Oregon Foreign Registration / File it yourself

Filing the Oregon registration yourself: a working guide

Registering a foreign LLC in Oregon yourself takes an online application, $275 and, if your home state has no free registry, a certificate under 60 days old. The real work is afterward: a $275 annual report every year. This page covers both.

Is Oregon easy to file in yourself?

Yes, because the application is short and mostly runs online. The snags are the name, the agent address and the calendar, not the form.

The filing, in order

Check you must register
Compare your Oregon plans with the eleven exclusions.
Look up your home registry number
Oregon checks the LLC against it.
Confirm the name
Copy it from the home record, punctuation included.
Find an Oregon agent
Someone with an Oregon street address that takes personal delivery.
Open the online application
Through the Secretary of State Business Registry.
Answer each field
Management type, principal office, mailing address, activity, optional members.
Pay and submit
Pay $275 online.
Calendar the anniversary
The annual report falls due then, with a $275 fee.

What to collect first

Collect the exact LLC name and organization date, the home state and registry number, the principal office address, a mailing address for notices (a post office box is fine), the name of the Oregon agent and the agent's street address, the management type, a one-line description of the activity and an email address for renewal notices if you want them by email.

Online or paper

The online Business Registry is one route. Paper forms go by post, never by email. Either way, what you submit is searchable by name, so skip the home address if privacy matters.

The home registry number or certificate

Look up your LLC on the home state's business search. If it shows the LLC's status and a registration number, and the state gives free access to that database, Oregon can verify the LLC with the number alone. If the home state has no such search, order a certificate of existence or good standing and keep it under 60 days old when you file.

Where self-filers stall

Names. An LLC whose name collides with an active Oregon name needs the longer form, and the application is easier if you know that before you start. Agents. A friend's apartment will not do unless the address takes personal delivery during the day; a virtual office or mail drop is not accepted. Calendars. The annual report comes round every year.

After you file

Oregon checks the name and processes a conforming application, then sends an acknowledgment. Keep it with the company records. Set a reminder a month ahead, since the report's facts are measured thirty days before the anniversary.

Your first annual report

The report confirms the LLC's name and home state, its registered office and agent, its principal office and mailing address, its managers or at least one member, and its primary business activity. It costs $275. If something changes between anniversaries, an amendment to the annual report fixes it at no fee. A report that lacks required information is returned, and you have 45 days after notice to correct it.

If you miss a report

Oregon will write to you, and you have 45 days to fix the ground before authority is revoked. If it is revoked you can apply to reinstate within 5 years, online with a card or on paper, paying the missed annual fees with a reinstatement fee. The name must still be available when you apply, or a name change is needed, and reinstatement reaches back to the day of revocation.

Choosing the activity description

The application asks for a short description of the primary activity, with examples such as cafe, consulting, beauty salon or automotive repair. Keep it to a few words. It repeats on the annual report each year, and what you file is public.

Choosing how to be notified

You pick how future renewal notices arrive, by email or by mail, and if you pick email you give the name and address to use. Choose email only if the inbox will still be read in three years. The mailing address for notices may be a post office box.

Checking the longer name

If the Oregon system tells you the name clashes, the application uses the longer form: the home name, the phrase "a limited liability company of", and the home state. The Secretary of State's example reads ABC LLC, A Limited Liability Company of Colorado. From then on, use that form in Oregon.

A sample first month

Week one: find the registry number, settle the name and the agent. Week two: complete the application online and pay. Then wait for the acknowledgment. Before the month ends, set the anniversary reminder.

What happens to your answers

The Business Registry stores what you enter and shows it on the public record when the application is accepted. That covers the name, home state, agent, principal office and any members or managers you decided to list. Read each screen with that in mind.

Using a business address

For an LLC run from a home, a business address suits the principal office better, because the principal office must be a street address and the filing can be searched. The mailing address for notices can differ from the principal office and may be a post office box.

Registered agent by yourself or by service

An Oregon resident whose own business office is the registered office can serve as agent personally. If you do not, you need someone who does, or one of the listed entity types.

Filing your first annual report

Log in to the renewal service with the LLC's registry number, check the information is current and pay $275. If something changed since you applied, file an amendment to the annual report first; it costs nothing.

What filing yourself costs

The state fee is $275 and each annual report is $275. Filing alone costs you time and risks a rejected name or address. Ordering through us adds $199.

Using an Oregon business address

With an Oregon agent, the agent's street address is what the public record shows as the registered office. That is separate from the principal office, which can be in your home state.

If you need help part way

If you reach the name or the agent and want it done, send us what you have and we finish the application from there.

Or let us do it

To skip the paperwork, place an order and your answers go straight into the submitted application.

Registered agent: first year included, then $149 a year

$199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.

Self-filing questions

How do I find my home registry number?

It is on the home state business search for your LLC, sometimes called an entity number or file number.

What if I make a mistake?

Amend the application, or correct the annual report, depending on what changed.

Must I hire a lawyer?

Not to file. A lawyer can say whether your activity counts.

What do I get back?

An acknowledgment and the authority record.

Can I pay by card?

Online filing takes payment in the system; paper filings go by mail with payment.

Can I file for free?

No. Oregon charges $275 to apply.

May I serve as my own agent?

Yes, when you live in Oregon and work from the registered office address.

Order the filing instead

Oregon

Our fee and Oregon's

Register in Oregon

$275 Oregon fee + $199

Oregon's fee is $275. It appears on its own line at checkout. $199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.

$199

Oregon Foreign Registration

The Oregon application filled in from your answers
Your name checked against Oregon records first
An Oregon registered agent, ours or yours
The authority record returned when Oregon issues it
Renewal: after the first year, the agent service renews at $149 a year

Sources

Ready to register in Oregon?

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