Arizona's certificate does not come from the Secretary of State

The Bottom Line for Arizona LLCs

Order it from the Arizona Corporation Commission through its online business portal, which produces the document instantly at the expedited tier and on a published timetable at the regular one. Searching the Secretary of State's website is the single most common wrong turn.

Arizona is one of a small group of states where corporate filings sit with a utilities and corporations commission instead of the Secretary of State, and the section creating this certificate sits inside the LLC act accordingly. That section is also generous about what the document is worth: it may be relied on as conclusive evidence of the facts stated in it, which is a stronger footing than an ordinary status letter gives a recipient. The other Arizona peculiarity is what the certificate is not testing. LLCs here file no annual report, so the annual report trap that catches owners elsewhere is simply not part of the picture.

What Arizona Actually Calls It

Arizona calls it a Certificate of Good Standing, issued by Arizona Corporation Commission, Corporations Division.

For a domestic LLC the Commission certifies that the articles of organization have been filed and taken effect, that no statement of administrative dissolution or articles of termination have been filed, that its records do not otherwise reflect dissolution or termination, that no proceeding is pending under section 29-3708, and that all fees, taxes, interest and penalties owed to the Commission have been paid. The certificate may be relied on as conclusive evidence of the facts stated in it.

Arizona also uses Certificate of Registration for documents in this family.

Why You Need One

Foreign registration drives most orders, because another state's filing office wants Arizona to confirm the company before it will accept a registration. Lenders ask at underwriting rather than at account opening, and a commercial landlord will occasionally ask on a larger lease. The conclusive evidence language gives it a fourth role: transactional closings where counsel wants something firmer than a screenshot of the entity search. License renewals ask for one only occasionally in Arizona, so read the renewal instructions before you buy on the assumption that you will need it.

What It Costs in Arizona

Arizona charges $10 for the Certificate of Good Standing.

Where this fee comes from: "Certificate of Good Standing Total Fee for Regular Processing $10.00 Total Fee for Expedited Processing $45.00", from Schedule of Fees, Limited Liability Companies, A.R.S. Title 29, Rev. 3.2026

How to Order It

You can order the Certificate of Good Standing online, by mail and in person.

Instant online with the $45 expedited fee, or typically 7 to 10 business days at $10.

Order it on the Arizona site

The Commission replaced its eCorp portal with the Arizona Business Center at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, January 12, 2026. Certificates issued through it carry a QR code for verification. Online certificate orders are paid by Visa or MasterCard.

The Commission retired its old eCorp portal in January 2026 and moved filings into a new business portal, so saved logins, bookmarked links and any walkthrough written before that date point at a system that no longer exists. Start from the Commission's own corporations page rather than from a search result. Two details on the new portal are worth knowing in advance: certificates issued through it carry a QR code that lets a recipient verify the document against the Commission's records, and card payment is limited to Visa or MasterCard. If somebody else's deadline is driving this, the tier that produces the certificate while you are still on the page removes the timing question altogether. If the deadline is your own, regular processing is the cheaper choice and the Commission publishes what to expect from it.

1. 1

   Read the Commission's record for your LLC

   Search the Corporation Commission's entity database and check the status line, the statutory agent and the address on file. The certificate is drawn from exactly this record, and a stale address is the most common reason it has drifted.

2. 2

   Clear anything the Commission shows as owed

   The statute conditions the certificate on fees, taxes, interest and penalties owed to the Commission having been paid. If something is outstanding, settle it in the portal first rather than discovering it at checkout.

3. 3

   Set up an account in the current portal

   The Commission's business portal replaced the older filing system, so credentials from the previous one are not the credentials you need. Do this before the day you are under pressure to produce the document.

4. 4

   Choose your processing tier by the deadline, not by habit

   The portal offers immediate issuance for a higher total and regular processing for less, and the Commission publishes counter style services for requests received before stated cut off times. Pick on the basis of when the certificate has to be in someone else's hands.

5. 5

   Download it and check the verification code

   Save the file the portal issues, then confirm the entity name and the date on it. The QR code printed on the certificate lets your recipient check it against the Commission's records, so send the file itself rather than a scan of a printout.

What Puts You Out of Standing in Arizona

Arizona imposes no annual report on LLCs, so a missed report is not what puts one out of standing here. No separate tax clearance from a revenue agency is part of it.

The statutory condition is money owed to the Corporation Commission itself. No clearance from the Arizona Department of Revenue is named as a condition of issuance in the statute, the fee schedule, the FAQ or the Records Request Form.

A.R.S. § 29-3211(B)(1) also requires that the articles of organization have been filed and taken effect, that no statement of administrative dissolution or articles of termination have been filed, that the Commission's records do not otherwise reflect dissolution or termination, and that no proceeding is pending under section 29-3708.

The statute lists what the Commission is certifying, and every item on that list is about the Commission's own records and the Commission's own money: that your articles took effect, that nothing on file shows dissolution or termination, that no dissolution proceeding is pending, and that what you owe the Commission has been paid. Nothing on it points at the Department of Revenue, so an Arizona LLC behind on state taxes does not lose this certificate for that reason alone. What does put you out is an administrative dissolution or an unpaid Commission charge, and both usually begin with mail the Commission sent to a statutory agent or an address that had gone stale. Keeping the agent and the address current is the cheapest standing maintenance available here, and where the record already shows dissolution, reinstatement through the Commission has to come before any certificate can issue.

How Long It Stays Good in Arizona

Arizona publishes nothing about how long the Certificate of Good Standing stays current. Whoever asked you for it does: banks, lenders and other states' filing offices each set their own recency rule, and that window is theirs, not Arizona's. Ask what it is, and order the certificate once you know.

The statute frames the certificate as speaking to the facts as of its date. That is a reference point rather than an expiry: the document stays a true statement about that day indefinitely, while its usefulness to a recipient fades on the recipient's own schedule. The practical question is therefore never how long yours is good for, but what your counterparty will take. Get that number, order inside it, and choose the faster tier when the deadline is fixed by somebody else's closing rather than by your own calendar.

What We Could Not Confirm for Arizona

These pages only state what a primary source establishes. For Arizona we could not confirm the following, so this page does not answer it:

• whether the state will apostille it for use abroad

Who to Ask in Arizona

The Corporations Division of the Arizona Corporation Commission owns everything on this page: the entity record, the certificate, reinstatement, and any question about what the Commission shows as owed. The Arizona Secretary of State does not issue this document, and starting there is precisely how people conclude that Arizona has no equivalent to a certificate of good standing. Tax questions belong with the Arizona Department of Revenue, although nothing that agency holds is a condition of the Commission issuing the certificate. If you need the document authenticated for use in another country, ask the Commission where that request goes, since authentication is a separate step from the certificate order.

Sources

• azleg.gov/ars/29/03211.htm
• azcc.gov/docs/default-source/corps-files/fee-schedules/fee-schedule-llcs646a1cd0d6b24246ab2253aecbc3ab40.pdf
• azcc.gov/faqs/BusinessServicesFAQs
• azcc.gov/docs/default-source/corps-files/forms/m048-records-request-formc0e487c0a2f64626841f98d04e0c13a5.pdf
• azcc.gov/docs/default-source/corps-files/notice-copies-certificates.pdf
• azcc.gov/news/home/2026/01/08/arizona-business-center---acc-s-new-online-business-filing-portal-to-debut-january-12--2026

Every figure on this page was read from an Arizona government source, not from a formation service. Confidence in this record: high. See our editorial policy for how these are verified and corrected.