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Register Your Texas LLC in North Dakota

Step-by-step foreign qualification requirements, fees, and filing instructions for Texas LLCs expanding into North Dakota.

North Dakota filing fee $135 one-time
Registered agent $125/year based on Northwest RA
Total, all in $675
North Dakota data last reviewed Aug 22, 2026 · sos.nd.gov Totals include the $135 North Dakota filing fee once, Northwest RA at $125/year, and North Dakota recurring state costs over the selected period. Adds the $15 Certificate of Fact - Status from Texas once. The Cost Summary below is the same year one figure without the agent.

Cost Summary

North Dakota filing fee
$135
Texas Certificate of Fact - Status
$15
Annual obligation in North Dakota
$50/year
Estimated year 1 total
$200
Note: Year 1 total includes the $135 filing fee in North Dakota, the $15 Certificate of Fact - Status fee from Texas, and $50 in first-year North Dakota state charges. Registered agent fees (typically $100-$200/year) are not included.
Texas data last reviewed Sep 11, 2026 · sos.texas.gov

How to register your Texas LLC in North Dakota

1

Check name availability in North Dakota

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

Search the business name register on the North Dakota Secretary of State website before you file.

2

Get a Certificate of Fact - Status from Texas

North Dakota requires a Certificate of Fact - Status from Texas to prove your LLC is in good standing. The fee is $15. Available to order online. When North Dakota is the destination for a foreign qualification, a home-state certificate is required but North Dakota sets no deadline on how recent it must be.

Order from Texas ↗
3

File the Certificate of Authority (filed through the FirstStop portal; North Dakota publishes no paper form for the initial registration) in North Dakota

Submit your application along with the Certificate of Fact - Status and the $135 filing fee. See the processing time under Ongoing compliance below. Online filing is available.

North Dakota filing portal ↗
4

Appoint a registered agent in North Dakota

You must designate a registered agent with a physical address in North Dakota 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 North Dakota?

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

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

Ongoing compliance in North Dakota

Annual report
$50/year
Report due
November 15
Processing time
North Dakota publishes no processing time for this filing.
More

It is filed through the FirstStop portal, and NDCC 10-01.1-03 enumerates every fee the Secretary collects under the registered agent chapter without an expedite among them

Important to know about North Dakota

  • Penalties reach $5,000 for the entity plus per-individual stacking based on management role, which is unusually aggressive.

Registering after you already started doing business in North Dakota? See the North Dakota late-registration penalties for the back fees and fines that can apply.

What does NOT require registration in North Dakota 8 activities

North Dakota carves 8 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, governors, or members, or carrying on internal company affairs
  • Maintaining bank accounts
  • Maintaining offices or agencies for transfer, exchange, and registration of its securities, or trustees or depositories for them
  • Holding title to and managing property in the state as executor, administrator, trustee, guardian, or conservator
  • Making, participating in, or investing in loans, or creating as borrower or lender or acquiring indebtedness, mortgages, or security interests in real or personal property
  • Securing or collecting its debts, or enforcing rights in property securing its debts
  • Conducting an isolated transaction completed within 30 days and not in the course of a number of repeated transactions of like nature

Under N.D.C.C. Section 10-32.1-82. North Dakota lists only 8 safe harbors and has NO independent-contractor item, NO order-solicitation item, NO interstate-commerce item and NO property-ownership safe harbor. Subsection 2 reverses property ownership: owning income-producing real or tangible personal property in North Dakota DOES constitute transacting business. The isolated-transaction carve-out carries a 30-day limit.

Need a business address in North Dakota? 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 North Dakota Secretary of State before filing.