Louisiana Certificate of Authority

If your company was not incorporated in Louisiana, but you wish to do business there, you often need to apply for a Louisiana Certificate of Authority.

Acquiring Louisiana Foreign Qualification allows a company formed in Delaware or any other state to legally transact business in Louisiana.

Please note: information on this page is accurate to the best of our knowledge. However, requirements and costs can be changed by states at any time and Harvard Business Services cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

How to Get a Louisiana Certificate of Authority:

Existing LLCs and Corporations have the same document requirements in this state when applying for Louisiana Foreign Qualification:

• For Louisiana, a Certificate of Good Standing is required from the company’s home state, dated within 90 days.
  Note: this document is also referred to as a Certificate of Existence in some states.

In addition, a Louisiana Certificate of Authority requires an application to be submitted along with a fee of $150 for LLCs or $125 for corporations.

Lastly, you must appoint and maintain a Louisiana Registered Agent at all times. We can provide this service for just $99 per year.

Note: While we do provide Registered Agent service for Louisiana, we are unable to assist with the Foreign Qualification process for this state. This process can be completed directly with the Louisiana Secretary of State using the official state form for your LLC or corporation.

How Do I Know If I Need a Louisiana Certificate of Authority?

To do business in the state of Louisiana after being incorporated elsewhere, our clients typically need to obtain Louisiana Foreign Qualification. Typically, “doing business” is defined by activities such as maintaining a physical office or having employees in the state.

Louisiana identifies some specific items that are excluded from their definition of transacting business:

• Acts not considered transacting business
• Transactions not constituting transacting business

You should also keep in mind that even if a Louisiana Certificate of Authority is not required for a specific activity, a bank, vendor or another party can still require one in order to establish a relationship.

Special Rules and Guidelines for Louisiana Foreign Qualification

The Louisiana Secretary of State website notes the following rule for obtaining a Lousiana Certificate of Authority:

If the corporation applying for a Certificate of Authority contains the word "engineer", "engineering", "surveyor" or "surveying" in its name, a waiver must be obtained from the Louisiana Professional Engineering & Land Surveying Board, 9643 Brookline Ave., Suite 121, Baton Rouge, LA 70809-1443, 225.925.6291.

[source: https://www.sos.la.gov/BusinessServices/FileBusinessDocuments/Pages/default.aspx]

Louisiana Annual Requirements

Once you have your Louisiana Foreign Qualification, you will be required to pay an annual fee of $30 to the state to stay in compliance.

Please note that this annual requirement is independent from requirements you may have in Delaware or other states.