Kansas Foreign Registration / How to register

Registering a foreign LLC in Kansas, one stage at a time

A foreign LLC registers in Kansas by completing Form FA, the Application for Registration, Foreign (non-Kansas) Business, signing its good standing statement under penalty of perjury, and mail it to the Secretary of State with $115. This guide follows the job in the order it happens: whether you must register, what to gather, the name and agent checks, the form itself, the mailing, and what Kansas expects of you once it has your application.

Step 1: decide whether the business has to register

Under K.S.A. 17-7931 a foreign covered entity has to be on the Secretary of State's register ahead of any Kansas business. It names 11 activities that do not count and adds that other activities may also fall outside the term. Read our doing-business test in Kansas against your own facts.

Step 2: gather the facts Form FA asks for

Have this material ready before you start:

The legal name exactly as the home state files it, never a trade or assumed name.
The state or country that formed the business, and the date it was formed.
A short statement of the nature of the work you will do in Kansas.
The resident agent's name and the Kansas street address of the registered office.
The month, day and year the business began working in Kansas, but only if that date has already passed.
Who will sign, and whether the business is a series LLC.

Those answers fill the ten sections of the form. The application does not ask for members, managers, officers or ownership.

Step 3: check that the name is free in Kansas

Kansas wants a foreign name to stand apart on its records from existing Kansas names, from reserved names, and from names canceled or forfeited in the past 1 year. The Secretary of State offers a public name availability search. When the name is taken, the holder can sign a consent on Form CN for you to attach, or you can write a letter promising to present the business in Kansas as one formed in its home state. The letter route is closed if the Kansas holder shares your home state.

Step 4: pick the resident agent and registered office

Every foreign business registered in Kansas keeps a registered office and a resident agent in the state. The agent can be the business itself, an individual who lives in Kansas, or a corporation, partnership or LLC authorized to operate here, and the office must be a street, rural route or highway address where the agent can regularly be found. A PO box is refused. The resident agent page covers agent changes, resignations and the sixty-day deadline that follows a resignation.

Step 5: settle the start date and the reports

Section 6 of Form FA asks when the business began doing business in Kansas. Give a date only if it is in the past. That date decides how many information reports ride with the application. A profit business encloses every report skipped in an earlier reporting period, up to 10 years of reports back; a not-for-profit corporation encloses only the latest missed one. An LLC uses Form ILC for these. If any report is filed after its forfeiture date, a one-time $85 penalty applies, except to nonprofits. The late registration page works through examples.

Step 6: complete the form

Tick the type of business, enter the legal name and the home jurisdiction, then the agent and office. Add the two dates and the description of the work. A series LLC must also check at least one of the two series statements in section 9; every other type skips it. The Form FA page goes section by section and says what each answer should look like.

Step 7: sign the good standing statement

Above the signature line the form records two things the business accepts: suits against it may begin in the proper court of any Kansas county with service treated as good, and as of the day of filing the foreign business exists in good standing under the laws of its home jurisdiction. An authorized person signs, with a second partner for an LLP. No home-state certificate stands behind that statement, so check the home record before anyone signs.

Before you sign: a last read

Read the legal name against the home record, the registered office against the Kansas street address, and the start-date box against your report count. One authorized person signs for an LLC; a limited liability partnership needs two partners. The filing statute accepts a facsimile, conformed or electronically transmitted signature.

Why registration matters in court

Until an LLC registers and pays what is owed for the years it worked here, it may not start a suit or other proceeding in Kansas. The consent printed above the signature works the other way: actions against the business may start in any proper Kansas county, and service on the Secretary of State counts as valid service.

Step 8: assemble, pay and mail

Send the signed form, any information reports, a name consent if you have one, and payment. Make checks payable to the Kansas Secretary of State, or fill in the one-page card cover page, which can cover every document in the envelope. The mailing address is Kansas Secretary of State, Docking State Office Building, 915 SW Harrison Street, Topeka KS 66612. Allow for mail in both directions and keep a copy of everything you sent, with the card receipt if you paid by card.

Step 9: what the state does with the packet

When a document conforms to law and the fees are paid, the Secretary of State endorses it Filed with the date and hour, and that endorsement is the filing date, conclusive absent fraud. At the end of processing, the state returns a certified copy of the application to the sender. Everything filed is a public record that can be viewed and printed online without charge.

Step 10: put the report dates on a calendar

Kansas asks for an information report every second year. For profit businesses the date is April 15, and the cycle follows the year of registration. Once the due date passes, a three-month delinquency interval begins; the report can still be filed then, though other filings are limited. When it ends, the business forfeits. Put the next April 15 in your calendar the day you mail the application.

Keeping the registration accurate

If something in the application was wrong when made, or the facts it describes later change in a material way, Kansas requires a prompt corrective certificate. A new agent or registered office is reported on Form ROA, $30 online. An agent that moves its own office files one certificate for every business it serves. The information report is where a change of principal office address is reported.

If the registration is forfeited

A business forfeits when an information report is missed beyond the delinquency window or when it has no active resident agent. While forfeited it cannot file anything else until it files the past due reports and reinstates. For an LLC that means Form RL plus each missed report, up to five reporting years, and the bill runs from $230 for one report to $670 for five.

Leaving Kansas

A business that stops operating in Kansas files Form FC, which surrenders its authority and gives an address, in or outside Kansas, where legal papers can still be mailed. Online the fee is $30; on paper it is $35. Leaving does not remove the Secretary of State's power to take service for claims from the years the business worked in Kansas. The Form FC page has the four sections.

If the business is a series LLC

A foreign LLC that can create series under its home law pays the same $115 and ticks the series business-type box. Section 9 then asks it to check at least one of two statements about how liabilities of each series are enforced. Leave the boxes empty and Kansas registers a plain LLC with no series, so make the choice deliberately and compare it with the operating agreement before signing.

If the business is not an LLC

The steps are the same for a corporation, a limited partnership or a limited liability partnership, with three differences. A limited liability partnership needs two partners to sign. A nonprofit corporation attaches only its most recent missed report, files its reports by June 15 and pays no reinstatement penalty. And each type has its own information report form: IFP, INP, ILP or ILL.

Proving your standing to someone else

Lenders, landlords and Kansas customers can ask for proof that the business is registered. Kansas lets anyone view and print filed documents online at no charge, and a business in good standing can buy a Certificate of Good Standing online, which shows the name as recorded, the standing and the date the business filed its formation document. A certified copy of any filed document is sold online only, and the office certifies it on the day of purchase.

Records worth keeping

Keep the certified copy of the application, the photocopy of what you mailed, proof of payment and the Kansas ID number. Add the date of each information report and the stamped copy that comes back. At the next report those papers answer most of what the form asks.

Mistakes that cost time

Writing a trade name or assumed name in the name section when the legal name is required.
Giving a PO box as the registered office.
Entering a start date in the future instead of leaving the box empty.
Forgetting the information reports the start date calls for.
Mailing a check made out to the wrong payee.
Signing the good standing statement before checking the home state's records.

One business, followed through

Picture a Missouri LLC that installs flooring and wins its first Wichita contract in March. It checks the name, finds it free, and asks a Wichita firm to be its resident agent. The start date is the day the company will file, so the box stays blank. The manager signs in the first week of April and mails the form with $115. A certified copy comes back by mail when processing is done, and the manager notes the next April 15 in the cycle that matches the year of registration.

Which professional handles what

Whether the work crosses the line, and what months already past mean, turn on your facts, so ask a Kansas business lawyer. Kansas tax sits with the revenue agencies. We take the paperwork and the calendar.

Timing and certified copies

If your timeline depends on a certified copy bought later, tell us. Kansas lets anyone view and print filed documents online at no charge, so you can check the record of any filing yourself.

Kansas by the numbers

Measure	Figure
Registration fee	$115
Sections on Form FA	10
Activities that are not doing business	11
Days for an isolated transaction to qualify	30
LLC information report, online	$90
Months of delinquency before forfeiture	3
Withdrawal fee, online	$30
Reinstatement penalty	$85

The Kansas registration sequence

Test whether you must
Hold your Kansas work up against the statute's list of exceptions.
Check the name
It must be distinguishable on Kansas records, or come with a consent or a letter.
Choose the agent and office
A street address in Kansas, never a PO box.
Settle the start date
Give one only if it is in the past, and attach the reports it calls for.
Complete and sign Form FA
The signer swears to good standing at home.
Pay and mail
$115 by check or card to the Topeka address.
Calendar the first report
Every second year by April 15, in even or odd years to match your registration year.

Guide questions

Where do I send Form FA?

To the Kansas Secretary of State at Kansas Secretary of State, Docking State Office Building, 915 SW Harrison Street, Topeka KS 66612.

Is early registration allowed?

Yes. A business can register before any Kansas work begins.

Do I attach my operating agreement?

No. The statute lists eight items for the application and a governing document is not among them.

Who signs for an LLC?

One authorized person is enough. Only a limited liability partnership needs two partners.

Our fee and the state's

Kansas's fee is a separate line at checkout and is the same for every kind of business. $199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.

Register in Kansas

$199

+ $115 Kansas fee

Form FA, the Application for Registration, Foreign (non-Kansas) Business, completed from your answers
The sworn good standing statement the form carries, ready for an authorized person to sign
A Kansas resident agent and registered office: ours, or the ones you already use
The packet mailed with payment, and the certified copy Kansas returns passed on to you
Renewal: after the first year, the agent service renews at $149 a year

Sources

Already working in Kansas?

Tell us the month you began and we price any back reports with the registration.