In Wisconsin, being behind on the annual report does not stop the certificate.

The Bottom Line for Wisconsin LLCs

Wisconsin will issue whether or not your annual report is current, because the statute requires the certificate to state which. Order it online and the automated version emails immediately.

This is the unusual thing about Wisconsin, and it cuts both ways. The Department of Financial Institutions is directed to issue on request to any person, and the certificate has to recite whether an annual report was filed for the most recently completed report year and whether a statement of dissolution or termination is on file. So an LLC that is behind can still buy one. It will just say so, in writing, to whoever asked for it. Where a filing office refuses instead, the news at least stays inside your own office. In Wisconsin it travels with the document, so read what you have been sent before you forward it.

What Wisconsin Actually Calls It

The document is officially the Certificate of Status, issued by Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, Division of Corporate and Consumer Services, though Wisconsin'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.

DFI's own description: it provides the entity's current name, effective date of incorporation, organization or qualification, its current status, and identifies it as either a domestic or foreign entity. For an LLC the statute also requires the certificate to state whether the most recent annual report was filed and whether a statement of dissolution or termination has been filed.

Wisconsin also uses Certificate of Status (Long Form), certificate of "good standing", statement of status for documents in this family.

Why You Need One

Two audiences ask, and Wisconsin's disclosure design suits them differently. A bank or a lender wants a pass or a fail and will read the annual report line as exactly that, which makes ordering while behind a bad idea rather than an impossible one. A buyer's counsel or an enterprise customer running diligence wants the record itself, and the long form the department also sells is usually the better thing to hand them. Registering the LLC in another state is the other common trigger, and the receiving office wants the ordinary version. A handful of professional and contractor licensing bodies ask at renewal, but fewer than people expect, so confirm before you order.

What It Costs in Wisconsin

Wisconsin charges $10 for the Certificate of Status. A Certificate of Status (Long Form) costs $10.

Expedited service is available: Expedited service for $25 (Following business day after receipt).

Where this fee comes from: DFI-CCS 10.01(2)(a): 'Certificate of status or statement of status: $10.00.' DFI's Certificates and Certified Copy Fees table prints the same: 'Certificate of Status ... $10'

How to Order It

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

Automated email immediately online, or 7 to 10 business days for the other options.

Order it on the Wisconsin site

The online Certificate of Status page offers two products at the same $10 fee: an automated immediate email, or a mailed, picked up or emailed certificate for cases needing notarization for apostille, the long form, or a name change.

The ordering page offers two things at the same price, and what separates them is handling rather than content. The automated option emails a certificate straight away and lets you print as many copies as you want. The other option, delivered by mail, by department pick-up or by email, exists for the cases the automated one cannot serve: a certificate that has to be notarized so it can be apostilled, the long form, and a name change. That matters more than it sounds, because it means anything bound for another country has to take the slower route from the start. Ordering the instant certificate and then trying to get it notarized afterwards is the mistake to avoid. One more orientation point: Wisconsin's business registry is not run by a Secretary of State. It belongs to the Department of Financial Institutions, and older links to a wdfi.org address still circulate, while dfi.wi.gov and apps.dfi.wi.gov are the live hosts.

1. 1

   Decide whether you need the instant version or the notarized one

   Anything going overseas, anything needing the long form, and anything tied to a name change has to go through the slower route. Everything else is served by the automated email.

2. 2

   Look the entity up in the department's records first

   Confirm the exact registered name and that you are looking at the right record. Wisconsin has plenty of similarly named entities, and a certificate for the wrong one is a wasted order.

3. 3

   Order through the department's online certificate application

   Select the automated option, pay by card, and the certificate arrives by email. You can print it as often as you need without ordering again.

4. 4

   Read the annual report line before you forward it

   The certificate states whether a report was filed for the most recently completed report year. If that line reads badly, file the report and order a new certificate rather than sending this one.

5. 5

   For a paper order, use the department's request form and mail it

   Complete the certificate and certified copywork form, calculate the fee for each section, and post it to the department's lockbox with a check made out to the Department of Financial Institutions.

What Puts You Out of Standing in Wisconsin

Wisconsin will issue the Certificate of Status to an LLC that is behind on its reports. It does not refuse; it states on the face of the document whether the most recent report was filed. So ordering one while you are behind does not get you a clean certificate, it hands the person who asked a written record of the delinquency. File first, then order. We found no separate tax clearance requirement from a revenue agency, though Wisconsin does not publish a statement either way, so treat that as no requirement found rather than an assurance.

No Department of Revenue clearance appears in DFI's certificate guidance, in Form 48, or in Wis. Stat. § 183.0211. DFI did not publish an explicit statement that none is required, so this is a not found, not a published absence.

DFI also sells a 'no record' certificate at the same $10 (DFI-CCS 10.01(2)(c)), and a certificate 'notarized for use in a foreign country', also $10.

Falling behind in Wisconsin does not close the counter, it changes what the certificate says about you. The annual report line reports the most recently completed report year, so the document a bank reads is a snapshot of that particular year rather than a live verdict. Bring the report current with the department and the next certificate you pull reads differently, which is the practical fix: file, then re-order, rather than arguing about the one already in someone's inbox. There is a second consequence of the statute worth absorbing. Because any person may obtain a certificate on request, a counterparty who wants to know your filing status does not have to ask you for it. They can order their own, and some do.

How Long It Stays Good in Wisconsin

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

The automated certificate can be reprinted without limit, and that is precisely the trap. A reprint carries the date it was originally generated, not the date you printed it, so running off another copy does not refresh anything for a recipient who wants something recent. It also carries the annual report line exactly as it stood then, which may describe a delinquency you have since cured or a clean record you have since lost. Re-order rather than reprint, and re-order specifically after you file, not before. The one case that needs planning is a certificate headed abroad, because the notarized version is handled on the slower track and cannot be produced from the instant one after the fact.

What We Could Not Confirm for Wisconsin

These pages only state what a primary source establishes. For Wisconsin 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 Wisconsin

The Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, through its Division of Corporate and Consumer Services, holds the business registry and issues the certificate. Its fee tables and ordering guidance live on dfi.wi.gov, and the ordering application itself on apps.dfi.wi.gov. Paper orders use the department's certificate and certified copywork form and go to its Milwaukee lockbox with a check payable to the Department of Financial Institutions. A certificate destined for another country is prepared by the department in a form suitable for an apostille, which is then applied by the Wisconsin Secretary of State or by the department's own apostille section. Tax questions belong to the Department of Revenue, which is a separate agency from the one that issues this certificate.

Sources

• dfi.wi.gov/Pages/BusinessServices/BusinessEntities/CertificatesAndCertCopyFees.aspx
• apps.dfi.wi.gov/apps/ccs
• docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/dfi/dfi_ccs/10
• docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/document/statutes/183.0211
• dfi.wi.gov/Documents/BusinessServices/BusinessEntities/Forms/CORP48.pdf

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