Kansas will only sell this certificate to an LLC that is already in good standing

The Bottom Line for Kansas LLCs

Kansas uses the same words everyone else uses, so you will find this document on the Secretary of State's site without translating anything first. The purchase is what is gated: you buy it from inside a Secretary of State user account, and only while the LLC still shows as in good standing on that office's own records.

Kansas puts a hard stop in statute. K.S.A. 17-7675(c) directs the Secretary of State not to issue for a limited liability company, or for any series of one, whose articles of organization are cancelled. That is a refusal rather than a certificate that discloses the problem, so an owner whose entity has lapsed cannot buy the document and hand a lender something with a caveat printed on it. The lapse has to be cured on the Secretary of State's records before the purchase will go through at all.

What Kansas Actually Calls It

Kansas calls it a Certificate of Good Standing, issued by Kansas Secretary of State, Business Services Division.

The Secretary of State's own description: "The document shows the name of the business as it appears on record with the Kansas Secretary of State, the business as being in good standing, the date the business filed the formation document, and contains a certification from the Kansas Secretary of State indicating the date the certificate was issued."

Kansas also uses CGS for documents in this family.

Why You Need One

Two situations account for most Kansas requests. The first is registering the LLC as a foreign entity in another state, where the receiving filing office wants proof from the home state attached to the application. The second is credit: a bank at account opening, or a lender at underwriting, wanting something official that says the entity is real and current. Buyers' counsel in a sale of the business and a few licensing boards ask as well, but far less often. One request this document will not satisfy is a demand for proof that you are square with the Kansas Department of Revenue, because the Secretary of State holds no tax filings at all. If that is what the requester means, get them to say so before you buy anything.

What It Costs in Kansas

Kansas charges $15 for the Certificate of Good Standing.

Where this fee comes from: Kansas Secretary of State Copy Order Request Form CO (Rev. 1/1/24), item 3 Document type, checkbox: "Certificate of Good Standing ($15)"

How to Order It

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

Kansas does not publish a turnaround time for the Certificate of Good Standing, so this page does not quote one.

Order it on the Kansas site

The Secretary of State's instructions require a Secretary of State user account. The page reads: "Login with your User Account (Create an account first if you do not have one; watch the video for more information). Click on 'Purchase Certified Copy/Certificate of Good Standing Search'."

The two routes work differently and people mix them up. On paper, a single copy order form covers both certified copies and this certificate, so the box you tick decides which document arrives, and the same form warns that the finished order cannot be emailed back to you. Online, the purchase sits behind a Secretary of State user account rather than a public checkout, so create the account before you are in a hurry rather than during. On price, treat the total the checkout charges you as the figure that governs. The paper order form, the fee statute and the Secretary of State's regulations were amended at different times and do not describe the charge identically, and no Kansas page states a single all in figure for an LLC anywhere.

1. 1

   Read the entity's status before you spend anything

   Look the LLC up on the Secretary of State's business search and check the record. If it shows the articles cancelled, the purchase will fail, and the fix is a filing rather than a phone call.

2. 2

   Create your Secretary of State user account

   The online purchase runs through an account, so set one up first if you have never filed online. The certificate you buy lands back in that account rather than in your inbox.

3. 3

   Choose the certificate, not a certified copy

   The two products sit next to each other in the same menu and on the same paper form. A certified copy reproduces something you filed; the certificate speaks to your status. A requester who asked for one will rarely accept the other.

4. 4

   Pay, then retrieve the file

   Complete the purchase, pull the certificate from your account and save a copy locally. Send the recipient that file, not a screenshot of the status page.

5. 5

   Use the paper form if you would rather skip the account

   The copy order form is a mail only route that needs no online account. It lets you choose whether the finished certificate is posted to you or held for collection at the office in Topeka.

What Puts You Out of Standing in Kansas

Before Kansas will issue the Certificate of Good Standing, your filings with the state's business filing office have to be current. No separate tax clearance from a revenue agency is part of it.

The only eligibility condition the Secretary of State publishes is good standing on the Secretary of State's own records. The same page states that tax filings are not held by that office at all.

K.S.A. 17-7675(c) bars issuance where the articles of organization are canceled. Kansas LLCs file a business entity information report; a Certificate of Good Standing is available only while the entity is in good standing on the Secretary of State's records.

Standing in Kansas is a Secretary of State question: the entity information report, and any fees owed to that office. Miss those long enough and the articles of organization are cancelled, which is the condition the statute treats as an outright bar. Getting back is a filing matter with the same office, and it has to be finished before a certificate can be bought rather than alongside it. None of this chain runs through the Kansas Department of Revenue, which keeps separate records and answers its own questions.

How Long It Stays Good in Kansas

The Certificate of Good Standing carries a date of issue and no expiry date. Kansas does not set a shelf life for it. 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 Kansas's. Ask what it is, and order the certificate once you know.

Buy it when the person who asked for it is ready to receive it. The certificate carries the date it was issued, so one bought in advance simply reaches the recipient older than one bought that morning, and a recipient with a recency rule counts from that issue date. If a bank or another state's filing office gives you a window, work backwards from their deadline. If the order has to travel by post, count the post inside their window rather than outside it.

Using It Outside the United States

For use abroad, Kansas Secretary of State will authenticate the certificate with an apostille for $10 per document.

Who to Ask in Kansas

The Kansas Secretary of State's Business Services Division in Topeka issues the certificate and is the office to call when a purchase is refused, because it is the only one that can tell you what on its records is out of date. Its copies and certifications page is where both the online and the paper routes start. The Kansas Department of Revenue is a separate agency and handles anything to do with tax accounts; the Secretary of State cannot answer those questions and holds none of those filings. An apostille, if the certificate is going abroad, comes back to the Secretary of State, which handles authentications for Kansas documents.

Sources

• sos.ks.gov/businesses/copies-and-certifications.html
• sos.ks.gov/forms/business_services/CO.pdf
• ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch17/017_076_0136.html
• ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch17/017_076_0075.html
• ksrevisor.gov/statutes/chapters/ch17/017_075_0006.html
• sos.ks.gov/publications/register/Volume-45/Issues/Issue-07/02-12-26-53865.html
• sos.ks.gov/general-services/apostilles-authentications.html

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