Kentucky Foreign Registration›FastTrack, yourself
Register a foreign LLC in Kentucky yourself, using FastTrack
Filing the Kentucky application yourself costs $90 in state fees and goes through FastTrack, the Secretary of State's online filing system, where the first screen asks you to choose the entity type and shows the fee. The job is a form, a consent from your agent and a signature. The order of the later steps below follows the paper Form FBE and the instructions.
Self-filing at a glance
- Portal
- FastTrack, at web.sos.ky.gov, application page for a certificate of authority
- Fee
- $90, shown on the first screen
- Entity choices
- LLC, professional LLC, profit corporation, nonprofit corporation, professional service corporation, public benefit corporation, limited partnership, limited cooperative association
- Before you start
- Home name and formation date, principal office, managers, Kentucky agent with consent
- By post
- Mail to Michael Adams, Secretary of State, P.O. Box 718, Frankfort, KY 40602-0718
Before you open the portal: one sheet of facts
Write the thirteen answers on one page so the online screens become copying. You need the exact home name, the state, the formation date, the principal office address, the managers or officers with addresses, the Kentucky registered office and the agent. Decide the answers to the check boxes too: whether the LLC is manager-managed, and whether it retails nicotine vapor products.
Step 1: check the name
Use the Secretary of State's Business Entity Search to see whether a Kentucky record is too close to yours. If your home name is unavailable, the application has a line for a different Kentucky name, and the instructions say to fill it in only when the home name cannot be used. Reserving a name for 120 days costs $15.
Step 2: get the agent to say yes in writing
Call the person or firm you want and confirm three things: it has a Kentucky street address for its office, it will receive legal papers, and it will sign a written consent. A company cannot appoint itself. If the agent signs the application itself, no separate consent is needed. Otherwise the consent must travel with the filing, and an entity agent signs through an officer, chair, manager or member who states their title.
Step 3: start the application and choose the entity type
On the FastTrack application page pick the type of business. For an LLC, choose limited liability company; a professional LLC has its own choice. The page states the fee. The rest follows the paper form in order: names, jurisdiction and dates, offices, agent, representatives, certification and signer.
Step 4: answer the statements in order
Enter the home name, leave the Kentucky name blank unless needed, then the home state and the formation date and duration. Give the principal office as a mailing address, which state mail will use, and the registered office as a Kentucky street address. Then list the representatives. The Form FBE page has a statement-by-statement guide.
Step 5: certify and pay
Item 10 is a certification that the company validly exists under its home law, and by signing the person represents it. Check the home record before you press the button. Pay $90 at the end. Online filers do not send paper copies.
Step 6: save the proof and print the clerk copy
Save whatever record the portal gives you, then look the company up in the Business Entity Search. The same tool produces the copy for the registered office's county clerk, as the Secretary of State advises. Expect to pay the clerk $33 if the copy runs five pages or less. Meanwhile a stamped postcard goes to the principal office address.
Step 7: set the annual report reminder
The first annual report is due between January 1 and June 30 of the year after authorization, and FastTrack files it online for $15. Set a reminder in early January so the whole six-month window is available to you, and file well before June 30.
The paper alternative
Paper costs the same $90. Mail one exact or conformed copy, with a check payable to the Kentucky State Treasurer, to the Division of Business Filings, or deliver it in person at 1025 Capital Center Drive, Suite 201, Frankfort, KY 40601, open 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM Eastern. Kentucky says the online route is usually processed the same day.
Where people get stuck
- Choosing an agent who has not agreed and will not sign a consent.
- Entering a PO box for the registered office.
- Letting the application's name differ from the home name by punctuation or an ending.
- Not knowing whether the LLC is manager-managed and ticking the wrong box.
- Forgetting the county clerk copy after the online filing is done.
- Missing the January to June annual report window the following year.
What the portal cannot decide for you
FastTrack will not tell you whether your activity requires a certificate, which entity box matches your company, or whether your agent is qualified. It records what you enter. Those judgments stay with you.
Documents to have open on your desk
The home-state record that shows the exact name and formation date, the agent's signed consent, your fact sheet, and a way to pay online. Add the Business Entity Search page in a second window, so you can compare what you enter with what the state will show later. Having these ready turns the online session into a few minutes of typing.
Checking the result
After filing, search for the company again. Confirm that the name, the registered agent and the registered office read exactly as you meant them to, and that the status shows authorized. If anything is wrong, a statement of change or an amended certificate fixes it for $10 or $40, depending on what needs correcting. It is easier to fix before an annual report refers to it.
Paying, and what comes after
Kentucky takes cash, check, a prepaid account, or a debit or credit card issued by an approved issuer, and an online filer pays on submission. After filing, a file-stamped postcard goes to the principal office address, unless you asked in writing for another one. A later change of registered agent or office is a $10 statement, moving the principal office is another $10, and an agent's resignation has no fee. FastTrack also takes annual reports, agent changes and resignations online.
Handing it off
For $199 plus the Kentucky fee, we draft the thirteen statements, collect the agent's consent, file through FastTrack and prepare the clerk copy. Starting alone leaves that offer open.
The self-filing sequence in seven steps
Write down the details
Name, jurisdiction, dates, offices, managers and agent.
Search the name
Use the Business Entity Search.
Get the agent's consent
Signed on the form or on a separate page.
Start on FastTrack
Choose the entity type and see the fee.
Answer and certify
Item 10 certifies the company validly exists at home.
Pay
$90.
Print the clerk copy
From the organization search tool.
Registered agent: first year included, then $149 a year
$199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.
Do-it-yourself questions
Is a lawyer necessary for the filing?
No, the paperwork is routine. A lawyer is useful for the earlier question of whether you need a certificate at all.
What if I make a mistake?
An amended certificate costs $40, and a change of registered agent costs $10.
Can a corporation file the same way?
Yes. The application page offers corporations among its entity choices at the same fee.
Our fee and Kentucky's
Start my Kentucky filing
KY+ $90 Kentucky fee
$199
- Form FBE, the Certificate of Authority (Foreign Business Entity), completed from your answers
- The signed statements Kentucky wants from your agent and your authorized signer, collected for you
- A Kentucky registered office and agent: ours, or the ones you already use
- Online submission through FastTrack, the file-stamped record, and the county clerk copy prepared
- Renewal: after the first year, the agent service renews at $149 a year
Kentucky's $90 is its own line at checkout. The county clerk bills separately for its copy. $199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.
Sources
- Kentucky Secretary of State, business filing fees
- Kentucky FastTrack, apply for a certificate of authority
- KRS 14A.6-010, annual report
- Kentucky Form FBE, certificate of authority for a foreign business entity
- KRS 14A.9-030, application for a certificate of authority
- Kentucky Form RAC, changing a registered agent or registered office
- KRS 14A.4-010, the duty to keep a registered office and agent
- Kentucky Form WFE, certificate of withdrawal of a foreign business entity
- KRS 64.012, fees of county clerks
- KRS 14A.2-040, copies filed with the county clerk
- Kentucky Secretary of State, business filing FAQs
- Kentucky Form FCA, amended certificate of authority
- Kentucky Form POC, moving a principal office address
Working in Kentucky already?
Every day without a certificate adds to the penalty meter. Start the filing today.