The main tool sits on the Find a Business page, where a business name or a business registry number brings up the record, including the registered agent. The search runs behind a picture captcha that the division added as a security measure, so automated lookups are not welcome. A second tool, the active business registration search, returns only active names in list form; the registry number is entered without its dash.
The third is for nonprofits. The Oregon nonprofit data lists every active nonprofit corporation as of the end of each month, refreshed at the start of the next, and lets a user filter by words in the name such as condominium or homeowner, by city or ZIP code, and by type, religious, social benefit, public benefit or charity, or members, then export the results to a spreadsheet. For records by place, see the Oregon county pages.
- Ten dollars: a Certificate of Existence ordered online, paid by card and received in minutes.
- Every two years: the renewal cycle of an assumed business name, which is registered for the counties the owner chooses.
- Two hundred and seventy five dollars: the yearly renewal for a foreign corporation, LLC or partnership, against a hundred for a domestic one.
- Thirty days: how long a resigning registered agent must keep accepting service after the division is notified.
Written by SearchSystems.net from Oregon's own systems: the Oregon Secretary of State Find a Business page, the active business registration search, the Oregon nonprofit data page, the business registry certificates page, the business registry fee schedule, the assumed business name registration page, the registered agents and service of process page, the business alerts page, the solicitation sample published by the division, each read on October 15, 2026 by the SearchSystems editorial team.
Assumed business names, registered by county
Oregon requires an assumed business name registration any time someone conducts business under a name that does not include their real and true name, and the registration is a public record held by the Corporation Division rather than a county clerk. The twist is geography. The application asks the owner to select the counties in which the name should be registered, and that choice keeps others from registering the same name in those counties, so the same assumed name can lawfully belong to different owners in different parts of the state. A search result should be read with its county list in mind.
The record lists each owner, added one at a time, whether an individual, an entity of record registered in Oregon, or an entity not of record such as a state agency, a municipality or some banks. It shows a principal office that may not be a post office box, a mail receiving agency, a mail forwarding business or a virtual office, and a short description of the activity, such as coffee shop or automotive repair. An assumed name may not carry LLC or Inc. unless an entity of that type owns it. A new registration costs fifty dollars and renewal is due every two years at fifty dollars.
Certificates and copies
The certificates page explains that Oregon has no certificate called good standing. Its Certificate of Existence is the equivalent, shows existence for any entity registered with the Secretary of State, and is ordered by logging into the Oregon Business Registry, paid by card, for ten dollars and received in minutes. Other certificates go on a paper request by fax or mail, never email, and are usually processed in five to ten business days: one proves a merger, one proves a name change, and a certificate showing that a company has no active record in Oregon is often required when the Department of Motor Vehicles needs proof that a lienholder no longer exists.
A certified copy of the whole document file or of a specific document costs fifteen dollars by form. Filings older than the printable images on the registry can be ordered as copies, and the division will run an archive search for an old entity not found in the database at all. An authentication or apostille can be added for documents going abroad, which is the one case where a Certificate of Existence must be ordered on paper.
Annual renewals and what they cost
Every Oregon entity renews each year, and the fee schedule makes the split between home and foreign companies plain. A domestic business or professional corporation, LLC, limited partnership, limited liability partnership, cooperative or business trust renews for a hundred dollars a year. The foreign version of each pays two hundred and seventy five. Domestic and foreign nonprofit corporations renew for fifty dollars. Amending the annual report, changing the registered agent or the business and mailing addresses, and asking for nondisclosure of a home address and phone number all cost nothing.
Formation is priced the same way: articles of incorporation or organization cost a hundred dollars for a domestic company and an application for authority two hundred and seventy five for a foreign one. A name reservation is a hundred dollars, and trademarks and service marks are registered for fifty dollars and renewed every five years. Fees are paid in advance and are not refundable.
The solicitations Oregon has published
The division keeps a business alerts page listing mailings owners have reported. Out of state companies calling themselves Workplace Compliance Services, also known as W.C.S. or C.P.S., and Business Compliance Services sent forms titled Annual Report Instruction Form or State Annual Report Renewal Notice that can easily be mistaken for state correspondence. C.P.S. also offered an OSHA safety manual for two hundred and ninety five dollars that OSHA gives away free, poster vendors charge a hundred and five dollars or more for employment posters that are generally free, and websites charge up to two hundred and fifty dollars for an employer identification number that the IRS issues at no cost.
The division also posts a copy of one 2025 mailing headed Oregon Annual Report, due May 23, 2025, warning that the company may be administratively dissolved or revoked and pointing to a busfile.org address and a QR code. Its own fine print says the site is owned by New Business Filing LLC and is not affiliated with any government office. Payments made to such solicitations can be reported to the Oregon Department of Justice.
Registered agents and serving an Oregon company
Every registered entity names a registered agent at a physical street address in Oregon, never a post office box or a mail forwarding business, because legal process has to be handed to a person. The registered agents page notes that an entity cannot be its own agent but an individual owner can, and that most Oregon businesses list an officer, owner or employee at the business address rather than paying a service. A registered office is also where the division mails renewal and late notices unless a separate mailing address is given.
When people find themselves named as an agent without consent, they can file a signed statement saying they never agreed, and the record then shows No Consenting Registered Agent on File until the company names a new agent, failing which it is administratively dissolved. A resigning agent must keep accepting service for thirty days after the division receives the resignation. If neither the business nor its agent can be served, the Secretary of State accepts service for twenty dollars per business or party served, sent by certified or registered mail or in person, with a statement that all other required attempts failed.
The division records the complaint but does not try to contact the business itself, and its role is ministerial, so serving it does not guarantee the law has been satisfied.
Office hours and other databases
The front desk at 255 Capitol Street NE, Suite 151, in Salem takes walk-ins from eight in the morning to five on weekdays, while the phone contact center at 503-986-2200 answers Monday through Thursday from eight to 4:30. The division also links a list of other government databases searchable by business name, including the Department of Agriculture licenses and the state financial regulators who license mortgage lenders, investment advisers, stockbrokers, collection agencies and pawnbrokers, which is often where a licensed Oregon business turns up when its registry record says little.
Questions about looking up a Oregon business
Related Oregon records
Other Oregon guides here are the Oregon public records law guide, the Oregon court records guide for lawsuits, the Oregon licenses guide for licensed trades and professions, and the Oregon county pages.