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Register Your Michigan LLC in Georgia

Step-by-step foreign qualification requirements, fees, and filing instructions for Michigan LLCs expanding into Georgia.

Georgia filing fee $235 one-time
Registered agent $125/year based on Northwest RA
Total, all in $790
Georgia data last reviewed Sep 11, 2026 · ecorp.sos.ga.gov Totals include the $235 Georgia filing fee once, Northwest RA at $125/year, and Georgia recurring state costs over the selected period. The Cost Summary below is the same year one figure without the agent.

Cost Summary

Georgia filing fee
$235
Michigan Certificate of Good Standing
Not required
Annual obligation in Georgia
$60/year
Estimated year 1 total
$295
Note: Year 1 total covers Georgia state fees only. Georgia does not ask for a certificate of good standing from Michigan. Registered agent fees (typically $100-$200/year) are not included.
Michigan data last reviewed Sep 11, 2026 · michigan.gov

How to register your Michigan LLC in Georgia

1

Check name availability in Georgia

Before filing, verify that your LLC name (or a distinguishable variation) is available in Georgia. If your exact name is already taken, you may need to register under a fictitious or assumed name.

Search Georgia business names ↗
2

No home-state certificate needed

Georgia requires no home-state certificate when a foreign LLC registers here, although foreign corporations must supply one no more than 90 days old.

3

File the Application for Certificate of Authority in Georgia

Submit your application with the $235 filing fee. See the processing time under Ongoing compliance below. Expedited processing is available, priced under Ongoing compliance below. Online filing is available.

Georgia filing portal ↗
4

Appoint a registered agent in Georgia

You must designate a registered agent with a physical address in Georgia to accept legal documents on behalf of your LLC. This is required as part of the foreign qualification application.

Need to register your LLC in Georgia?

Northwest files the foreign registration and serves as your registered agent in Georgia, which the filing requires. Only need an agent? Northwest's registered agent service alone is $125/year.

Have Northwest register your LLC in Georgia ↗
$225 + the state fee · One year of registered agent included
Other registered agent options 2 alternatives

Ongoing compliance in Georgia

Annual report
$60/year
Report due
April 1
Processing time
Georgia publishes 7 to 10 business days for an online filing and 15 business days for post or hand delivery.
More

A second agency page, the guide to registering a foreign entity, gives approximately 7 business days online and approximately 15 by post; the two agree in substance and differ only in rounding.

Expedite
$120 for two business days, $275 for the same day if submitted before noon, and $1,200 for one hour, which the foreign entity guide restricts to paper.
More

Annual registrations filed online process immediately and cannot be expedited at all.

Important to know about Georgia

  • The annual registration is $60, being a $50 filing fee plus a compulsory $10 service charge. Guides quoting $50 or $55 are using stale figures.
  • Operating unregistered triggers a single $500 penalty rather than an annually recurring one, plus the accumulated fees.

If your LLC did business in Georgia before filing, check the Georgia foreign LLC penalty guide first. Back fees can run from the date you started, not the date you file.

What does NOT require registration in Georgia 13 activities

Georgia carves 13 activities out by statute. On their own, none of them requires a foreign LLC to register.

  • Maintaining or defending a lawsuit, administrative proceeding, or arbitration, or settling claims or disputes
  • Holding meetings of managers, members, or other owners, or carrying on internal company affairs
  • Maintaining bank accounts, savings and loan share accounts, custodial or agency arrangements, or brokerage accounts
  • Maintaining offices or agencies for the transfer, exchange, and registration of membership interests, or appointing trustees or depositaries for them
  • Effecting sales through independent contractors
  • Soliciting or procuring orders, by mail or through employees or agents, where the orders require acceptance outside Georgia before becoming binding and the contracts involve no local performance other than delivery and installation
  • Making loans, or creating or acquiring evidences of debt, mortgages, or liens on property, or recording them
  • Securing or collecting debts, or enforcing rights in property securing them
  • Owning real or personal property, and nothing more
  • Conducting an isolated transaction not in the course of repeated transactions of a like nature
  • Effecting transactions in interstate or foreign commerce
  • Serving as trustee, executor, administrator, or guardian, or in a like fiduciary capacity where Georgia law permits
  • Owning or controlling, directly or indirectly, an interest in another person organized under Georgia law or transacting business in Georgia

Under O.C.G.A. Section 14-11-702(b), all 13 statutory items. Georgia's isolated-transaction carve-out has NO time limit. Subsection (d) states this Code section does not establish a standard for taxation or service of process.

Need a business address in Georgia? mail forwarding

Check your full compliance

Use our free tool to check if you need to register in additional states.

Start free compliance check ↗
Sources 1 link

This page provides general information based on publicly available state requirements. It is not legal advice. Verify all fees and requirements with the Georgia Secretary of State before filing.