Register Your Ohio Foreign Corporation

Are you looking to do business in Ohio? Are you already incorporated as a business in another state? You’ll first need to file with the Ohio Secretary of State, Business Services Division to receive your Ohio Certificate of Authority, which allows you to conduct business in the Buckeye State.

Below, we go through how to register your foreign corporation in Ohio. Want someone to deal with all of this for you? We can help! Ohio Statutory Agent offers registered agent and business formation services at a low price with no hidden fees.

Steps to Register a Foreign Corporation

If you own a corporation located in a state other than Ohio and want to conduct business in Ohio, you’ll need to be approved by the Corporations Division of the Ohio Secretary of State. To do this, you’ll need to submit paperwork for the Ohio Certificate of Authority.

So what’s first?

• Check your business name. Just because your business name belongs to you in Kentucky, it doesn’t mean that it’s available for use in Ohio. Before filing your paperwork, confirm that your business name is available in the Ohio business entity search database. If it is not, decide on an assumed name to operate under in the state.

• Hire an Ohio statutory agent. To form a business in Ohio, you need to have an Ohio statutory agent, also referred as a registered agent or a designated agent. The agent needs to have a physical office location in Ohio to accept legal mail. They accept documents such as lawsuits on your behalf, and inform you of these deliveries in a timely manner. Choosing the right statutory agent is important because if your agent does not inform you of any lawsuits or legal notices, you could be sued, miss a deadline, or lose the business all together.

• Get paperwork from your home state. You will need a Certificate of Good Standing from your home state. This is usually your Secretary of State, but can sometimes be a separate government agency—it’s always the same agency that that you formed your corporation with originally! The certificate must be dated no earlier than 90 days before your application to the state of Ohio. It must also explicitly state your company’s exact name and that the company is in good standing.

• Submit your paperwork. Applying for the Certificate of Authority from the State of Ohio is not too complicated. However, gathering the materials, finding the form, filling it out, and submitting it can be time consuming. You will file either the Foreign Corporation Application for License (Form 530A) or the Foreign Nonprofit Corporation Application for License (Form 530B) depending on your business entity. This costs $99 to file for 7-day processing.

Hire Ohio Statutory Agent LLC

If you’d like to streamline this process, you can hire us here at Ohio Statutory Agent to take care of it all for you. We offer two services that make receiving your Certificate of Authority easy.

Statutory Agent Services

For $49 per year, we will be your statutory agent. We will be available to accept legal notices on your behalf. You will have full access to our online portal, where all of your documents and needed legal forms will be safely secured.

Immediately after hiring our services, you will be logged into your account with the forms prepared for you to fill out and file. You’ll receive tips on how to submit your documents with the state, and we’ll be here for any questions you might have.

Business Registering Services

You can hire us to take care of all the paperwork for you. Simply hire us as your statutory agent, as above, and then follow the prompts into your new account. From there, click “Add Services” and add our Filing Services add-on. This is a one-time payment of $100, plus your mandatory state fees.

After signing up, you can check the real time status of our work. We always begin your filing as soon as possible. Once we are finished with your Ohio foreign corporation registration, we will upload the filing into your online account, email it to you, and mail you the original copy.