File for South Dakota authority on your own: the full walkthrough

Gather six things: the company name spelled as on the home-state record, the home state, the principal office's street and mailing addresses, the name and South Dakota address of your registered agent, the home certificate, and a card. Know who will sign for the company, too.

Business Services Online has a name availability search. Run the company name through it. A foreign LLC's name has to be distinguishable on the Secretary of State records from every corporation, limited partnership or company organized or authorized in the state, every reserved or registered name, and every fictitious name approved for a foreign company, and it has to include 'limited liability company', 'limited company', or one of the abbreviations L.L.C., LLC, L.C. or LC (limited may be written Ltd. and company Co.). If it fails, you will choose an alternate name for South Dakota, which is the name the company then uses here.

The application needs a commercial registered agent by name; or, with no commercial agent, a noncommercial registered agent by name and address, or the title of an office whose holder will receive service together with that person's business address. A commercial registered agent is one the state lists, and the system has a tool to search them. If you use an individual, give the person's actual South Dakota street address.

Expect to enter the company name (and an alternate name where its own does not meet South Dakota's naming rule), the state or jurisdiction under whose law it is formed, the street and mailing addresses of its principal office and of any office its home law requires, the series information where it may establish series, and the name and street and mailing address of its initial agent for service of process. Copy the company name and the home state from the certificate so the two match.

If you prefer paper, the same online tool builds the form so that you can print it, sign it and mail it with the fee and the certificate. The extra $15 paper surcharge applies, and the state says new paper filings take one to three business days on average. The mailing address is Secretary of State, 500 East Capitol Avenue, Suite 204, Pierre.

Have the agent's agreement in hand before you enter the name, because naming an agent tells the state that the agent agreed to serve. Have the home certificate signed by the official who keeps the company's file.

After approval the company has a business ID with the Secretary of State. You need it to file the annual report and to look the record up in the search tool, so write it into the company records the day the certificate arrives.

Expedited handling is available for $50, and the state defines it as completion sooner than the normal course of business on request. For an online filing that is already immediate, there is little to gain.

First: settle the name, pick the agent, order the home certificate. Filing day: complete the online screens and pay. Whenever the agent changes name or address, file the statement of change inside the thirty-day window. Each year: the annual report. Keep the certificate of authority and the receipt where the next officer of the company can find them.

To skip the screens, we draft the application, order the certificate and file for $199. The state's $750 is billed separately. The steps above are the ones we follow.