Skip to content
Alabama Foreign Registration Order now

Alabama Foreign Registration  /  Self-filing

File your Alabama foreign LLC registration yourself

You can register a foreign LLC in Alabama without a service by reserving the name for $25, typing the twelve-item application, and mailing two originals with the $150 fee to the Business Entities Division in Montgomery. This page walks through the filing step by step, including where filings stall.

Start my Alabama registration

What you need before you start

  • Your LLC's exact legal name and entity type, as your home state shows it.
  • Where and when the LLC was formed.
  • The street address of the place you run the company from.
  • An Alabama registered agent with a physical office: someone who lives in Alabama, or a business already registered here.
  • The day your LLC started, or will start, doing business in Alabama.
  • A person with authority to sign for the company.
  • A way to pay: a check or money order for each filing, or a card.
  • Envelopes and stamps, one pair for each mailing, so that you get the stamped copies back.

The Secretary of State publishes a list of registered agents on its site.

The self-filing path, in order

  1. Reserve the name

    Fill in the name reservation request form for foreign entities and mail it with $25, or reserve online. The form lists $27.75 for the online route with a card and says the certificate can be printed straight away at the end.

  2. Wait for the certificate

    The paper route returns the certificate by mail. If you want it held for pickup, type "Hold for Pickup" on the line the form provides, and know that there is no call when it is ready.

  3. Type the application

    Download the Foreign Limited Liability Company (LLC) Application for Registration from the Secretary of State's business downloads page and type it. The LLC application page explains each item.

  4. Sign and date it

    The signer is a person authorized to sign. Add a typed name and title.

  5. Copy it

    Make the second original. The instructions ask for 2 copies.

  6. Pay

    Write a check or money order for $150 to the Alabama Secretary of State, or complete the card slip.

  7. Mail it

    Send everything to P.O. Box 5616, Montgomery, Alabama 36103, with the reservation certificate and a stamped envelope addressed to yourself.

  8. Diary the tax return

    Note the first Department of Revenue return, due two and a half months after the entity registers with the Secretary of State.

Reserving the name without errors

The reservation request form asks for the entity type, the legal name in the jurisdiction of formation and, if needed, a fictitious name. It also asks who the request is for, and where to mail the certificate. The name is reserved in the same form the home state registers it, and a paper request has to be typed and then mailed or couriered, since email is refused. The online alternative sits on the Secretary of State's website under Business Services, in the Name Reservation Menu.

If your name is not available, the state does not hand you a substitute. You pick the fictitious name, reserve it, and later certify on the application that your governing authority adopted it. Write that resolution before you file; the statute governing the name is Ala. Code 10A-1-5.11, and the endings rule appears in Ala. Code 10A-1-7.07(5).

Online or paper

The Secretary of State's LLC page offers a link to file a foreign LLC online at the same $150 fee. If you use the online route, have the same information ready: the reservation, the agent, the dates and the person who signs. The paper form carries a convenience charge only on card payments, 3 percent plus $2, so payment by check avoids it.

How long it takes

The application needs the reservation certificate, so the wait between sending the reservation and holding the certificate cannot be shortened. That is why the order of the steps matters more than speed in any one of them: reserve the name first, then type the application once the reservation is in the mail.

Where people get stuck

  • The agent. A friend's home address works only if the friend lives in Alabama and runs a business office from that address. A virtual office or a mail forwarder is not enough.
  • The name. A reservation under a slightly different spelling than the application does not match.
  • The signature. The signer certifies that the LLC exists under home law, .
  • The start date. Item 12 needs an actual date.
  • The checks. One check for each filing; do not combine the reservation and the registration.
  • The typing. Handwritten forms are not accepted.

After the filing is back

When the stamped copy returns, check the name and the agent against what you meant to file, and file the copy with your company records. Then deal with the Department of Revenue. The business privilege tax has its own initial form, Form BPT-IN. The yearly tax page has the details. A company that adds an agent, changes an address or renames itself returns to the Secretary of State with an amendment for $100 or an agent change for $100.

Changing the registration later

If a fact stated in the application changes, the LLC files the Foreign LLC Amendment to Registration for $100. A false statement has to be corrected within 60 days of discovery, and changed facts reported within 90 days of the change. A change of name starts with a fresh reservation. A new agent or office goes on its own form for $100.

Copies and certificates

The Secretary of State charges $2 a page for copies of filed documents and $10 to certify a document. Alabama's own certificate of existence costs $25, which matters only when another state asks for a certificate from Alabama.

If the filing is late

A foreign LLC that did business in Alabama for more than 90 days before registering can be charged $150 for each year of delinquency, and it cannot start a case in an Alabama court until it registers. Putting the true start date in item 12 is how the Secretary of State counts the years.

Paying by card or by check

The paper slip adds 3 percent plus $2 to a card payment, so a $150 filing comes to $156.50. A check made out to the Alabama Secretary of State avoids that, but a dishonored check costs $30 and takes the filing out of the index.

Or let us do it

To hand it off instead, we do the same steps: reserve the name, type and sign the form with you, place the agent, and send two originals with payment. Our charge is $199, with the state fees at cost.

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

Can I file without reserving the name first?

No. The statute and the state's LLC page both call for the name reservation certificate to accompany the application.

Do I need an attorney to file?

No. The Secretary of State publishes the form and instructions for filing directly.

What if I send only one copy?

The instructions ask for 2 originals, so expect a return if one is missing.

Can I email the form?

No. The state wants it typed, and it refuses emailed copies.

How will I know it was filed?

You receive a stamped copy if you send a self-addressed stamped envelope with the filing. Without one you do not get a receipt.

Where do I look up my entity ID later?

The state business entity search shows it. You need the number for amendments, agent changes and withdrawal.

Or have us file it

Our charge and the state fee, itemized

Register in Alabama

+ $150 state fee

  • The Alabama name reservation, requested first so its certificate can travel with the filing
  • The Foreign LLC Application for Registration or the Foreign Corporation Application for Registration, completed and signed for you
  • An Alabama registered agent and office: ours, or the one you keep
  • Submission to the Secretary of State and the filed registration sent back to you
  • Renewal: after the first year, the agent service renews at $149 a year

$199

Alabama

Start my Alabama registration

Checkout lists our charge and the Alabama fee on separate lines before you pay. $199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.

Where these facts come from

  1. Alabama Secretary of State, LLC filings
  2. Alabama Secretary of State fee schedule
  3. Alabama Secretary of State, Foreign LLC Application for Registration (form PDF)
  4. Alabama Secretary of State, Foreign Corporation (business or nonprofit) Application for Registration (form PDF)
  5. Alabama Secretary of State, foreign corporations
  6. Name reservation request form for foreign entities
  7. Alabama Secretary of State, list of registered agents
  8. Alabama Department of Revenue, the initial business privilege tax return
  9. Code of Alabama 10A-1-5.11 (application for reservation of name)
  10. Code of Alabama 10A-1-7.07 (entity name)
  11. Alabama Department of Revenue, business privilege tax extensions
  12. Alabama Secretary of State, Change of Registered Agent or Registered Office by Entity (form PDF)
  13. Alabama Secretary of State, Foreign LLC Amendment to Registration (form PDF)
  14. Code of Alabama 10A-1-7.06 (amendments to registration)
  15. Alabama Secretary of State, Application for Certificate of Existence
  16. Code of Alabama, section 10A-1-7.23

Doing business in Alabama from another state?

Order online and we reserve the name, prepare the application and file it in Montgomery.

Start my Alabama registration