Formation fee
$135
One-time state fee for the formation certificate.
last verified 2026-07-17
record 34 of 51 · /llc/north-dakota/
North Dakota LLC
North Dakota's trade name can support a suit
The FirstStop portal is where a North Dakota LLC forms, with an annual report landing in the middle of November. The record carries verified absences in a row: no recurring entity tax, no expedited lane, no published standard processing time. Each of those was checked against the office rather than assumed.
the rest of this note
The trade name registers at state level, must be distinguishable from names already on record, and its statute lets the registered holder bring a civil suit prohibiting another's use of the name. The company itself is barred from the registered agent seat, a researched refusal on this sheet. An individual residing in the state may hold it, and a filed address must be a street address or rural route box in the state.
every claim above is a line below
Annual report
$50
Due Nov 15, printed as the state writes it.
last verified 2026-07-17
Franchise tax
none
No recurring state-level tax on an LLC here. The absence is verified against the state, not missing data.
verified absent 2026-08-08
Anonymous LLC
no
Member or organizer names reach the public formation record here.
last verified 2026-08-06
no source in the snapshot
Processing time
none published
This state publishes no standard processing time, which is not the same as filing instantly. This state sells no expedited service.
verified absent 2026-08-07
no source in the snapshot
Name designators
Must contain the words "limited liability company" or the abbreviation "LLC" or "L.L.C."
Accepted endings for the legal name. Statute: N.D.C.C. § 10-32.1-11.
last verified 2026-08-04
Name reservation
$10
Optional filing that holds the name for 1 year before you form.
last verified 2026-08-04
DBA
trade name
One statewide register; the filing costs $25.
last verified 2026-08-04
An individual as the agent
allowed
Whether a person may hold the seat, so nobody has to be hired. The terms North Dakota attaches, and the entity question, sit in the registered agent section.
last verified 2026-08-09
field 05 carries the date it was observed, not a promise: of the two halves beside it, only the expedited tiers are prices the state commits to
What are the North Dakota trade name rules?
North Dakota calls it the trade name, and keeps one statewide register for it. The state filing costs $25.
- Where an LLC files
- How long it lasts
-
5 years
A registration remains in force for five years from the date of the original registration and may be renewed within the ninety days before its expiration date by reregistering in the same manner as an original registration; the Secretary of State notifies the registrant at least ninety days before expiration (§ 47-25-04).
- Newspaper publication
-
not required
- What the filing protects
-
exclusive to the registrant
A North Dakota trade name carries more weight than most states' DBAs. Section 47-25-01(2) lets a person or organization that has registered a trade name institute a civil suit prohibiting any other person from using the name; § 47-25-03(1)(c) requires a trade name to be distinguishable in Secretary of State records from names already reserved or registered there; and § 10-32.1-11(1)(e)(4) folds registered trade names into the LLC name screen, so an active trade name blocks a later entity name that is not distinguishable from it.
- Where to search existing names
-
Registered trade names appear in the FirstStop business search alongside entity names.
one record, verified 2026-08-04 · N.D.C.C. § 47-25-01
What does it take to register an out-of-state LLC in North Dakota?
Registering an LLC formed elsewhere is its own filing in North Dakota. The registration costs $135. That price belongs to a separate filing event, so it enters no cost total on this site.
- Registration fee
-
$135
Flat $135.00 filing fee for the Foreign Business Limited Liability Company Certificate of Authority Application filed online through the FirstStop Portal; the LLC fees page prices registration the same for domestic and foreign LLCs.
- The official form
-
Foreign Business Limited Liability Company Certificate of Authority Application
- Filed with
-
North Dakota Secretary of State
- After registration
-
File the annual report each year (due November 15 for LLCs) and maintain a North Dakota registered agent with a physical address in the state.
one record, verified 2026-08-08
The same fee for every other jurisdiction sits on one page: foreign qualification fees for every jurisdiction.
Who may serve as the registered agent in North Dakota?
Who may serve as an LLC's registered agent is its own rule in North Dakota. North Dakota lets a natural person serve, so no commercial agent is required. The LLC itself may not hold the seat, which is a separate question.
- An individual as the agent
-
Allowed
in the state's words An individual residing in this state
- The LLC as its own agent
-
Not allowed
- A mailbox service as the address
-
not read at this pin
- Address rule
-
Whenever a provision of this chapter, other than subdivision d of subsection 1 of section 10-01.1-11 requires that a filing state an address, the filing must state: 1. An actual street address or rural route box number in this state; and 2. A mailing address in this state if different from the address under subsection 1.
one record, verified 2026-08-09
The same four answers for every other jurisdiction sit on one page: registered agent rules for every jurisdiction.
Where do these figures come from?
Every figure on this sheet renders from the pinned dataset snapshot, and each card links the page its own figure came from. This list collects those pages in one place, with the duplicates removed and the agency named.
- Formation and annual report figures https://www.sos.nd.gov/business/business-services/business-structures/limited-liability-company-llc
- Recurring state tax https://www.tax.nd.gov/business/corporate-income-tax
- Naming statute https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t10c32-1.pdf
- Name reservation https://firststop.sos.nd.gov/
- Who may be the registered agent https://ndlegis.gov/cencode/t10c01-1.pdf
- DBA filing https://sos.nd.gov/business/business-services/trade-name-franchise-name
- North Dakota Secretary of State - Business Services https://www.sos.nd.gov/business/business-services
- Business entity search https://firststop.sos.nd.gov/search/business
The rule behind every figure here, and what a card does when one cannot be verified, sits on how a figure gets verified.