Louisiana certificate of authority
The Louisiana certificate of authority explained: its meaning, who needs it and how to keep it
A Louisiana certificate of authority costs $185 for an LLC. We prepare the application, the agent's sworn acceptance and the cover sheet.
Louisiana
What you receive
- Filed certificateThe state's record that the entity may do business here.
- Agent recordOur name, or yours, exactly as the state files it.
- Filed applicationThe application as the state stamped it, for your files.
- Report dateThe anniversary that sets your annual report.
- One certificate, two applications
- We complete the application
- Agent available in Louisiana
The Louisiana certificate of authority is the paper that lets a company formed outside the state transact business here. An LLC applies on Form 972, the Application of Foreign Limited Liability Company, for $185; a corporation or nonprofit applies on Form 326. We prepare the application for $199.
Your order includes
The right application
LLCs use Form 972. Corporations and nonprofits use Form 326, the corporation form.
Home paper, dated
The certificate from your formation state must be 90 days old or less when it is filed.
A qualifying agent
Louisiana limits who can serve. Ours qualifies, or name your own and we check it.
The sworn blocks
The signer and the agent each swear before a notary. We prepare both blocks.
The report date
Your annual report falls on the anniversary of the grant. We note it for you.
A person replies
Write with your entity type and a preparer answers by email.
Getting the certificate
Match the entity to its application
LLCs use Form 972; corporations and nonprofits use Form 326.
Obtain the home-state certificate
Signed in the original, and issued within the 90 days before you file.
Choose the Louisiana agent
Our agent or yours can serve; the agent signs an acceptance before a notary.
We complete the application
Ten items, signed and sworn by an authorized person, with $185 to Louisiana for an LLC.
Receive the certificate
The state stamps the application filed, issues the certificate and returns the package.
The certificate in eight lines
- Document
- Certificate of authority to transact business
- LLC application
- Form 972, $185
- Corporation or nonprofit application
- Form 326, fee printed on the form
- Issued by
- Louisiana Secretary of State, Commercial Division
- Home-state paper
- Existence or good standing certificate, 90 days old or less
- Needed before
- Transacting business in Louisiana
- Kept by
- A yearly report ($35) and a registered agent at a Louisiana street office
- Lost by
- Revocation, following a written warning and a cure window of sixty days
Which application each entity files
| Entity | Application | Louisiana fee |
|---|---|---|
| Limited liability company | Form 972 | $185 |
| Business corporation | Form 326, Business box | Quoted when you order |
| Nonprofit corporation | Form 326, Non Profit box | Quoted when you order |
| Partnership | A separate partnership registration | Quoted when you order |
Both forms carry an Original or Amended box. The guide follows each route, and the LLC form page and corporation form page cover every item.
What the certificate actually is
The certificate is the state's record that the entity may carry on business under Louisiana law. Once issued, the holder has the rights a Louisiana company of the same kind would have, but not more, and carries the same obligations and penalties. The entity's internal affairs stay under its home-state law. The certificate may also recite limits, and the holder is authorized only within them.
Why holding one matters
Three results depend on it. A Louisiana court will not take a claim from an entity that is working here without a certificate. It also owes back fees and taxes for the unauthorized years. And an LLC risks a penalty of at most $1,000 per violation. The page on keeping the certificate valid covers each.
What Louisiana charges the holder
| Filing | Fee |
|---|---|
| LLC application for the certificate | $185 |
| Each annual report | $35 |
| Change of agent, office or business address | $30 |
| Withdrawal of an LLC | $185 |
| Certified copy | $20 |
| Additional certificate | $25 |
The fee page adds rush handling, the card surcharge and worked totals.
The home-state paper that goes with it
The word certificate invites confusion, because two certificates are involved. Louisiana issues the certificate of authority. Your formation state issues the certificate of existence or good standing that travels with the application. Louisiana wants the latter with an original signature, 90 days old or less, and in the name that appears on the application.
The agent behind the certificate
The certificate only stays good while a registered agent and registered office are kept in Louisiana. The statute accepts a resident individual, an attorney or law firm, or an authorized company that has filed its two-name certificate, and each signs a sworn acceptance. The agent page covers replacements, resignations and what happens when an office is vacated.
How the certificate stays in force
File the annual report by the anniversary of the grant, and keep the agent and registered office in place without a gap. For an LLC the Secretary of State may open revocation on 9 grounds, but not without a written warning at least 60 days ahead, so a holder that responds in time keeps its certificate. See the annual report page.
Giving the certificate up
A holder that is finished in Louisiana asks for a certificate of withdrawal on Form 338; for an LLC the fee is $185. The state issues it once tax clearances are in. The withdrawal page has the steps.
Limits of the certificate
The certificate leaves the entity's home identity untouched. Louisiana tax is a separate question, and a state license that a regulated trade needs is a separate permit. A name built on engineer, engineering, surveyor or surveying also brings in the licensing board before the certificate issues.
Your first year, in order
The state stamps the application filed with the date, and the certificate comes back with it. That date fixes the annual report anniversary. If the entity is an LLC, it files a report on or before that anniversary each year at $35. A change of agent between reports goes on Form 346 at $30.
Entities that may need no certificate
An entity whose Louisiana activity stays on the statute's safe list needs none. The list includes keeping a bank account, holding meetings, taking orders that are accepted elsewhere and interstate commerce. Read the page on who needs a certificate before deciding either way.
Getting help
If you would rather file alone, the do-it-yourself page describes the paper route. We add the agent's acceptance, a date check and a note of the report anniversary, for $199 plus the state fee.
The holder's duties on a calendar
| When | What the holder does | Cost to Louisiana |
|---|---|---|
| At application | File the application with the home certificate and sworn blocks | $185 for an LLC |
| Each anniversary of the grant | File the annual report | $35 |
| When the agent, office or business address changes | File Form 346 | $30 |
| When the name or the kind of business changes | File an amended application | Quoted when you order |
| When the Louisiana work ends | File Form 338 and wait for clearances | $185 for an LLC |
What the Commercial Division does with the papers
In Baton Rouge, the Secretary of State's Commercial Division receives the application. If it conforms to the statute, the business is lawful for an LLC in Louisiana and the fees are paid, the office writes the word filed and the date on it, keeps one copy and issues the certificate with the second copy fastened to it. The package comes back to the filer. The state mails evidence of the filing to whoever the transmittal page names.
Rush handling and payment
Standard filing carries no extra fee. A 24-hour tier costs $35 and a 2 to 4 hour tier costs $60. Card payment is possible for $5 more. A note on the form names fourteen parishes whose business owners go through the geauxBIZ portal.
Two lists, one for each kind of entity
The law treats an LLC and a corporation in parallel but not identically. An LLC's application is built on one chapter, a corporation's on another, and each chapter has its own list of activities that fall short of transacting business, its own revocation grounds and its own annual report rules. A holder should check the page for its own entity type.
Who signs, and in what capacity
Authority to sign follows how the entity is run. For an LLC the statute names a manager where managers run the company, and a member where the members do. For a corporation any officer will do. The signature is sworn before a notary. The registered agent signs a separate acceptance, also sworn.
What we need from you
Send the entity type, its exact name, its formation state and date, the addresses of its offices and the names of its members, managers, directors or officers. Tell us who the Louisiana agent will be, or ask to use ours. If the entity changed its name since formation, say so, because the home state then has to issue a certificate of fact for the change.
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.
Our fee and the state's
Get my Louisiana certificate
+ $185 Louisiana fee
- The Application for Authority to Transact Business in Louisiana, Foreign Limited Liability Company (Form 972), completed from your answers
- The registered agent's sworn acceptance, collected and attached with your home-state certificate
- A Louisiana registered agent and street office, supplied by us or by you
- The package sent to the Commercial Division, and the filed certificate returned to you
- Renewal: after the first year, the agent service renews at $149 a year
$199
Louisiana
Get my Louisiana certificateOur fee and Louisiana's $185 appear as separate lines 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.
Certificate of authority questions
What is a Louisiana certificate of authority?
The document by which the Secretary of State lets a company formed elsewhere carry on business in Louisiana.
How much does it cost for an LLC?
$185 to Louisiana, plus $199 from us.
Do I need a home-state certificate?
Yes. A certificate of existence or good standing, 90 days old or less, with an original signature.
Do corporations use the same form?
No. Corporations and nonprofits use Form 326.
What does the notary do?
The signer and the registered agent each swear their blocks before a notary.
When is the annual report due?
By the anniversary of the grant, at $35.
Can it be revoked?
Yes, but only after a written warning at least 60 days ahead.
How do I end it?
File Form 338 and receive a certificate of withdrawal.
Sources
- Louisiana Secretary of State, forms and fee schedule
- Louisiana Secretary of State fee schedule effective 10/1/26
- Louisiana Form 972, application of a foreign limited liability company
- La. R.S. 12:1345, application for certificate of authority
- La. R.S. 12:1350.1, annual report
- La. R.S. 12:1347, effect of a certificate of authority
- La. R.S. 12:306, effect of the corporation certificate
- La. R.S. 12:1342, admission of foreign limited liability company
- La. R.S. 12:1355, authority to investigate; penalty
- La. R.S. 12:1354, transacting business without authority
- Louisiana Form 346, statement of change for a foreign corporation or limited liability company
- La. R.S. 12:304, application of a foreign corporation
- Louisiana Form 326, application of a foreign corporation for certificate of authority
- La. R.S. 12:1350, registered agent and registered office
- La. R.S. 12:1353, revocation or suspension of certificate of authority
- La. R.S. 12:313, revocation of a foreign corporation certificate
- La. R.S. 12:1346, issuing a certificate of authority
Start your Louisiana application
Give us the entity type and where it was formed, and we begin drafting.