to receive the verification code.

You will receive a verification code to input. If choosing email, please check your Spam email box as well.

Once you input and confirm your new password, click “Update Password”. This will update your password and you can then subsequently login with the new one.

If you forgot your registered email address in your existing account, you can retrieve your account details at www.ibjjfdb.com. 

Click “Forgot your email?” and input the required information. Once you retrieve your login email, you can request a new password using the “Forgot your password?” link.

If you no longer have access to the old email address, please access the Account Recovery feature in the login.

Please contact us using the listed email address in your profile with the desired changes and we will assist you. If you do not have access to that email address, please retrieve your account details at www.ibjjfdb.com.

If your membership has not been approved yet, you may start a new request with your correct information. Before proceeding to “waiting payment” you will be able to see a red button saying “cancel request”, once you cancel the request you will be able to open a new one with the correct information.

If your membership has already been approved, since we now have the option to update the information on your membership, if you need to change your personal information such as Belt Rank, Professor, Academy or address, you can do it by following the steps listed on the How do I update my membership information? Section.

Please be advised that if your address is incorrect on the request, if you complete the membership request and then try to update your address, the card will still be sent to the incorrect address listed on the request.

If the address on your membership request is incorrect and the request has already proceeded to pending payment, OR if you need to change information such as name or Birth Date,  please contact our customer service at https://ibjjf.deskpro.com/en/new-ticket so they can cancel the request or edit the information for you.

To renew your membership please follow the instructions below:

• Visit https://www.ibjjfdb.com/ and log into your account. Click on the yellow/orange button directly below your information.
• Open a new membership request in your profile with your current belt rank/academy.
• Upload a new membership form with the updated information signed and dated by the listed professor.

Please be sure to use your existing account and do not create additional/duplicate accounts.

It is likely that you do not have enough time in the system at your current rank to be promoted. Please fill out the attached Belt Records form and contact us with the completed form to review your account and assist you.

Yes, every time an athlete renews their membership, they must submit the membership form even if no information is changing.

This is to ensure all information is up to date and the professor is verifying its validity.

However, be advised that adult athletes can have their professor approve them online.

You will only need to renew your membership early if you wish to register for a tournament that takes place after your current expiration date.

Since we now have the option to update the information on your membership, if you need to change your personal information such as Belt Rank, Professor, Academy or address, you can do it by following the steps listed on the How do I update my membership information? Section.

Please note that memberships are active for 365 days from the payment date.

As of June 2024, professors have 3 days to approve ALL their students’ requests via their own account. This includes minor athletes’ requests.

If they do not approve their memberships within that time frame, athletes are able to upload the membership form available on their request.

Please download the form, fill it out and add it to your request. Please note that if you choose to upload the membership form, the professor needs to physically sign the form.

Your professor will still be able to approve the request via their own account if they wish.

Minor athletes may submit a birth certificate as their form of ID if they do not have a state ID, passport, or military ID.

Yes, as of June 2024, Legal Guardians with more than one child may register all of their children under a single email address by creating a Legal Guardian profile and linking the profiles of the minor athletes to this account.

Please note that Legal Guardians creating a profile to manage their child’s registration do NOT need to pay any fees nor register as an athlete.

For minors with pre-existing IBJJF accounts, please make sure that the Guardian’s account is created under a different email address than the one being used on the minor’s existing profile.

If you would like to remove the email address being used on the minor’s profile, please contact our Customer Service on https://ibjjf.deskpro.com/en/new-ticket

For Juvenile athletes (athletes who are 16 or 17 years old), they are able to have individual email addresses on their accounts together with their parents’ email addresses. Once an athlete turns 18 years old, the Legal Guardian’s email address is removed from their profile.

To register as a Legal Guardian, follow the steps below:

•  Visit https://app.ibjjfdb.com/ and create a new account. (Please note that at this step, when asked for the athlete’s information, you should add the Legal Guardian information, not the minor’s.)
•   Confirm your account with the code sent to your email address. *Make sure to check your spam folder.
•  Once the account has been created, click on “Add and manage an underage profile.”

If the athlete already has an IBJJF account, all you have to do is look up their IBJJF number and click on the magnifying glass icon.

If this is the first time you are registering a minor, you will need to fill out their personal information such as full name, birth date and address.

Once this is done, you will be required to submit the Guardian’s ID and an identification document for the minor athlete that contains the parent(s) name. As the documents are requested to prove the legal relationship between both parties, we advise you to submit the athlete’s birth certificate even if they already have a government-issued photo ID (e.g., passport or driver’s license).

Please note that additional documents might be required if the Legal Guardian’s name is not on the Birth Certificate or if the information does not match the one in their document (such as the name being different from the one on the document due to marriage, divorce or simply a name change).

For minors with pre-existing IBJJF accounts, please make sure that the Guardian’s account is created under a different email address than the one being used on the minor’s existing profile.

If you would like to remove the email address being used on the minor’s profile, please contact our Customer Service on https://ibjjf.deskpro.com/en/new-ticket

No. Parents or Guardians who are creating an account solely to manage their child’s profile and register them for tournaments do NOT need to register as athletes and do NOT need to pay any fees.

If you have started a membership request under your Guardian profile, please click on the red “cancel” button.

Be advised that you will only be able to register the minor for tournaments once their Guardian Link is approved, hence we ask you kindly to not try to open a membership request for them before the link is completed.

Yes, athletes can have as many Legal Guardians as they wish, as long as they are able to provide proper documentation regarding the relationship between both parties.

If you wish to register an additional Legal Guardian, all you have to do is create an account for the Guardian following the steps listed on the How do I create a Legal Guardian account? Section of this FAQ.

Since the Minor’s account will already be registered, please do not create a new account for them, you just need their IBJJF ID number and submit the required documentation.

No. Our Legal Guardianship system was established to ensure that Minor Athletes register with the consent of their Legal Guardian. The registered parent or guardian is not required to be the individual coaching the athlete or accompanying them to the tournament. However, we do advise to not leave children unsupervised during competitions.

Make sure that children under 12 years of age are with an adult at all times.

Please note that for competitions with a spectator fee  athletes under 18 years of age are able to bring one companion for free on the day they compete.

The Guardianship Request can take up to 5 business days to be reviewed by our staff after all documents have been uploaded into the request.

Please be advised that if the request still says “Complete Link” it means that documents are still missing and it did not proceed to be reviewed.

Athletes receive a provisional graduation when they register their Brown or Black Belt under IBJJF without having a registration of past graduations. Provisional athletes are:

• Brown Belts who never had a registration as a Purple Belt at IBJJF.
• Black Belts who never had a registration as a Brown Belt at IBJJF.

As a provisional athlete, you are required to remain registered under the same professor for 2 years from the date your first provisional membership was approved.

Renewing your membership under a new professor before the two year provisional period is lifted will force you to have to restart the 2 year provisional period from the beginning.

In addition, you cannot be the head instructor of an academy, but you can be the assistant instructor. Provisional Black belts are also not eligible to apply for their Black Belt Certification until the end of their two-year provisional period.

As a provisional athlete, you are required to remain registered under the same professor for 2 years from the date your first provisional membership was approved.

Renewing your membership under a new professor before the two year provisional period is lifted will force you to have to restart the 2 year provisional period from the beginning.

If you would still like to change academies, please contact us.

For USBJJF athletes, please allow up to 20 days after its print date to receive it in the mail.

For IBJJF athletes, please allow up to 45 days after its print date to receive it in the mail.

If you have not received your card and it has been longer than the allotted time we requested, please contact us.

You may request another card for a $10.00 USD replacement fee per unit. If you would like to do this, please contact us.