Secretary of State forms, state by state.
Every filing a company makes with its home state has a form behind it: the one that creates the entity, the annual report, the registered agent change, the amendment when something on the record stops being true, and the dissolution at the end. The names differ from state to state, and so does the office that takes them. Pick your state to see the current set.
Four things that change with your state.
The filings rhyme from one state to the next. The labels, the office and the timing do not. These four are where people come unstuck following instructions written for somewhere else.
Not every state calls it that
In most states business filings go to the Secretary of State. In others the same work sits with a department of state or a division of corporations, under a different name, a different website and a different search tool. The filing is the same filing. The letterhead is not.
Articles, or a certificate
The document that creates an LLC is called the Articles of Organization in many states and the Certificate of Formation in others. Same effect, different title. It matters most when you are hunting for a form number or working from a checklist somebody wrote for another state.
Which filings your state uses
The same handful covers almost everything: the formation filing, an annual report, a registered agent change, an amendment when the record changes, and a dissolution to close. What varies is what your state calls each one and which form number it hides behind.
How long the state takes
Processing time is a state level fact rather than a national one, and it is the number that decides whether a filing lands this week or next month. Each state page carries the current expectation next to the form it belongs to, so you can plan around it.
The filings are the same everywhere. The names, the office and the timing are not.
Pick your state.
Each state page lists the filings that state actually uses: what each form is called there, which office receives it, what it changes on the public record, and how long processing runs. Start with the state your company was formed in.
A clean handoff, in four steps.
Most form questions are really one question: which document does the thing I am trying to do. Work in this order and the answer arrives before you have downloaded anything.
Name the change
Decide what you are actually changing: creating the entity, reporting for the year, moving the registered agent, correcting the record, or closing it down. The form follows from that, never the other way round.
Open your state's page
Go to the state the company is formed in. A form number from another state is worse than no form number at all, because it looks close enough to follow.
Check what it asks for
Read what the filing wants before you start it: the names, the addresses, the signatures. Gathering those first is most of what keeps a filing from bouncing back.
File and keep the copy
Submit it, then save the stamped copy with your formation documents. Banks, landlords and your next filing all ask to see the record, and it is easier to keep than to request again.
A handful of forms covers almost everything a company does with its state. Learn which is which once.
The rest of Secretary of State directory.
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.
Secretary of State
The Secretary of State, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State annual report
The annual report, state by state
All 51 states → HubArticles of Amendment
Articles of amendment, state by state
All 51 states → HubBusiness license
Business license requirements, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State business search
Secretary of State business search, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State Certificate of Good Standing
Certificate of Good Standing, state by state
All 51 states → HubEntity conversion
Entity conversion, state by state
All 51 states → HubSecretary of State DBA
Secretary of State DBA, state by state
All 51 states →The full index lives on Secretary of State directory.
The questions people ask before they file.
Which forms does a new company file?
The formation document comes first, and it is the one that brings the entity into existence. After that the recurring set is small: an annual report, a registered agent change when the agent moves or is replaced, an amendment when a name or a detail on the record changes, and a dissolution at the end. Every state page lists that state's version of each.
Why is the form called something different here?
Because each state wrote its own business code. The document that creates an LLC is Articles of Organization in some states and a Certificate of Formation in others, and the same divergence runs through amendments, reports and dissolutions. The filings do the same work under either name, but the form number, the fields and the instructions belong to one state only.
Is it always the Secretary of State?
No. In most states it is, which is why the phrase became shorthand for business filings generally. Elsewhere the same function sits inside a department of state or a division of corporations. It matters because that office runs the search tool, the form library and the record your bank will eventually look at, so knowing its name is the first step to finding anything.
What is an amendment for?
An amendment corrects or updates something already on the state's record: the company name, the address, the management structure, whatever the original filing captured that has since changed. It is not a new formation and it does not restart the entity. It edits the public record so that the state, and anyone searching it, sees the company as it currently is.
Do I file a report every year?
Every state page in this set lists a recurring report of some kind. It confirms the company's basic details, keeps the entity in good standing and is the single most commonly missed filing there is. The name, the contents and the due date are set by your state, which is why a friend's deadline is not evidence of your own.
How do I close a company properly?
Through a dissolution filing with the same office that formed it. Letting an entity lapse quietly is not the same thing: the record stays open, obligations attached to it stay attached, and reinstating or unwinding it later is more work than closing it cleanly now. Your state page names the form that state uses and what it expects alongside it.
Keep going, in order.
Secretary of State directory
Every hub in secretary of state directory, in one place.
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.
Track deadlines → ServiceTalk to a specialist
A person who files these every day, not a call centre.
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