How to reach your Secretary of State.
Every jurisdiction publishes a line for business filings. Finding the right one is the work. The office is called the Secretary of State in most places and the Department of State in others, and the people who handle entity documents sit inside a division of their own with their own number. Pick your state for the line, the hours, the time zone and both addresses.
Four things that change with your state.
Fifty-one offices do the same job under different names, on different clocks, from different buildings. These four decide whether your call lands somewhere useful or somewhere polite.
Secretary or Department of State
Most states put business filings under the Secretary of State. Others run them through a Department of State instead. The job is the same and the letterhead is not, and searching under the wrong title is the quickest way to end up on a page that cannot help you.
The desk that answers
Entity filings sit inside a named division: corporations, business services, business programs, business and public filings. That division usually publishes its own line, separate from the general switchboard. Calling the main number and asking to be put through is the slow version of the same call.
Hours and time zones
These offices keep weekday hours, but opening and closing times are not uniform, and neither is the zone they are kept in. A call placed late in the afternoon from one coast arrives after closing on the other. Each state page lists the hours in the office's own time zone.
Mailing is not walk-in
Most offices publish two addresses: one for documents sent by post and one for the counter where you can hand something over. They are frequently different buildings in different parts of the city, and a document sent to the wrong one has to travel before anybody can act on it.
Same errand, fifty-one front desks. Find the one holding your record.
Pick your state.
Each state page lists the phone number for business filings, the hours that office keeps and the zone it keeps them in, the mailing and physical addresses, and the division that handles entity documents in that jurisdiction.
Getting through, in four steps.
Most calls to a filing office are about something you can hand to us instead. When you do need the office itself, this is the shortest route to somebody who can actually answer.
Open your state
Start on the page for the jurisdiction your entity is registered in. The office that can help is the one holding your record, which is not always the one nearest to you.
Read the hours first
Note the opening times and the zone they are given in before you dial. Offices that close early on the far side of the country account for a lot of wasted calls.
Phone, post or counter
Questions about a record go by phone. Documents go to the mailing address, or to the physical office if you are delivering them in person. Both addresses are on the page.
Or skip the call
If the reason for the call is a filing you have not made yet, tell us what you need instead. We prepare it, submit it to that office, and follow the record until it is on file.
The number is the easy part. Getting to the right division is the rest.
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 call.
Is the Secretary of State the right office?
In most jurisdictions, yes: business entity filings live with the Secretary of State. In several others the same work sits inside a Department of State. Either way, the part you want is rarely the office as a whole. Entity documents are handled by a named division, and it is that division that can tell you what is on your record. Each state page names the office and the division together.
What hours are these offices open?
Weekday hours, broadly, but the detail moves. Opening and closing times differ from state to state, and so does the time zone they are set in, which matters more than people expect when the call is going across the country. Some offices close in the middle of the afternoon local time. Every state page lists the hours in that office's own zone so you can plan the call around them.
Can I file something over the phone?
No. A phone line is for questions about a record, not for lodging documents. The office needs the filing itself, delivered by the route it accepts, which is why each page lists both a mailing address and a physical office. If the call was going to be about a filing you have not made yet, we can prepare that filing and submit it for you instead.
Why are there two addresses?
Because the post and the counter are different services. The mailing address is where documents sent by post are received and sorted. The physical address is the building where staff sit and where you can hand something over in person. They are often not the same location, and sending a filing to the walk-in address, or arriving at a mailroom, wastes time nobody gets back.
Which division handles LLC and corporation filings?
The names vary: corporations, business services, business programs, business and public filings. What they have in common is that entity work is separated from the rest of the office, whether that is elections, licensing or records. Calling the general number and asking for the business division works, but going straight to the division's own line is faster. Each state page names the division for that jurisdiction.
Can the office tell me whether my filing was accepted?
Filing offices can confirm what is on the record: whether a document has been received, whether the entity is on file, what name is registered. What they will not do is draft your document, review it in advance, or tell you which filing your situation calls for. That is the line most calls run into. If you need the document prepared as well as filed, that is the part we handle.
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.
Get in touch →