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Puerto Rico Foreign LLC Registration

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

State filing fee $250 one-time
Registered agent $125/year based on Northwest RA
Estimated total $1,075
Puerto Rico data last reviewed Oct 9, 2026 · statedepartment.pr.gov Totals include the $250 filing fee once, Northwest RA at $125/year, and Puerto Rico recurring state costs over the selected period.

Foreign Qualification

Filing fee
$250
Form
Certificate of Authorization to do Business (Limited Liability Company)
Annual obligation
$150/year
Processing time
not published by the Department of State, which prices speed instead: $100 within 24 hours, $200 same day, $500 within two hours
Expedite
$100 for service within 24 hours, $200 for same day and $500 within two hours of the request, each charged on top of the filing fee.
More

The Department of State publishes no expedite row on its LLC price list, so these are the statutory prices and may be higher in practice

Estimated year 1 cost
$400
Note: A foreign LLC registers with the Corporations Registry at the Puerto Rico Department of State by filing a Certificate of Authorization to do Business, and filings go through the registry online. Pay from the Department of State's published price list: figures set in the statute are lower and out of date, so treat any statutory number you find as a floor rather than a price. Puerto Rico also runs a separate Registry of Legal Entities. Whether a foreign LLC already authorised here must appear in that one too is not clear from the agency's own pages, so ask the Corporations Division if it affects you.
Visit Puerto Rico Department of State, Corporations Division ↗

Need to register your LLC in Puerto Rico?

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

Have Northwest register your LLC in Puerto Rico ↗
$225 + the state fee · One year of registered agent included

Filing it yourself? Go to the official Puerto Rico Department of State portal ↗

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 $159/year · Full-service compliance option
Visit site ↗

What triggers foreign qualification in Puerto Rico?

  • Physical office, storefront or other place of business in Puerto Rico
  • Employees working in Puerto Rico
  • Repeated transactions of a similar kind carried out in Puerto Rico, rather than one isolated deal
  • Any single job running longer than 30 days

Important to know

  • Puerto Rico charges LLCs a $150 annual fee, due 15 April. It is a fee, not a report. Miss it and your LLC loses its authorisation, which is Puerto Rico's word for the registration that lets you do business, with a $500 penalty and 1.5 per cent monthly interest until you pay. Getting it back means clearing every year you missed.
  • Trading here without that registration costs $200 a year, or part year, with no cap. Puerto Rico courts will not hear a case you bring until you are registered and the bill is paid.
  • Puerto Rico taxes a Puerto Rico LLC as a corporation by default. An LLC formed elsewhere that files federally as a partnership, or as a single-owner LLC taxed on its owner's return, keeps that treatment in Puerto Rico and cannot choose corporate tax. Budget an hour with a Puerto Rico accountant.
  • The one-off transaction exemption is capped at 30 days, as it is in many states. A single job running longer than a month loses that exemption.
  • Puerto Rico calls it a resident agent rather than a registered agent. Sixty days without one is its own ground for losing your registration.
  • The Department of State's English registry page says an LLC registration lasts a year and must be renewed. That describes a different Puerto Rico entity. Yours does not expire annually.
What does NOT require registration in Puerto Rico 10 activities

Puerto Rico carves 10 activities out by statute. On their own, none of them requires a foreign LLC to register.

  • Bringing, defending or settling a court proceeding
  • Holding meetings of the board or the members, or other internal affairs activity
  • Maintaining bank accounts
  • Maintaining offices or agencies for the transfer, exchange and registration of its own securities, or maintaining trustees or depositories for those securities
  • Selling through independent contractors
  • Soliciting or obtaining orders, by mail or through employees or agents, if the orders must be accepted outside Puerto Rico before a contract obligation arises
  • Creating or acquiring debts, mortgages or security interests in movable or immovable property
  • Securing or collecting debts, or enforcing mortgages or security interests in the property securing those debts
  • Owning movable or immovable property, and nothing more
  • Carrying out an isolated transaction COMPLETED WITHIN 30 DAYS that is not one of a series of a similar nature

Section 4029 does not list activities itself. It defines them by reference to section 3805, the foreign corporation provision, so an LLC and a corporation share one list. Puerto Rico limits the isolated transaction to 30 days, as many states do. Section 3805(b) disclaims the list twice over: it does not decide whether the entity can be served and sued in Puerto Rico, or whether it is engaged in trade or business for income tax under the Puerto Rico Internal Revenue Code. A company outside the registration duty can still owe Puerto Rico tax.

Forming a new LLC in Puerto Rico instead? $250 to form
Formation fee
$250
Annual cost
$150/year
State income tax
A Puerto Rico LLC is taxed as a corporation by default. It can choose to be taxed as a partnership, or, with one owner, on the owner's return. Rates come from Hacienda, Puerto Rico's tax agency, not the Department of State.
Privacy
Conditional
Domestic LLCs are formed by filing a Certificate of Formation with the Department of State, which charges $250. Figures set in the statute are lower and out of date, so pay from the published price list. The certificate names the people who file it, not the owners, and names managers only if those filers stop acting once it is filed. Puerto Rico LLCs file no annual report, only a yearly $150 fee.
Sources 10 pages

The official pages behind the figures on this page, with the date we last read each one. How we check.

Fees and costs

Deadlines and processing

Forms and filing

More Puerto Rico guides

Already operating without registering?Civil penalty, back fees and court access in Puerto Rico, statute-cited ↗ Not sure Puerto Rico applies to you?What counts as doing business, and what does not ↗ Changing your registered agent?The form, the fee and the steps in Puerto Rico ↗ 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 Puerto Rico Department of State before filing.