Georgia Foreign Registration / Do it yourself
Filing a Georgia foreign LLC registration yourself
Filing a Georgia foreign LLC registration yourself costs $235 in state charges and takes an online account or a stamp: the Secretary of State lets you answer questions on its eCorp site or mail a completed Form CD 241. Online is the Division's quickest route. Both routes follow, with the places filings lose time.
What to have on the desk
The Division's own list for an LLC is the LLC name or a name reservation number, the name and address of the filer, a valid email address, the principal office mailing address, the registered agent name and address, the manager name and address, and a form of payment. Put the home-state record beside you for item 3, and decide who the person responsible for managing the business is before you start, because item 6 asks for one name and address. Know your start date. The penalty note on the form is tied to it.
The online route, in order
Go to the Secretary of State's online services page
The Corporations Division runs its filings through eCorp.
Create a user account
You need one before you can start a filing, and a valid email address.
Choose to create or register a business
Then pick the option for registering a foreign (non-Georgia) business and select LLC as the entity type.
Answer the questions
The name, home details, principal office, agent, manager and start date. The Division builds the application from your answers; nothing paper is uploaded.
Clear the identity check if it appears
Some online filings send you through Experian identity verification before payment.
Pay
$235 by Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover.
Keep the confirmation
Then diary the annual registration for January 1 to April 1 of the year after.
The identity check
The FAQ explains that certain online filings send the filer to Experian before the payment page. You enter identifying details, including date of birth, address and the last four digits of a Social Security number, and answer five questions. A wrong answer brings five more. Fail the second set and you cannot proceed. Fail on a second consecutive attempt and the eCorp account is locked. The Secretary of State says it keeps no copy of the data and that the check is not a credit inquiry. Have the details ready.
The mail route
Download Form CD 241, complete it, sign it and post it with a check or money order for $235 to the Corporations Division at Office of Secretary of State, Corporations Division, 2 Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. SE, Suite 313 West Tower, Atlanta, Georgia 30334. The Division accepts no cash, and a returned check or dishonored card costs $30. A check must carry a pre-printed address, since counter and starter checks are refused, and each filing needs its own payment. Allow about 15 business days from the day the Division receives it, plus the post both ways.
Speed, and what it costs
The Division says online filings generally take about 7 business days. Review in two business days adds $120, the same day adds $275 for a request in before noon, and one hour adds $1,200. The expedited request has to name a person who can answer questions about it. For a mailed filing, the expedite fee is paid by money order or certified check.
Holding the name first
To hold the name while you gather the rest, reserve it for $25 plus the $10 service charge. The hold runs 30 days from approval and ends early if the filing goes in first. Item 1 has a line for the reservation number. The fee schedule also lists preclearance of documents at $100 plus the service charge, and each filing needs its own payment.
Where people get stuck
The start date is first. Owners enter the date they formed the LLC at home instead of the date business began in Georgia. The agent is next: a mail drop will not do, the LLC cannot appoint itself, and the agent should know about the appointment. The identity check trips up filers who did not expect it. Payment is a smaller snag: a check without a printed address, or one payment meant to cover two filings, will be turned back. And the annual registration is easily forgotten, because the first one is due in the year after the filing and nothing prompts it.
What the state fee buys, and what you do not get
The $235 buys the review and, on approval, a certificate of authority. It does not buy help with your answers; the Division reviews what you send. Filing alone saves our price and costs you a second reader of the form before it is sent. Fees are non-refundable, so an error costs a refiling.
After the filing: your own checklist
- Save the certificate of authority and the filed application.
- Write the April 1 deadline into two calendars.
- Tell the registered agent to forward anything from the Corporations Division.
- Check the entity's status on the Division's business search once a year, before April 1.
- If the LLC leaves Georgia, withdraw it instead of letting the filings lapse.
If you are close to day thirty
Close to the end of the thirty days, three choices matter. Pay for review: the same-day tier costs $275 and needs the request in before noon, and the two-day tier costs $120. File by mail only if the post can beat the deadline, because the Division's clock starts when it receives the package. And pick the effective date with care: item 8 allows a delayed date within 90 days, but the penalty note measures to the effective date, so a delay does not help.
A line-by-line prompt for the paper form
Item 1: the name, any reservation number, and the true start date. Item 2: the person filing, with an email. Item 3: home name, jurisdiction, formation date and duration, copied from the home record. Item 4: the principal place of business. Item 5: the agent, and a Georgia street address with the county. Item 6: the person who manages the business. Item 7: the records address. Item 8: upon filing, unless you have a reason to delay. Then the email line, the signature and the check.
What the confirmation means
Paying online does not mean the LLC is authorized. It means the Division has the filing. Authority exists once the filing is reviewed and approved and the certificate of authority is issued, which the Division puts at about 7 business days for an online filing unless you paid for review. Until then, keep the confirmation and note the date.
Doing it yourself: questions
Do I need to upload Form CD 241 when I file online?
No. The Division says online filers answer questions and the application is generated, with no paper form to upload.
Can I pay online with a debit card?
The FAQ says online orders can be processed with a major credit card or debit card.
What if I fail the identity check?
A second failed attempt locks the account, so file by mail instead.
Is there a way to file in person?
The fee schedule describes hand-delivered filings, which may be paid by check, money order or credit card.
Our price, then the Georgia fee
Register in Georgia
Georgia$199
+ $235 Georgia fee
- Form CD 241, prepared from your answers
- The thirty-day clock checked against your start date
- Our office as your Georgia agent, or the one you choose
- Your annual registration window, marked
- Renewal: after the first year, the agent service renews at $149 a year
Our price and the Georgia fee are separate lines at checkout. $199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.
Georgia Secretary of State sources
- Georgia Secretary of State, Form CD 241, Application for Certificate of Authority for Foreign Limited Liability Company (PDF)
- Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division filing fees and expedited processing (PDF)
- Georgia Secretary of State, how to file an annual registration
- Georgia Secretary of State, how to guide: register a foreign entity
- Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division business FAQ
Working in Georgia already?
Tell us the day it started. We file before the penalty window opens, or tell you plainly if it already has.