Move your LLC to Delaware, from any state.
Most early-stage venture term sheets are written around Delaware. Founders usually discover that during diligence, with a closing date already in the calendar. Getting there is not one procedure: some states authorize outbound domestication, and where a state does not, the route becomes a merger into a new Delaware entity. Pick the state you are leaving.
Four things that change with your state.
The destination is fixed. Everything about getting there depends on the state you are leaving: whether it allows the direct route, what it wants to see before it lets go, and how long that takes.
Domestication or merger
Some states authorize outbound LLC domestication: departure paperwork at home, plus the Certificate of Domestication and Certificate of Formation in Delaware. Others do not authorize it at all, and the route becomes a statutory merger, forming a new Delaware LLC and merging the existing one into it. More paperwork, and it works universally.
Why Delaware comes up
It is investors, more often than anything else. Most early-stage venture term sheets require a Delaware C-Corp or, at minimum, a Delaware-domiciled LLC that can convert during the financing. Founders typically run into this in Series A diligence and need the entity moved before the round closes.
Tax clearance before you go
States often want the entity current before they will process a departure. That clearance sits on the critical path, because it is the one piece you cannot compress from the outside, and it is a common reason a migration takes longer than the filings themselves suggest.
What starts in Delaware
On arrival the entity picks up Delaware's obligations: a Registered Agent in the state and the annual Delaware franchise tax. The EIN, by contrast, is preserved through the move, so bank accounts, payroll and existing filings carry on against the same number.
The destination is the same for everybody. The exit is written by your state.
Pick your state.
Each state page covers whether that state authorizes outbound LLC domestication or requires a merger instead, what it asks for before it releases the entity, and how its departure filing lines up with the Delaware side.
A clean handoff, in four steps.
Two states are involved and they do not coordinate with each other. The sequence below keeps the Delaware filing and the departure filing from arriving in the wrong order, which is the usual way this goes wrong.
Confirm the reason
A move is worth doing when something actually requires it, usually a financing. If the term sheet wants a corporation rather than an LLC, that changes the shape of the exercise, and it is better known now than later.
Check the route
Whether your state authorizes outbound domestication decides everything downstream. Where it does not, a Delaware entity is formed first and the existing LLC merges into it. Tax clearance starts here, because it takes the longest.
Draft and file Delaware
The Plan of Domestication or Plan of Merger is drafted and approved, then the Delaware filings go in: the domestication and formation documents, or the merger paperwork for the new entity.
File the departure
The departure paperwork follows in the state you are leaving, and the entity picks up its Delaware Registered Agent, its franchise tax calendar and a refreshed set of documents on the other side.
Two states, one entity, one order of operations. The order is the whole job.
The rest of Change or convert.
Every one of these is built the same way: a national explainer above its state pages. They are the filings that sit closest to this one.
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Corporation to LLC, state by state
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Sole proprietorship to LLC, state by state
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The DBA filing, state by state
All 51 states → HubLLC Domestication
LLC domestication, state by state
All 51 states → HubDBA filing
Filing a DBA, state by state
All 51 states → HubAmendment
Filing an amendment, state by state
All 51 states → HubForeign qualification
Foreign qualification, state by state
All 51 states →The full index lives on Change or convert.
The questions founders ask before they move.
Why do investors ask for Delaware?
Because most early-stage term sheets are written around it. What they usually require is a Delaware C-Corp, or at minimum a Delaware-domiciled LLC that can convert into one during the financing. It is a default rather than a legal necessity, and it is a default that tends to be easier to meet than to argue with while a round is being negotiated to a date.
What if my state does not allow domestication?
Then the route is a statutory merger. A new Delaware LLC is formed and your existing LLC merges into it, with the Delaware entity surviving. It is more paperwork than a direct domestication, and it works universally, which is why it is the fallback wherever the direct path is closed. Your state page says which of the two applies to you.
Does the LLC keep its EIN?
Yes. The EIN is preserved through the move, which is one of the reasons this is done as a domestication or a merger rather than by dissolving and starting again. Bank accounts, payroll and prior filings continue against the same number. What changes is the state of record, the Registered Agent, and the state-level filings on both sides of the move.
Do I have to become a C-Corp as well?
Not necessarily at the same moment. Term sheets commonly want a Delaware corporation by closing, and some accept a Delaware LLC that converts during the financing. Moving states and changing entity type are two separate exercises that often get sequenced together. Which one your round requires is a question for the term sheet and your counsel rather than for a filing service.
How long does it take?
Plan six to twelve weeks end to end, including tax clearance and the document refresh that goes with it. The filings themselves are not the slow part. Waiting on the departing state, particularly where clearance is required before it will process the paperwork, is what sets the pace. Starting clearance early is the single thing that shortens the whole exercise.
What changes once the entity is in Delaware?
The entity takes on Delaware's requirements: a Registered Agent in the state and the annual Delaware franchise tax, on Delaware's calendar. The filings on the old side are closed out rather than left running. Day to day the business carries on where it always did, because moving the domicile does not move where the company actually operates.
Keep going, in order.
Change or convert
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Open the index → IndexAll 51 state guides
Every filing a business does, organised by jurisdiction.
Open the index → ServiceCompliance calendar
Every deadline that touches your entity, watched.
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