How to search for a business in every state
Updated . General information, not legal or tax advice.
The United States has no national register of LLCs and corporations. Each state and the District of Columbia keeps its own, and a business appears only in the states where it formed or registered. A complete nationwide check means searching 51 registries.
What our multistate search covers
Choose “All states we can search” in the search box. We then search these 13 jurisdictions one by one and show each result as it arrives: Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas.
The other 38 states block automated searching, charge for access or publish no searchable data, so we list them as not searched with links to each official search. A multistate result from us is never a nationwide clearance, and we say so on the results.
Other ways to search across states
- Federal records. Public companies file with the SEC (EDGAR company search). Tax-exempt nonprofits are listed in the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search.
- Trademarks are national: USPTO Trademark Search.
- Commercial databases aggregate state records, but they lag behind the states and may not show current status. Confirm anything important with the state itself.
Tips
- Start with the states where the business says it’s located, and Delaware, where many larger companies form.
- A company operating in several states usually has a home-state record plus a foreign registration in each other state. The details, including dates and status, can differ between them. Why.