# Foreign qualification cost by state: What you actually pay

Michel Myara, Co-founder & Product Designer · August 16th 2026
Canonical: https://looch.money/blog/foreign-qualification-cost-by-state

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Forming in Wyoming does not make your Wyoming fees your only fees. California, New York, Texas, Florida, Washington and Georgia all require an out-of-state LLC doing business there to register, a second filing called foreign qualification, and that second registration is where the real money is. Texas charges $750 to register a foreign LLC. California adds an $800 annual tax on top of a $70 filing fee.

Most comparison guides put a Wyoming annual fee next to a Delaware annual tax and stop. That comparison is incomplete for anyone who does not actually live in Wyoming or Delaware. This page does the arithmetic those guides skip.

**All figures below were verified against each state's own agency on 8/16/2026.** Fees change, sometimes mid-year. See [how current this page is](#last-verified) at the bottom.

## Foreign qualification cost by state, at a glance

"Foreign qualification" means registering a company formed in one state to do business in another. The company is not foreign in the international sense. A Wyoming LLC is a foreign LLC in Texas.

| State | Registration fee | Recurring state filing | Registered agent required | The part that catches people |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | $70 | $800 annual tax | Yes | The $800 is owed whether or not you profit |
| New York | $250 | $9 biennial statement | Yes | Newspaper publication, then a $50 certificate |
| Texas | $750 | Public Information Report each year | Yes | Highest registration fee of the six |
| Florida | $125 | $138.75 annual report | Yes | $400 late penalty, no waivers |
| Washington | $180 | $70 annual report | Yes | Annual report fee rose to $70 |
| Georgia | $235 total | $60 total per year | Yes | Both figures include a $10 service charge |

Every state in this table requires a registered agent with a physical address in that state. That is a recurring cost on top of the state's own fees, and it is the one line item you can consolidate.

## The three that cost far more than the sticker price

### California: The $800 is the real number

California's filing fee to register a foreign LLC on Form LLC-5 is $70, which looks cheap next to Texas. It is not the number that matters.

Every LLC doing business in or registered in California owes an **annual tax of $800** (commonly called the franchise tax) to the Franchise Tax Board. It is owed even if the business made no money, and it continues every year until the LLC is formally canceled. For a founder who formed in Wyoming to save on annual fees, California alone can erase that saving many times over.

Sources: [California Secretary of State, Form LLC-5](https://bpd.cdn.sos.ca.gov/llc/forms/llc-5.pdf) and [California Franchise Tax Board, Limited liability company](https://www.ftb.ca.gov/file/business/types/limited-liability-company/index.html). Verified 8/16/2026.

### New York: The publication requirement is the cost

New York charges $250 for the Application for Authority. Then comes the part that has no fixed price.

Within 120 days of filing, a foreign LLC must publish a copy of its application, or a notice containing its substance, **once a week for six successive weeks in two newspapers** in the county where the LLC's office is located. After that, you file a Certificate of Publication with a **$50** fee.

The recurring state filing, by contrast, is the smallest in this table: a biennial statement with a **$9** fee, due every two years in the calendar month the Application for Authority was filed.

The newspaper charges are set by the newspapers, not the state, and they vary substantially by county. We are not publishing a dollar range here because we could not verify one against a state source, and a made-up range is worse than none. Get quotes from the two designated newspapers in your county before you budget.

Sources: [New York Department of State, Application for Authority](https://dos.ny.gov/application-authority-foreign-limited-liability-companies), [Certificate of Publication](https://dos.ny.gov/certificate-publication-foreign-limited-liability-company-0), and [Biennial Statements](https://dos.ny.gov/biennial-statements-business-corporations-and-limited-liability-companies). Verified 8/16/2026.

### Texas: $750 up front, then a report you owe even at zero tax

Texas charges **$750** to file Form 304, the Application for Registration of a Foreign Limited Liability Company. That is the highest registration fee in this table by a wide margin.

The franchise tax itself will often be zero. The no tax due threshold for the 2026 report is **$2.65 million** in annualized total revenue. But the reporting obligation does not disappear with the tax: an entity at or below the threshold still has to file a Public Information Report or Ownership Information Report, and failing to file can cost the entity its right to transact business in Texas.

There is also a late registration penalty. A foreign entity that has transacted business in Texas for more than 90 days without registering can be charged a late fee equal to the registration fee for each year, or part of a year, it operated unregistered.

Sources: [Texas Secretary of State, Form 304 instructions](https://www.sos.state.tx.us/corp/instructions/304.shtml) and [Texas Comptroller, PIR and OIR filing requirements](https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/franchise/pir-oir-filing-req.php). Verified 8/16/2026.

## The three that are straightforward

### Florida

Registering a foreign LLC costs **$125**, which the state's schedule lists as a filing fee plus a required registered agent designation fee. The annual report is **$138.75**, due between January 1 and May 1.

Miss May 1 and the annual report becomes **$538.75**, because Florida adds a **$400** penalty. Florida does not waive it. If you are forming in Florida rather than qualifying into it, our guide to [starting an LLC in Florida](/blog/florida-llc) covers the full process and what becomes public record on Sunbiz.

Source: [Florida Division of Corporations fee schedule](https://dos.fl.gov/sunbiz/forms/fees/). Verified 8/16/2026.

### Washington

Registering a foreign LLC costs **$180**. The annual report is **$70**, a figure that increased under WAC 434-112-085(7), which is a good example of why a page like this needs a verification date rather than a publication date.

Source: [Washington Secretary of State, foreign entity registration](https://www.sos.wa.gov/corporations-charities/business-entities/download-forms/foreign-entity-registration-filings-instructions-and-forms). Verified 8/16/2026.

### Georgia

The Certificate of Authority for a foreign LLC is **$225 plus a $10 service charge**, so $235 in practice. The annual registration is **$50 plus the same $10 service charge**, so $60, and it is due between January 1 and April 1. An entity that does not file its annual registration can have its certificate of authority revoked.

Source: [Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division filing fees](https://sos.ga.gov/sites/default/files/forms/Reference%20-%20Filing%20Fees_0.pdf), schedule effective 9/6/2025. Verified 8/16/2026.

## What this changes about choosing a formation state

The usual advice is to weigh Delaware against Wyoming on their own fees. Our own [Delaware LLC vs Wyoming LLC comparison](/blog/delaware-llc-vs-wyoming-llc) makes the case that the choice depends on where you operate, and this page is the arithmetic behind that claim.

Put concretely: Wyoming's minimum annual report license tax is $60. A Wyoming LLC that has to register in California does not pay $60 a year. It pays $60 to Wyoming, plus $70 once to California, plus $800 to California every year, plus a registered agent in each state. The formation state was never the expensive part.

Three things follow, and none of them is a recommendation about your specific situation:

- **Where you operate usually matters more than where you form.** The second registration is the one that is easy to forget and expensive to fix.
- **Registering late has its own price.** Texas is explicit about charging a late fee per year of unregistered operation, and Florida's $400 report penalty is fixed and unwaived.
- **Two states means two registered agents.** That is the line item that scales with every state you add.

Whether your activity in a given state actually requires registration is a legal question that turns on your specific facts. States define "transacting business" differently, and this page does not answer that for you. If you are unsure, ask a business attorney in that state rather than guessing from a table, including this one.

## How looch handles the registered agent side

looch provides registered agent service in **all 50 states**. When you form with [looch Start](/start), the first year of registered agent service and virtual office is included in the $249 all-in price, and each additional state is **$49 per year**. If you qualify into three states, that is the registered agent requirement in the table above covered in one place instead of three vendor relationships.

What looch does not do is pay the qualification fees and annual obligations in this table, or decide for you whether you need to register. (The looch Start price includes your formation state's filing fee; the fees on this page are the separate ones owed to the states where you qualify, and they are owed regardless of who your registered agent is.) Current looch figures are on the [looch pricing page](/pricing) and the looch Start page.

## Last verified

<a id="last-verified"></a>

**Last verified: 8/16/2026.** Every figure on this page was checked against the issuing state agency on that date, and each section links to the source used.

This page is rechecked quarterly, and after any state fee change we become aware of. State fees move: Washington's annual report fee increased to $70, and Georgia's schedule took effect 9/6/2025. A cost page without a verification date is telling you what was true on the day it was written, which may have been years ago.

Six states are covered here because six states were verified. We would rather publish six cells we checked than ten where four were copied from another blog. More states will be added as they are verified.

For fee and deadline changes across US business filing generally, see our [running tracker of LLC filing fee and deadline changes](/blog/llc-fee-changes).