Home › Foreign LLC registration
Out of state companies
Foreign LLC registration in New York
If your LLC was formed elsewhere and does business in New York, the state wants an Application for Authority. It costs $250, and it drags the newspaper publication rule along with it.
Threshold
Do you actually have to register?
You register if the LLC is doing business in New York. Selling to New York customers online generally is not enough. An office, employees, or a physical operation here generally is.
New York does not publish a clean checklist, which is frustrating and deliberate. The statute says what does not count rather than what does.
Things that usually do not trigger registration on their own include holding a bank account here, using an in-state lawyer or accountant, or shipping goods to New York buyers from a warehouse in another state.
Things that usually do include renting an office, employing people who work here, holding a New York license or permit, or running regular in-person operations in the state.
The middle of that range is genuinely unclear, and it is the one question on this page worth putting to a lawyer rather than a website.
The process
What the filing needs
- A Certificate of Existence, sometimes called a good standing certificate, from your home state. New York wants one dated within the last year.
- A name check. If your LLC's name is already taken in New York you register under a fictitious name for New York use.
- A county of office designated in New York. This sets your publication cost, so read publication cost by county first.
- The Application for Authority filed with the Department of State, with the $250 fee, through NYS Business Express or by mail.
- Publication. Six weeks, two newspapers, then a $50 Certificate of Publication.
Foreign corporations file an Application for Authority too, at $225, and they do not publish. The newspaper rule is LLC-only. See incorporating in New York.
The part people miss
Foreign LLCs publish too
Yes, the publication requirement applies to foreign LLCs. Two newspapers picked by the county clerk, once a week for six weeks, within 120 days of the Application for Authority being filed.
Plenty of out of state owners budget $250 and then meet a $1,800 newspaper invoice. The county you designate in the Application for Authority is what drives it, exactly as it does for a domestic LLC.
Our registered agent address is in New York County, and appointing us does not change your designated county or lower that invoice. The mechanics are on the publication requirement.
Afterwards
What you owe once you are registered
A Biennial Statement every two years for $9, a New York registered agent or the state default, and New York tax filings for the income earned here.
One more thing applies to some foreign LLCs and almost no domestic ones. The New York LLC Transparency Act took effect on January 1, 2026, and it reaches non-US LLCs authorized to do business here. LLCs formed anywhere in the United States are exempt. See the LLC Transparency Act for who files and when.
The Biennial Statement is the recurring one. Nine dollars, every second year, in the month your authority was granted.
Skipping registration has a sharp edge worth naming. An unregistered foreign LLC cannot bring a lawsuit in New York courts until it registers. You can be sued. You just cannot sue.
New York registration needs a New York agent
We act as your New York registered agent for $49 a year.