Minnesota Certificate of Authority / LLC application
The Minnesota foreign LLC certificate of authority form
The Foreign Limited Liability Company Certificate of Authority to Transact Business in Minnesota is the application every outside LLC uses. Its first page carries 7 numbered items; filing costs $185 on paper or $205 online or at the counter; revision 7/1/2025. We prepare it for $199.
The seven items at a glance
| Item | What it asks | Required |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Company name as shown in its home record | Yes |
| 2 | An alternate LLC name for Minnesota, if different | No |
| 3 | The home jurisdiction | Yes |
| 4 | Registered agent and registered office in Minnesota | Yes |
| 5 | Principal place of business address | Yes |
| 6 | Office address in the home jurisdiction, if home law requires one | Only where it applies |
| 7 | Signature, date and the perjury certification | Yes |
The form marks items 1, 3, 4 and 5 as required. Below item 7 sit the notice email, a contact name and phone, a farmland note and five optional survey questions.
Items 1 to 3: who the company is
Items 1 and 3 identify the company to the state: its name as the home record spells it, and the jurisdiction that formed it. Item 2 is an escape valve. When the home name is unavailable or breaks Minnesota's rules, the instructions require an alternate, which must close with an LLC designator and steer clear of the words corporation and incorporated. The statute adds that an alternate is optional even for a compliant name.
Item 4: how the state reaches the company
Item 4 is the channel for lawsuit papers. Process that reaches the state's own office is passed to the agent named here, so that agent has to be reachable at the street address given. The instructions allow a person or a corporation in good standing in Minnesota, stationed at the registered office. PO boxes do not qualify, and the company cannot name itself.
Item 5: where the business really is
Item 5 tells the state where the company actually operates. The instructions require a complete street address and refuse a PO box standing alone. The company may sit outside Minnesota.
Item 6: the home office, when there is one
Item 6 is easy to get wrong because it looks mandatory and is not. The instructions apply it only to companies whose home law requires them to keep an office in the home jurisdiction. If the home state has no such rule, the line stays empty. If it does, give the full street address of that office.
Item 7: the signature carries weight
Item 7 is a paragraph of promises. The signer affirms authority to sign, completeness of the required fields, and accuracy of the content under the applicable Minnesota chapter, and accepts that perjury penalties apply as if the form were sworn. The heading of the form adds the company's own statement that it kept to its home state's organization law, which is the form's stand-in for a good standing certificate.
What else the form collects
Below the numbered items the form collects a notice email, with an opt-out box for bulk data requests, and the name and daytime phone of a contact person. Everything on the form is public. A change of the notice email later costs $0 by mail or at the counter.
The attachment for professional firms
Only a professional organization governed by chapter 319B has an attachment: an election to be bound by sections 319B.01 through 319B.12, the professional service it provides, and a note that its governing papers were brought into line.
Paying and sending
Make the check payable to the Minnesota Secretary of State. Send a legible photocopy and keep the original. By mail the fee is $185; online or at the counter it is $205. The mailing and counter address is Minnesota Secretary of State, Business Services, First National Bank Building, 332 Minnesota Street, Suite N201, Saint Paul, MN 55101, and hours are staffed 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday to Friday, excluding holidays.
Typical reasons for a return
The form warns that a filing missing required information may be returned unfiled. Check item 4 for a PO box or the company itself, item 5 for a mailbox, item 1 against the home record, and the signature and date.
How we complete the LLC form
You supply the home record details
Name, jurisdiction and addresses.
We draft items 1 to 6
Matched to the instruction page.
The signer reviews item 7
They sign for the company.
We file online
The state fee is $205.
You receive the approval
By email from the portal.
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.
LLC form questions
Is a notary required?
No notary line is on the form. The signer accepts the perjury certification.
What if the home state names no office?
Leave item 6 empty.
Is a home-state certificate attached?
No. An ordinary LLC has nothing to attach from home.
Our fee and the state's
Order my Minnesota certificate
$199
+ $205 state fee (LLC)
The state fee depends on the entity: $205 for an LLC, $220 for a corporation, $70 for a nonprofit, all online. $199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.
- The right Minnesota application for your kind of entity, filled in for you
- Draft wording for the signer's home-state compliance statement
- A registered office and agent in Minnesota: ours, or yours
- Online submission and the issued certificate delivered to you
- Renewal: after the first year, the agent service renews at $149 a year
Sources
- Minnesota Secretary of State business filing and certification fee schedule
- Minnesota foreign LLC certificate of authority form
- Minnesota LLC annual renewal form
- Minnesota Statutes 322C.0802, application for certificate of authority
- Minnesota notice of change of registered office or registered agent
- Minnesota Statutes 322C.0805, noncomplying name of a foreign LLC
- Minnesota Statutes 5.36, registered agent for service of process
Know your entity type?
Tell us what the company is and where it was formed, and we start the right application.