How to Obtain a Certificate of Authority in California ?

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Introduction :

If you are ready to do business in California, then here are the steps to get a Certificate of Authority to put you on the road to success.

You must obtain a foreign qualification and a California Certificate of authority, if you have registered your enterprise somewhere other than California and you transact intrastate business in the state.

If you are running your business in California and you do not have the proper authorization to run your business in California, then there is a risk of fines and penalties .

Obtaining a foreign qualification and California Certificate of Authority for doing business requires a bit of paperwork gathering.

Steps :

The five steps for this are given below :

1. Fill the Application forms

Depending on the type of entity you have registered in another state you must file California Certificate of Authority accordingly.

For example the appropriate Certificate Authority for California for a Limited Partnership (LP), you must submit an application for registration of a Foreign Limited Partnership (LP) (form-LP-5), for a Limited Liability Company (LLC) you must submit the application to register a Foreign Limited Liability Company in California (LLC) (FORM LLC-5)

In all the application forms you have to provide the same basic information regarding your business such as its name, address state in which it was integrated, the date of integration and the name and address of the company’s registered agent in California.

2. Get a Certificate of Good Standing

You must also file a certificate of good standing as a part of the application.

Which certifies that your business is up to date from the state in which you have registered your company.

This certificate must not be more than six months old

3. Make Sure that Your Business Name is Available

At the time of registering a foreign LLC in California,it must be sure that your business name is not used by another company.

You may perform an online preliminary name search yourself or request the California Secretary of State to perform the search for you at no charge.

If your is not available, you must file a DBA (Doing Business As) with California.

4. Designate a Registered Agent

California requires that,all the companies continuing business in the state must have a registered agent.

The registered agent is a person or entity, located within the state, that agrees to accept services of process and other documents on behalf of the company.

For Foreign qualification in California, you must list these information on your application.

5. File the paperworks and pay the appropriate fees.

In this step all the above documents are filled in the form and the required fees are paid to the California Secretary of State Business Programs Division.

It is an agency that regulates businesses in California.

For faster processing of your file, you can pay an extra fee.

To avoid being penalized or fined for running business in California without proper authorization, always follow all the required steps carefully .