How North Dakota's business registry works
North Dakota spreads its annual report deadlines across five separate dates, and which one applies depends entirely on what the company registered as. Limited partnerships, LLPs, LLLPs, PLLPs and cooperatives file by March 31. Farming or ranching corporations and LLCs, plus their authorized livestock farm counterparts, file by April 15. Foreign business and professional corporations file by May 15, domestic ones by August 1, and LLCs and PLLCs by November 15. Sole proprietorships and general partnerships file nothing at all. So "is this company current?" has five different answers in North Dakota, and the entity type is the input that picks one.
The Secretary of State runs registration and public search through the FirstStop Portal. The search is free and open, and the state describes its purpose precisely: you search to determine whether a business is active or in Good Standing. Those are two signals, not one. Miss an annual report and the entity is placed into Not Good Standing while still sitting on the register — typically for 6 to 12 months before the state involuntarily terminates it. For a foreign entity, the authority to transact business in North Dakota is revoked instead. There's a one-year window to file the past-due report and get back to Good Standing.
Entity naming splits the same way. North Dakota recognizes four kinds of corporation — business, farming or ranching, authorized livestock farm, and professional — and four kinds of LLC on the same pattern. An LLC's name must contain "limited liability company," "LLC," or "L.L.C."; a corporation's must contain "company," "corporation," "incorporated," "limited," or an abbreviation of one of those.
BizVerify runs instant quick checks for North Dakota today: entity name, entity type, jurisdiction ID, and current status. Deep verification — the registered agent, the principal executive office street address, and the officers, directors and governors named on the annual report — is on the roadmap for North Dakota, prioritized by demand.
What North Dakota specifically charges and requires
Formation
A North Dakota LLC costs $135 to register, domestic or foreign — one price either way. A business corporation is cheaper in-state and dearer from out of state: $100 domestic, $145 foreign. The farming-or-ranching and authorized-livestock-farm variants carry the same registration fee as their plain counterpart.
Annual obligations
Every registered entity except sole proprietorships and general partnerships files an annual report — $50 for an LLC, $25 for a corporation. The first one is due the year after the calendar year of registration. Reports must arrive on or before the deadline or incur a late filing fee, and the deadline depends on the entity type.
| Entity type | Annual report deadline | Report fee |
|---|---|---|
| LP, LLP, LLLP, PLLP, cooperative | March 31 | — |
| Farming or ranching LLC, ALF LLC | April 15 | $50 |
| Farming or ranching corporation, ALF corporation | April 15 | $25 |
| Business or professional corporation (foreign) | May 15 | $25 |
| Business or professional corporation (domestic) | August 1 | $25 |
| LLC, PLLC | November 15 | $50 |
Registered agent and certificates
Corporations, LLCs, and partnerships other than general partnerships must keep a North Dakota registered agent with a physical address in the state. Cooperatives may skip the agent if they maintain a North Dakota principal office address instead. Changing the agent or registered office is $10; a Certificate of Good Standing is $20. Three addresses sit on every record: the principal executive office, which must be a street address; the mailing address, which may be a PO box; and the registered agent office address.
Farming and ranching entities
North Dakota restricts corporate ownership of farmland under NDCC ch. 10-06.1. A farming or ranching corporation or LLC is capped at 15 shareholders or members, related within specified degrees of kinship. At least 65% of gross income, averaged over five years, must come from farming or ranching, and non-farm rent, royalties, dividends, interest and annuities can't exceed 20%. The entity can't buy land simply to rent it out to be farmed by others. Authorized livestock farm entities are tighter: no more than 160 acres, at most 10 owners who must be US citizens or permanent resident aliens, and no crop growing or grazing.
Common ways developers use North Dakota verification
Gate an onboarding agent on entity type, not just status
An agent reading a North Dakota company name calls verify_business({ entity_name, jurisdiction: "us-nd" }) through the BizVerify MCP server and gets back the entity type alongside the status. That matters here, because the type determines which report deadline the counterparty is measured against. The same loop runs unchanged from an OpenAI Agents tool call or a CrewAI crew.
Time re-checks to the right deadline
A North Dakota LLC you cleared in March is measured against November 15; a domestic corporation against August 1; a farm or ranch entity against April 15. One blanket annual re-check will miss most of them. Branch your scheduler on the entity type the first check returned, then re-verify shortly after that type's date. n8n handles the branching without custom code.
Screen agricultural counterparties
Lenders, grain buyers and land platforms dealing with North Dakota sellers care whether the counterparty is a farming or ranching entity at all. Those carry the 15-owner cap, the kinship requirement and the 65% income test. A quick check returns the registered entity type and current status, which is the first filter before anyone pulls documents by hand.
Reconcile on the jurisdiction ID
Company names drift; the record number the Secretary of State assigns doesn't. Resolve each North Dakota counterparty to its jurisdiction_id once, then dedupe and re-check against that key. Feeding the canonical record into a KYB pipeline keeps two filings under near-identical names from becoming two customers.
Frequently asked questions
When is a North Dakota annual report due?
It depends on the entity type. LPs, LLPs, LLLPs, PLLPs and cooperatives file by March 31; farming or ranching and authorized livestock farm entities by April 15; foreign business and professional corporations by May 15; domestic ones by August 1; LLCs and PLLCs by November 15. Sole proprietorships and general partnerships don't file one.
What's the difference between "active" and "Good Standing" in North Dakota?
They're two signals. An entity that misses its annual report is placed into Not Good Standing but stays on the register — it still exists, it's just not current. Only after roughly 6 to 12 months in that state does North Dakota involuntarily terminate it, or revoke a foreign entity's authority to transact business. Read both before you provision anything.
Can a North Dakota entity that lost Good Standing come back?
Yes. There's a one-year window: file the past-due annual report within a year of being placed into Not Good Standing and the business returns to Good Standing. Miss that window and it's involuntarily dissolved or terminated, and a foreign entity's authority is revoked. A fresh quick check tells you which side of the line a counterparty is on right now.
Why does North Dakota have special corporation types for farms?
NDCC ch. 10-06.1 restricts corporate ownership of farmland. A farming or ranching corporation or LLC is capped at 15 shareholders or members, related within specified degrees of kinship. It needs 65% of its gross income from farming or ranching averaged over five years, and can't acquire land just to rent it out. Authorized livestock farm entities are capped at 160 acres and 10 owners.
Does a North Dakota registration tell me who owns the company?
Not usually. The Secretary of State states that a business registration does not document ownership — incorporators, organizers and general partners get listed, but they may not be the owners. Farm/ranch, authorized livestock farm and professional corporations do show shareholders on the annual report; a plain business corporation's report shows only officers and directors.
How current is North Dakota entity data?
A quick check reflects the North Dakota record as it stands when the call runs — there's no nightly snapshot sitting between the source and your response. A status change that just posted shows up on the next check. The trade-off is that p95 latency tracks the registry's own responsiveness.
Does BizVerify support deep verification for North Dakota today?
Today North Dakota is quick check: entity name, entity type, jurisdiction ID, and status — enough to confirm an entity exists and is currently registered. Deep verification, covering the registered agent, principal executive office address, and the officers, directors and governors on the annual report, is on the roadmap and prioritized by demand. Tell us what you need if you want it sooner.