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Pennsylvania Foreign LLC Registration

The fee, the form, what triggers registration in Pennsylvania, and how to file.

State filing fee $250 one-time
Registered agent $125/year based on Northwest RA
Total, all in $646
Pennsylvania data last reviewed Aug 26, 2026 · dos.pa.gov Totals include the $250 filing fee once, Northwest RA at $125/year, and Pennsylvania recurring state costs over the selected period.

Foreign Qualification

Filing fee
$250
Form
Foreign Registration Statement (DSCB:15-412)
Annual obligation
$7/year
Processing time
Pennsylvania publishes "Please allow 15 business days for processing" for business filings generally.
More

It separately reported a two to four day average across 2024, which is a performance statistic rather than a service standard and is now well over a year old. Expedited service is $100 same day if received before 10am, $300 within three hours if before 2pm and $1,000 within one hour if before 4pm, and expedited requests cannot be posted

Expedite
$100 for same day if received before 10am, $300 within three hours if before 2pm, $1,000 within one hour if before 4pm. Expedited requests cannot be posted, and the fees are nonrefundable
Estimated year 1 cost
$257
Visit Pennsylvania Secretary of State ↗

Need to register your LLC in Pennsylvania?

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

Have Northwest register your LLC in Pennsylvania ↗
$225 + the state fee · One year of registered agent included
Other registered agent options 2 alternatives
Registered Agents Inc
$200/year · Report filing included, state fees extra
Visit site ↗
Harbor Compliance
$99 first year, then $149/year · Full-service compliance option
Visit site ↗

What triggers foreign qualification in Pennsylvania?

  • Physical office or place of business
  • Employees working in the state

Important to know

  • The annual report is $7 and due September 30. Older guides may state that Pennsylvania requires no annual report.
What does NOT require registration in Pennsylvania 12 activities

Pennsylvania carves 12 activities out by statute. On their own, none of them requires a foreign LLC to register.

  • Maintaining, defending, mediating, arbitrating, or settling an action or proceeding
  • Carrying on internal affairs, including meetings of interest holders or governors
  • Maintaining accounts at financial institutions
  • Maintaining offices or agents for the transfer, exchange, and registration of the association's securities
  • Selling through independent contractors
  • Soliciting or taking orders that must be accepted outside Pennsylvania before they become contracts
  • Creating, acquiring, or incurring obligations, debt, mortgages, or security interests in property
  • Securing or collecting debts, enforcing security interests, and holding or maintaining property acquired that way
  • Conducting an isolated transaction that is not one of a series of similar transactions
  • Doing business in interstate or foreign commerce
  • Acquiring, owning, holding, leasing as a tenant, or transferring real estate, mortgages and liens, personal property, and security interests, and nothing more
  • Doing work or providing services in good faith in response to a disaster or emergency

Under 15 Pa.C.S. Section 403. Twelve operative items; statutory paragraph (10) was deleted by amendment, so the printed numbering runs to (13). Pennsylvania puts NO time limit on the isolated-transaction carve-out and has an unusually broad property item covering leasing and fiduciary holding. Unique item: work performed in good faith in response to a disaster or emergency.

Forming a new LLC in Pennsylvania instead? $125 to form
Formation fee
$125
Annual cost
$7/year
State income tax
Flat 3.07% income tax (2026 tax year)
Privacy
Moderate
Pennsylvania replaced the decennial report with an annual report under Act 122 of 2022. Since January 2025 an LLC files a $7 annual report between January 1 and September 30 each year. There is no monetary late fee in any year. The only sanction is administrative dissolution, and it has not started. The first report that can trigger it is the one due 30 September 2027. The Department may begin the process about six months after that, and a further 60-day notice period applies, so the earliest an LLC can actually be dissolved is around the middle of 2028. Decennial filings still exist for registered insignia and marks.
Sources 1 link

More Pennsylvania guides

Already operating without registering?Civil penalty, back fees and court access in Pennsylvania, statute-cited ↗ Not sure Pennsylvania applies to you?What counts as doing business, and what does not ↗ Changing your registered agent?The form, the fee and the steps in Pennsylvania ↗ Operating in more than one state?Free 3-question check of where you must register ↗

This page provides general information based on publicly available state requirements. It is not legal advice. Verify with the Pennsylvania SOS before filing.