Washington sells the same certificate three ways, at three different speeds.

The Bottom Line for Washington LLCs

Use the express short form PDF. The filing system generates it automatically, it downloads immediately, and it avoids the processing surcharge the other online route adds for the same document.

Washington's difficulty is the menu, not the paperwork. The Corporations and Charities Filing System offers the express short form, and it separately offers what a bank would call the same certificate through the certified copies and certificates section, where a processing charge applies on top and delivery is by email instead of instant. A request submitted on the paper business records form, whether emailed in or posted with a check, joins the standard records queue and is slower again. All three describe the same LLC in the same statutory terms, so the only thing you are choosing between is how long it takes and how much you pay to wait.

What Washington Actually Calls It

The document is officially the Certificate of Existence, issued by Washington Secretary of State, Corporations and Charities Division, though Washington's own pages also call it a certificate of good standing. The two names mean the same paper. Ask a bank or another state's filing office for a certificate of good standing and this is what you send them.

By statute the certificate states the entity's name, that its public organic record has been filed and taken effect and the date it did, that the records do not reflect dissolution, that fees, interest and penalties collected through the Secretary of State have been paid, and that the most recent annual report has been delivered for filing. Subject to any qualification stated in it, the certificate may be relied on as conclusive evidence of those facts as of the date of issuance.

Washington also uses Express PDF Certificate of Existence (Short Form), Certificate of Good Standing, Status Certificate, Certificate of Existence (long form), Certificate of Existence/Good Standing for documents in this family.

Why You Need One

Foreign qualification drives most of these requests, and Washington sits on both ends of that trade. It demands a home state certificate when an out-of-state LLC registers here, and other states demand a Washington one when yours registers there. Banks ask at account opening and lenders ask again at underwriting. Landlords and enterprise customers ask during diligence, and a buyer's counsel will ask in a sale, though there they usually want the long form rather than the plain one, because the filing history is the point. License renewals ask less often than people assume, and it is worth checking whether your board actually wants this document or a different attestation entirely.

What It Costs in Washington

Washington charges $20 for the Certificate of Existence. A Certificate of Existence/Long Form costs $20.

Expedited service is available: Expedite for $100.

Where this fee comes from: Fee Schedules and Priority Services, Certificates table: 'Certificate of Existence/Good Standing $20'

How to Order It

You can order the Certificate of Existence online and by mail.

Instant PDF download online, or 7 to 10 business days for standard processing.

Order it on the Washington site

Two online routes. The Express PDF Certificate of Existence (Short Form) is $20 with no processing fee and is generated automatically. Ordering a Certificate of Existence through the Certified Copies/Certificates option instead adds a $20 processing fee.

Washington publishes three separate turnarounds for products that differ mainly in how you ordered them, and nowhere reconciles them. The express PDF is immediate. The same certificate bought through the certified copies and certificates section is emailed after a short wait and costs more, because that route adds a processing charge to the certificate price. A request on the paper business records form falls under the general standard processing window for certificates and records, which is the longest of the three and is expressly subject to stretching when volumes are high. The expedite charge advertised per Unified Business Identifier belongs to that records queue; buying it does nothing for the express route, which is already instant. The practical rule is that if you need a certificate rather than certified copies of filings, the express route is the only one worth clicking.

1. 1

   Have the Unified Business Identifier ready

   The order form keys off the UBI number rather than the company name. It is on the entity's record in the filing system and on your annual report confirmations.

2. 2

   Check that the entity shows Active before you pay

   Look the LLC up in the filing system first. If the status reads delinquent, terminated or dissolved, the express certificate will not generate and you need the reinstatement path instead.

3. 3

   Choose the express short form, not the certified copies section

   Both produce the certificate. Only one of them is instant and free of the processing surcharge. The certified copies section is for copies of your actual filings, which is a different need.

4. 4

   Enter the delivery email address carefully

   The PDF goes to the address typed on the order form, not to the account on file. A typo here is the most common reason a certificate someone paid for never arrives.

5. 5

   Forward the PDF as it is

   Every Washington certificate is digital now and is meant to be forwarded and printed by whoever needs it. You do not have to chase a paper original, because the office no longer issues one.

6. 6

   For overseas use, request the apostille separately

   The Apostilles Program is its own request with its own fee. Order the certificate first, then send it for authentication, and allow for the second step in your timeline.

What Puts You Out of Standing in Washington

Before Washington will issue the Certificate of Existence, your filings with the state's business filing office have to be current. We found no separate tax clearance requirement from a revenue agency, though Washington does not publish a statement either way, so treat that as no requirement found rather than an assurance.

No Department of Revenue clearance step appears anywhere in the Secretary of State's certificate guidance. RCW 23.95.235(2)(d) limits the money the certificate speaks to as fees, interest and penalties 'collected through the secretary of state'.

'All certificates are digitally generated as a PDF, which can be forwarded and printed as needed. There is no type of Certificate of Existence that will be physically issued. As of November 2017, this is the only certificates we issue.'

The express PDF is gated on status. Washington will only generate it while the entity shows Active, and the state's own instruction is that a terminated, dissolved or delinquent entity has to reactivate first through the administrative dissolution and termination process. Delinquent is the status a missed annual report produces, so in practice the annual report is the thing standing between you and the certificate. What the certificate says about money is bounded by statute: it covers fees, interest and penalties owed to the state and collected through the Secretary of State. Business and occupation tax owed to the Department of Revenue falls outside that boundary, which is why a clean certificate is not evidence that your Revenue account is clean, and why a lender relying on it for that purpose is relying on the wrong thing.

How Long It Stays Good in Washington

Washington publishes nothing about how long the Certificate of Existence 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 Washington's. Ask what it is, and order the certificate once you know.

Two Washington rules get read as this certificate expiring, and neither one is that. The first: when a foreign LLC registers to do business in Washington, the Secretary of State requires the home state's certificate to be dated within sixty days of submission. That is Washington's rule about documents arriving from other states, and it says nothing about how long a Washington certificate is good for. If your LLC is registering into Washington, order the home state certificate last, once the rest of the application is assembled. The second: the long form prints an expiration date. That date is the entity's own period of duration as the state records it, not a shelf life on the certificate, and a reader who mistakes one for the other will think a perfectly current document has lapsed. Because the express PDF is instant, none of this needs managing. Pull a fresh one the day you send it.

Using It Outside the United States

For use abroad, Washington Secretary of State Apostilles Program will authenticate the certificate with an apostille for $15 per document.

Who to Ask in Washington

The Washington Secretary of State's Corporations and Charities Division, in Olympia, issues the certificate and runs the Corporations and Charities Filing System where both online routes live. Paper requests go to the division's Olympia post office box, or to its records email address if you are paying another way. The Apostilles Program in the same office handles authentication for use abroad, and that is a separate request from the certificate itself. What the division cannot answer is tax standing, because the certificate reaches only money collected through the Secretary of State. Business and occupation tax, reseller permits and revenue account questions belong to the Department of Revenue.

Sources

• sos.wa.gov/corporations-charities/frequently-asked-questions-faqs/certificates-certified-copies
• sos.wa.gov/corporations-charities/frequently-asked-questions-faqs/fee-scheduleexpedited-service
• app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=23.95.235
• sos.wa.gov/corporations-charities/frequently-asked-questions-faqs/certificate-existence

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