Filing Form LLC1052 without help

Have these ready: the exact company name, where and when it was formed and for how long, the Virginia registered office address, the agent's name and the principal office address. If the LLC was registered in Virginia before, find the old Commission identification number.

Pick someone who qualifies. The agent is an individual who lives in Virginia, whose business office is the registered office, and who is a member or manager of the LLC, a member or manager of an LLC that is a member or manager of it, an officer or director of a corporation that is, a general partner of a partnership that is, a trustee of a trust that is, or a member of the Virginia State Bar, or a corporation, nonstock corporation, LLC or registered limited liability partnership authorized to do business in Virginia, with its business office at the registered office, that is not the LLC itself and that names in a notarized writing one or more people at that office to receive service, or a Virginia resident who is an employee of the LLC, other than a member or manager, designated in writing as the person to receive service and available during regular business hours at the registered office. The registered office can be the same as a place of business.

The copy of the articles has to include every amendment, and a certified copy of each merger, conversion or domestication goes in too where one exists. Each additional document adds a $25 filing fee at the Commission and a certification charge at home. Delaware, for one, charges $50 per certified copy.

The application states the LLC's name (or a designated name if its own is barred); its jurisdiction of formation and any earlier Virginia registration; its original date of organization and period of duration; the address of its proposed registered office in Virginia and the name of its registered agent there, with a statement of why that agent qualifies; a statement that the clerk of the Commission is irrevocably appointed its agent for service of process if the LLC fails to keep an agent; the address of its principal office; and a statement that it is a foreign limited liability company. Sign it in the name of the LLC.

Keep the certificate. Calendar the annual registration fee: a foreign LLC pays the annual registration fee on or before the last day of the twelfth month after the month it registered, and by the same date every year after. It is $50.

The people who did the business knowing registration was required face a penalty between $500 and $5,000, imposed by the Commission, after the LLC and the individual have been given notice and an opportunity to be heard. The penalty page has the detail.

Store the certificate with the company's records. If the registered agent or the registered office changes, file a statement of change; it costs nothing. If the principal office address changes, file the statement for that; it also costs nothing.

Fees left over from an earlier Virginia registration must be paid before the LLC registers again, and the name on the application has to match the name on the articles unless Virginia bars it, in which case a designated name goes in. Both can hold up an application that is otherwise complete.