Pennsylvania Foreign Registration · Do it yourself
Filing a Pennsylvania foreign LLC registration yourself
Registering without help costs the $250 state fee: complete DSCB:15-412 and the docketing statement, sign, and send them with the fee. This page lists what to gather, the screens and boxes in order, the two filing routes and the places where filings stall. If you would rather hand it over, order through us for $199.
Gather first
Collect the LLC's name spelled exactly as the home state records it, the entity type, the state of formation, the address of the principal office, any office the home state requires, a Pennsylvania street address or the name and county of a registered office provider, who will sign and in what capacity, and an email address for the filed copy. For the docketing statement collect the person responsible for initial tax reports, a short description of the business, the federal employer identification number and the month and day of the fiscal year end. If the LLC has no federal number yet, the form notes that one can be obtained at once from the IRS online.
Check the name
Search the Department's business name records before anything else. The name has to differ from every name already on file, and it needs a designator: the term company, limited or limited liability company, an abbreviation of one of those terms, or words of like import used in the home state. If it fails, you will use an alternate name in item 2A, and every later filing must carry it. A name with a restricted word may need an agency's approval, which would be attached.
Decide the registered office
If you have a Pennsylvania street address, use it. If you do not, contract with a commercial registered office provider and list that provider and the county; the Department warns that listing a provider without a contract can bring civil and criminal penalties. A post office box will not do.
The online route
Online filing is offered at corporations.pa.gov. Annual reports and amendments run through the Business Filing Services portal at file.dos.pa.gov, where you register an account, find the company under business search and use the icon for the filing you need. Keep the filing receipt and download the filed copy when the email link arrives.
The paper route
Print DSCB:15-412 and the docketing statement, type them or write legibly in black or blue-black ink, sign, and mail both with the check to P.O. Box 8722, Harrisburg, PA 17105-8722. The check is payable to the Department of State, pre-printed with your name and address, signed, and no older than six months. Cash and cards are refused. Put a return mailing address in the top block and, if you want the filed copy by email, an email address.
Fill in the form, item by item
Item 1, the type of association. Item 2, the home name; 2A only if needed. Item 3, the jurisdiction. Item 4, the principal office; 4A the home office if required. Item 5, the Pennsylvania office or provider. Item 6, series yes or no. Item 7, effective on filing or on a future date. Item 8, the professional services box for LLCs. Then the date, the company name, a signature and the title of the signer. The form walkthrough says what each line wants.
Pay and consider speed
Send $250. If time matters, same-day, three-hour and one-hour services cost $100, $300 and $1,000, and a paper filer includes an expedited service request form with each. They cannot be requested through the mail.
Where do-it-yourself filings stall
Five points are worth checking before you send. The address must be more than a post office box. The name must differ from any already registered and carry a designator. The check should be pre-printed, signed and current. The docketing statement must be enclosed. The effective date must not be in the past. Fees are not refunded for a rejected filing, so each stall costs the fee again.
After you file
Calendar the annual report: an LLC's is due by September 30, costs $7, and is filed online. A postcard notice is mailed to a street-address registered office at least two months before the annual report deadline, and a registered office provider receives none, so a company that uses a provider should watch the date itself. The company can then use the business search to check its status.
The annual report, step by step
Register for an account in the portal if you have none. Log in and search for the company under business search. Click the annual report icon; no PIN is required. Complete the form with information current on the filing date. After it is processed, the form and an acknowledgement letter are ready to download. The Department says it averages five to ten minutes online.
Read the instructions first
The instructions that come with DSCB:15-412 run longer than the form itself. They explain who files, the name rules by type of entity, each numbered item, the attachments and the affirmation the signature makes.
Costs to expect
The state fee is $250. Add $100, $300 or $1,000 if you buy a faster tier, and $40 if you want a certificate of registration for a bank. The annual report is $7 each year. A registered office provider charges its own fee, which is outside the Department's schedule.
What to keep afterwards
Keep the filed statement and the docketing statement with the company records, the proof of the check or payment, the date of the filing, and a note of the annual report due date. If the office is held by a provider, keep the contract.
If the Department returns the filing
Read the reason, correct only what is named, and send it again with the fee, because fees are nonrefundable even for a rejected filing. Where the name was the issue, decide whether to use an alternate name in item 2A rather than change the company's name at home.
Timing the filing around your first sale
Register before the first Pennsylvania sale, lease or hire, not after. The rule is that registration comes before doing business, and the cost of waiting that the statute names is the bar on starting a lawsuit until the filing is made. A future effective date can line the registration up with the day the work begins.
When to hand it over
Filing alone suits one LLC with a clean name and a street address. A name that needs an alternate, a provider, several companies registering together, or a signer who is difficult to pin down all add steps, and those are the cases we take on.
Registering a foreign LLC in Pennsylvania on your own
Check the name
Search the Department records and confirm the designator.
Choose the office
A Pennsylvania street address, or a provider under contract and the county.
Complete the forms
Complete DSCB:15-412 and DSCB:15-134A.
Sign and pay
Sign; pay $250 by pre-printed check or money order.
File
Online at corporations.pa.gov or by mail to the Bureau.
Diary the report
Annual report due by September 30 for an LLC.
Handing it over
Prefer not to spend an afternoon on forms? Order through us at $199 plus the state fee, and the statement is prepared and sent in for you.
Registered agent: first year included, then $149 a year
$199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.
What you pay
Register in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania$199
+ $250 Pennsylvania fee
- The Foreign Registration Statement completed from your answers
- The docketing statement that travels with it
- A Pennsylvania registered office address, or a provider you already use
- Your filed copy returned to you
- Renewal: after the first year, the agent service renews at $149 a year
Pennsylvania's fee is $250, listed on its own line apart from ours. $199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.
Sources
- Pennsylvania Department of State, fees and payments
- DSCB:15-412, Foreign Registration Statement, with instructions
- Pennsylvania Department of State, foreign associations
- Pennsylvania Department of State, annual reports
- Pennsylvania Department of State, commercial registered office providers
- DSCB:15-134A, Docketing Statement, New Entity
- 15 Pa.C.S. 412, foreign registration statement
- DSCB:15-415/417, Statement of Withdrawal of Foreign Registration, with instructions
- 15 Pa.C.S. 411, registration to do business in this Commonwealth
- Pennsylvania Department of State, general rule and exclusions for registration of foreign associations
Ready to register in Pennsylvania?
Start the order and the statement is prepared for filing.