New Jersey Foreign Registration / File it yourself
Registering a foreign LLC in New Jersey on your own: the screens in order
You can register a foreign LLC in New Jersey yourself through the Business Formation service, which takes a card or eCheck for the $100 fee. It walks you through Business Information, Registered Agent, Other Provisions, Signatures, Review and Payment. This page follows those screens in order and points out the usual snags. Prefer not to? We prepare and file the same thing for $199.
Before you open the service
The welcome page says to have four things ready: a business name and type, registered agent information including an email address for agent notices, a good standing certificate from the home state for a foreign entity, and a credit card or eCheck. Also collect the LLC's exact home-state name, formation date and principal address. Collect the home-state certificate first, since it is the one item you cannot produce in an hour.
Choose the right door
The state runs several services. Use Business Formation for the first filing, which the welcome page says is for authorizing a legal entity in New Jersey for a business formed in another state. Use the Online Registration route only for tax registration after the filing is complete. People who start in the wrong service lose a session.
Create an account only if you will use it often
You can file without an account. The state also offers a business account built on a My New Jersey login, which lets staff share a payment account. For a single registration, skip it.
Screen one: Business Information
The welcome page lists the business name and type as the first things the service needs. Enter the exact home-state name and the entity type. Search the name first on the state's free name page. If the name is taken, the online service cannot register a secondary name, and you will have to file the paper form with the adopting resolution. Enter the state and date of formation from the home certificate.
Screen two: Registered Agent
Give one agent, who may be an individual or a company in good standing with the Treasurer, and a New Jersey street address for the registered office. Add the email address that will get registered agent notices. A friend who lives in New Jersey works if they are reliable, but check how they will handle legal papers.
Screen three: Other Provisions
On the paper form the nearest match is the option to attach articles for the public record. Anything added to a filing becomes part of that record, so add nothing without a reason.
Screen four: Signatures
The paper form's signature block takes a signature, a printed name, a title and a date, and the online section is named the same way. For an LLC, any authorized representative may sign. Make sure the signer actually has authority under the operating agreement before you enter their name.
Screens five and six: Review and Payment
Read the review page line by line against the home certificate. Then pay $100 by a credit card or an eCheck. Keep the confirmation. The state publishes no turnaround for online filings.
Uploading the certificate
The Business Formation page names the home-state certificate as something to have on hand, and the paper form tells foreign corporations to attach one. Have it as a clean PDF with the LLC's name legible. Follow the service's own prompts on screen.
The paper route
If you prefer paper, download the Public Records Filing, complete items 1 to 8 and sign. Mail it in duplicate to PO Box 308, Trenton, NJ 08646, or take it to 33 West State Street, 5th Floor, Trenton, NJ 08608. Pay by a check or money order payable to the Treasurer, State of NJ, a credit card, a depository account assigned by the Treasurer, or cash. The printed fee table on that PDF dates from 2011 and is out of date, so use the current $100.
Usual snags
Owners forget that approval is not the last step: the NJ-REG tax registration comes next, and the Business Registration Certificate follows only after both. The guide lists the full order.
A realistic plan for the day
Gathering the certificate and picking an agent take more time than the screens. With both in hand, the online filing is one sitting of answers and a payment. Set aside time for the certificate and for the second filing, and do not plan a launch date around the approval.
What to do when the service rejects a screen
If a screen will not accept an entry, check it against the home-state certificate first, since mismatched names and dates are the likeliest cause. If the problem persists, ask us before paying twice.
Keep your paying and your checking apart
Pay only on the state's own site. The Division warns that outside sellers sometimes take payment and do not deliver. A search for the service can turn up look-alike pages, so start from the Division's address or the link on its home page, and look for the payment screen to name the State of New Jersey.
Before you file NJ-REG
NJ-REG is filed online once you hold an EIN from the IRS. A business from out of state that believes it has no tax nexus files it on paper and accepts a review by the Division of Taxation. The Business Registration Certificate follows only after both filings, and public contracts, grants and tax credits depend on it.
If you find a mistake after filing
A mistake on the record is fixed by an amended application at $100 or a certificate of correction at $100. A changed agent or office is a separate $25 filing, so check the entries against the home certificate before you pay.
Saving your work
Download or print the review page before paying, and again after. If a question arises about what you filed, those pages answer it faster than a call. Put the confirmation, the certificate and the agent's contact in one folder named for the LLC.
Doing the second filing yourself
The tax registration is a separate online form. It needs the EIN, and the state's checklist puts it after the entity filing. Do not skip it on the theory that the registration is complete, because the Business Registration Certificate needs both.
When a preparer helps
A preparer earns the fee when the name is taken, when the signer is hard to reach, when you need a New Jersey agent, or when the cost of a mistake is high. We complete the filing from your answers and check the pieces above. Our fee is $199, and the state fee is paid separately.
Filing the New Jersey registration yourself
Gather the four items
Name and type, agent details with an email, the home certificate, and a card or eCheck.
Open Business Formation
Not the tax registration service.
Complete Business Information
Exact name, type, home state and date.
Add the registered agent
One agent and a New Jersey street address.
Check Other Provisions and Signatures
Leave extras empty; name the signer.
Review and pay
$100 to the Treasury.
File NJ-REG
Tax registration, after approval.
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
Do I need an account to file?
No. A business account is for frequent filers.
Which service do I use?
Business Formation for the registration, then Online Registration for tax.
What if my name is taken?
File the paper form with a secondary name and a resolution.
How long will approval take?
New Jersey gives no turnaround for online filings.
Our fee and the New Jersey fee
Register in New Jersey
New Jersey
$199
+ $100 New Jersey fee
- The New Jersey Public Records Filing, completed from your answers
- A check that the home-state good standing certificate is ready to attach
- Our New Jersey agent and office, or an agent of your own choosing
- The filed record is returned to you
- Renewal: after the first year, the agent service renews at $149 a year
The Treasury's fee for a foreign LLC is $100, and checkout lists it on its own line, separate from our charge. $199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.
Sources
- New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services, registry fee schedules
- New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services, Business Formation service
- New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services, additional information on new businesses
- New Jersey Public Records Filing for New Business Entity, form and instructions
- New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services, getting registered
- New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services, business endings
- New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services, solicitations by private companies
- New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services, Annual Reports and Change Services
Ready to register in New Jersey?
Place the order and we prepare the filing in the form the Treasury expects.