The North Dakota Secretary of State, at 600 East Boulevard Avenue in Bismarck and on 701-328-2900, registers corporations, limited liability companies, partnerships, cooperatives and trade names through its Business Services team, and its business services page says that most registrations and maintenance run through the FirstStop Portal. The FirstStop business search asks for search criteria with an Advanced option beside it, and the same portal carries the trademark, contractor, charitable organization and notary searches, lists, and a data list request service.
The office is unusually frank about what the register proves. Its maintain registration page carries a Business Ownership Verification note stating that a business registration does not document the ownership of a business: the filing lists incorporators, organizers and general partners, who may not be the owners, the annual report lists officers, directors, managers, governors or general partners with no requirement to name owners, and only a professional, farm or ranch or authorized livestock farm corporation shows its shareholders. For North Dakota businesses by place, see the North Dakota county pages.
- Twenty dollars: a Certificate of Good Standing through a Request Certificate form in FirstStop, or a Certificate of Fact by email or telephone.
- Five deadlines: March 31 for partnerships, April 15 for farm entities, May 15 for foreign corporations, August 1 for domestic corporations, November 15 for LLCs.
- Twenty, then sixty: the late fee on a corporate report within ninety days of its date and after it, on top of the twenty five dollar report.
- Three months, then one year: Not Good Standing three months after the deadline, and dissolution by operation of law a year after it.
Written by SearchSystems.net from North Dakota's own systems: the North Dakota Secretary of State business services page, the maintain registration page, the register a business page, the corporation business structure page, the limited liability company business structure page, the sole proprietorship page, the registered agents page, the April 15, 2025 release on misleading annual report letters, the FirstStop Portal business search, Chapter 10-19.1 of the North Dakota Century Code, the Business Corporation Act, Chapter 10-32.1 of the Century Code, the Limited Liability Company Act, Chapter 47-25 of the Century Code on trade names, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Five deadlines, and what the report carries
The maintain registration page sets the calendar by entity type: limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, limited liability limited partnerships, professional limited liability partnerships and cooperatives by March 31; farming or ranching and authorized livestock farm corporations and LLCs by April 15; foreign business and professional corporations by May 15; domestic business and professional corporations by August 1; and limited liability companies and professional LLCs by November 15.
A new business files its first report in the year after the calendar year it registered, and the report must be received by the deadline or incur a late fee. Section 10-19.1-146 of the Business Corporation Act lists what a corporation reports: its registered office and agent, its principal executive office, a brief statement of the character of the business it actually conducts in the state, the names and addresses of its officers and directors, and, for a domestic corporation, its authorized and issued shares by class and series.
The office may destroy the reports after six years on file. The page adds that the report asks for no financial statements, that farm and ranch entities add their shares, membership interests and the land they own or lease, and that sole proprietorships and general partnerships file no report at all.
Twenty five or fifty dollars, and the late fees that follow
The corporation page prices registration at one hundred dollars domestic and one hundred forty five foreign and the annual report at twenty five dollars for either, with an amendment at twenty or forty, a dissolution at twenty and a withdrawal at twenty; the LLC page prices registration at one hundred thirty five dollars and the annual report at fifty. Section 10-19.1-147 of the corporation act sets the penalties a corporate record will show: a late filing fee of twenty dollars within ninety days of the deadline, sixty dollars after that, and a reinstatement fee of one hundred thirty five dollars after involuntary dissolution or revocation, none of it refundable if the report is rejected for missing information or short payment.
The same section prices a certified copy of any record at fifteen dollars for the certificate and seal plus the copying charge, any other statement at ten dollars, and a document submitted for approval before filing at half the filing fee. The Secretary of State April 2025 release gives the report fees across the board: ten dollars for nonprofits, twenty for cooperatives, twenty five for corporations and reporting partnerships, and fifty for LLCs.
Not Good Standing, then dissolved by operation of law
The consequences are mechanical. Under Section 10-19.1-146, three months after its deadline a corporation that has not filed is not in good standing, and the Secretary of State mails a notice of impending dissolution or revocation to the last registered agent; filing the report with the fee and the late penalty restores good standing. A corporation that has still not filed one year after the deadline ceases to exist and is considered involuntarily dissolved by operation of law, and a foreign corporation forfeits its authority, with the decision on a foreign revocation final.
The maintain registration page describes the same path in plain words: a business that misses its report is placed into Not Good Standing, which many lenders, investors and vendors treat as disqualifying because they require a Certificate of Good Standing, and is typically terminated six to twelve months later. Reinstatement after dissolution for a missed report is allowed only by filing the most recent past due report with the fees and penalties for every missed report and the reinstatement fee, and only within one year of the dissolution or revocation; the page says to contact the office for reinstatement options.
Failing to keep a registered agent, who must have a physical North Dakota address and may be the office own listed commercial agent, leads the same way.
Certificates of good standing and of fact
A Certificate of Good Standing is ordered by submitting a Request Certificate form in the FirstStop Portal and paying twenty dollars, and a researcher can first check whether a business is active or in good standing through the portal search. A Certificate of Fact, for a point the standard certificate does not cover, is requested by email or on 701-328-2900, paid by card over the telephone or by check, cash or money order, at fifteen dollars for a trade name or fictitious partnership name and twenty for any other business structure.
The office books appointments online for help with a registration, virtual or in person, and takes walk ins during business hours. A foreign corporation applying for authority must bring a certificate of good standing or existence from its home state with its application under Section 10-19.1-147.
Trade names that name their owner
North Dakota registers trade names at the state, and under Chapter 47-25 of the Century Code a person or organization may not engage in business under one until it is registered. The registration states the trade name, the name and address of the owner of the business, with the state of organization if the owner is an entity, the principal place of business and the nature of the business in detail. The register a business page defines a trade name as a name that leaves out the surname of an individual proprietor, the first name and surname where a license is required, or the original name of an organization, including any acronym or shortened version of a real name, and says registration grants the exclusive right to the name in North Dakota and establishes a public record from which the name of the owner of the business can be identified, though it does not check the federal trademark register.
Registration costs twenty five dollars, renews every five years for twenty five, and is canceled for ten; a consent to use a name costs ten dollars and an assignment twenty five, with a transfer leaving the five year clock untouched. The maintain registration page warns that a trade name owner may not be the ultimate owner when the registrant is itself an entity, and the sole proprietorship page confirms that a proprietor trading under his own name never registers at all.
The letters of April 2025
On April 15, 2025 Secretary of State Michael Howe issued a warning about letters offering to file annual reports on behalf of North Dakota businesses and nonprofits, which may appear to be working with his office, look like a bill, ask for hefty fees and press for urgency. The release makes two comparisons: the third parties charge fees in excess of ninety dollars to file a report that costs ten to fifty dollars, and they tell the business to allow multiple weeks for the filing when most reports submitted directly to the Secretary of State are filed as soon as they are received.
The maintain registration page keeps the same advice beside its annual report instructions, telling a business that receives such a letter to be skeptical and linking an example of the solicitation. For the person level checks that a business record never performs, the North Dakota background check guide covers the Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Questions about looking up a North Dakota business
Related North Dakota records
The other North Dakota guides on this site are the North Dakota public records law guide for the open records statute, the North Dakota court records guide for the district court search, the North Dakota property records guide for the county recorders, and the North Dakota county pages for every county office.