How to Complete and File the North Dakota Annual Report Form

If your business is registered with the North Dakota Secretary of State, you likely owe a North Dakota annual report every year through the FirstStop online portal. The filing updates your entity’s address, leadership, and registered agent on the public record, and it keeps your business in good standing. Sole proprietorships and general partnerships do not file. Corporations, LLCs, nonprofits, cooperatives, and limited partnerships all do, on deadlines that vary by entity type.1Secretary of State. North Dakota Secretary of State – Maintain Registration

When Your Report Is Due

North Dakota staggers deadlines across the calendar, so the first task is pinning down the date that applies to your entity.

A newly formed or newly authorized entity does not file in its formation year. The first report comes due on the relevant deadline in the year after formation or certificate issuance.6North Dakota Legislative Branch. North Dakota Century Code 10-19.1-146

What to Have Ready Before You Start

The report is short, but gathering the pieces beforehand keeps the portal from timing out and keeps the Secretary of State from kicking the filing back.

  • Your exact legal entity name as it appears in state records.
  • Principal executive office address. This must be a street address, not a P.O. box, where the company’s president or governor operates.1Secretary of State. North Dakota Secretary of State – Maintain Registration
  • Registered agent name and a North Dakota street address. P.O. boxes are not acceptable.7North Dakota Secretary of State. Registered Agents
  • Full names and addresses of officers and directors (corporations) or managers and governors (LLCs).
  • A plain-English description of what the business actually does in North Dakota.
  • Your Federal Employer Identification Number.

If anything has changed since last year, enter the current information. The annual report is how the state learns of a new registered agent, a departed director, or a relocated office, and FirstStop lets you overwrite outdated entries directly.

Filing Through FirstStop

All annual reports go through the FirstStop portal at firststop.sos.nd.gov. There is no paper form.1Secretary of State. North Dakota Secretary of State – Maintain Registration

  • Search for your entity by name or ID number.
  • Open your entity’s record and select the annual report filing.
  • Review each pre-populated field. Correct anything that has changed and confirm what still stands.
  • Sign electronically, certifying the information is true and correct.
  • Pay by credit card or e-check.

The portal issues a digital receipt once payment clears. Processing usually takes a few business days, though filings around deadline dates may move more slowly. When processing finishes, your entity’s record shows good standing.

Filing Fees

  • Business corporation, domestic or foreign: $25.8North Dakota Secretary of State. Corporation
  • LLC, domestic or foreign: $50.
  • Nonprofit corporation or nonprofit LLC: $10.2North Dakota Secretary of State. Maintain a Nonprofit

Cooperatives and limited partnerships pay fees set by their own chapters of the North Dakota Century Code; check the Secretary of State’s Business Structures page for current amounts.

If You Miss the Deadline

A late filing does not immediately end your business, but it starts a clock.

Three months after the deadline, the Secretary of State marks the entity “Not in Good Standing” and mails a notice of impending dissolution or revocation to the registered agent.6North Dakota Legislative Branch. North Dakota Century Code 10-19.1-146 The business still legally exists during this period, but the status itself causes problems. Lenders, investors, and vendors routinely ask for a Certificate of Good Standing before transacting, and expansion into other states that check your home-state status becomes difficult.1Secretary of State. North Dakota Secretary of State – Maintain Registration

You can cure the lapse during this period by filing the past-due annual report with the regular fee plus a late-filing penalty. That restores good standing.

One year after the deadline, the consequences become structural. A domestic corporation is involuntarily dissolved by operation of law. A foreign corporation has its certificate of authority revoked, and the revocation is final.6North Dakota Legislative Branch. North Dakota Century Code 10-19.1-146 LLCs face a parallel timeline, with involuntary termination for domestic LLCs and revocation of authority for foreign LLCs on the same one-year window.5North Dakota Legislative Branch. North Dakota Code 10-32.1-89 – Secretary of State Annual Report to the Secretary of State

Reinstating a Dissolved Entity

If dissolution or revocation has already happened, reinstatement is still possible for one year. A corporation files the most recent past-due annual report, pays the filing and penalty fees for all missed years, and pays a separate reinstatement fee.6North Dakota Legislative Branch. North Dakota Century Code 10-19.1-146 LLCs follow the same pattern under their own statute.9North Dakota Legislative Branch. North Dakota Code 10-32.1-91 – Reinstatement

After one year from dissolution, the administrative path closes. The only remaining route is a petition to the district court serving Burleigh County, which reviews the matter and either upholds the dissolution or orders the Secretary of State to reinstate the entity. Even with a court order, all past-due annual report fees and the reinstatement fee are still owed.9North Dakota Legislative Branch. North Dakota Code 10-32.1-91 – Reinstatement Reinstatement does not erase the gap, and your entity’s rights and liabilities during the lapse may be affected, so acting quickly reduces the fallout on contracts and ongoing relationships.