How to Get a Georgia Certificate of Good Standing

To get a Georgia Certificate of Good Standing, order it online through the Secretary of State’s eCorp portal at ecorp.sos.ga.gov for a total fee of $20. Georgia officially calls this document a Certificate of Existence, and once you pay, you can download it as a PDF within minutes. Your business has to be current on its annual registration and have an active registered agent in Georgia for the request to go through.

What Georgia Calls It and What It Proves

Georgia’s official name for the document is a Certificate of Existence, issued by the Secretary of State. It confirms that your corporation, LLC, limited partnership, or other registered entity was properly formed and remains authorized to operate in the state under Title 14 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated.

Banks and lenders typically ask for one before opening a business account or approving financing. Other states require it when you apply to do business there as a foreign entity. Buyers and investors request it during due diligence. Georgia itself requires foreign corporations registering here to submit a certificate from their home state that is no more than 90 days old.¹

What You Need Before You Order

Have these details ready before you start:

Your exact legal entity name as it appears on file, including punctuation and the entity designator (LLC, Inc., LP, and so on).
Your entity type.
Your control number, the unique ID the Secretary of State assigned when your entity was registered. You’ll find it on prior filing confirmations, or you can look it up on the business search at ecorp.sos.ga.gov.²

The business search lets you look up entities by name, control number, officer, or registered agent. If anything about your entity’s record looks off, resolve it before ordering.

Ordering Through eCorp

Go to ecorp.sos.ga.gov and create an account if you don’t already have one. The signup asks for your name, mailing address, and email, and you’ll choose a user ID and password.³

Once you’re logged in, select the option to order a Certificate of Existence.⁴ Search for your entity, confirm the details on file, and pay. The total online fee is $20, made up of a $10 base fee and a $10 online service charge.⁵ You can download the certificate immediately as a PDF.⁶

You can also request a certificate by mail or hand-delivery, but paper takes far longer to process.

Processing Times and Expedited Paper Requests

Online orders process instantly with no expedite fee. Paper requests take about 15 business days under normal conditions, and longer during high-volume periods like late December through January and the end of each quarter.⁶

If you submit on paper and need it faster, expedited processing is available at these rates per certificate:

Two business days: $60
Same day: $275

Same-day requests must arrive by noon on a business day. Anything received after noon will be completed by noon the next business day.⁶ Because online certificates are immediate at $20, paying to expedite paper only makes sense if you specifically need a physical certified copy.

How Long the Certificate Stays Good

The certificate doesn’t carry a printed expiration date. It reflects your entity’s status at the moment it was issued. The requesting party sets its own freshness rule, and 30 to 90 days is common. Georgia itself won’t accept a certificate more than 90 days old for foreign entity registration.² Ask whoever requested it what their cutoff is before you order, so you don’t end up paying for a second one.

Using It Abroad

If you need to use the certificate in a country that is party to the 1961 Hague Convention, it will need an apostille.⁷ In Georgia, apostilles are handled by the Georgia Superior Court Clerks’ Cooperative Authority (GSCCCA), not the Secretary of State. Mail or hand-deliver the certified original to GSCCCA with a cover letter naming the destination country and a prepaid return envelope. The fee is $3 per document, and processing usually takes one to two business days. Walk-ins are accepted Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., without an appointment.⁸

Staying Eligible: Annual Registration and Registered Agent

You can only get a Certificate of Existence if your entity is currently in good standing. Two things keep it there: filing the annual registration on time and maintaining a registered agent in Georgia.

Annual registration is due between January 1 and April 1 each year. Filings made before January 1 don’t count toward the next year’s requirement.⁹ The registration confirms your entity’s legal name, principal office address, the names and addresses of officers or managers, and your registered agent’s name and Georgia street address.¹⁰ The fee for profit corporations, professional corporations, LLCs, limited partnerships, and similar entities is $50 plus a $10 service charge, totaling $60.⁵

Your registered agent has to be a person available in the flesh at a physical Georgia street address during business hours. Miss the annual filing or let fees go unpaid and the Secretary of State can administratively dissolve your entity or revoke its authority to transact business.⁹ Once that happens, no certificate until you reinstate.

If Your Entity Was Administratively Dissolved

You can apply to reinstate an administratively dissolved Georgia corporation or LLC within five years of the dissolution date. The Secretary of State also reserves your entity’s name for that same five-year window, so in most cases another business cannot register under your name while you work through reinstatement.¹¹

Reinstatement means fixing what caused the dissolution. Usually that’s filing all overdue annual registrations and paying the accumulated fees and penalties. The application must be signed by an authorized person: the registered agent, an officer, director, or shareholder for a corporation, or a member or manager for an LLC, based on the most recent annual registration on file. If none of those individuals are available, the application needs a notarized statement from someone who held an authorized role at the time of dissolution.¹²

Once approved, reinstatement relates back to the date of dissolution, so legally the dissolution is treated as if it never happened.¹¹ If another entity picked up your name after the five-year reservation expired, you’ll need to choose a new one. The reinstatement provision applies no matter how long ago the dissolution occurred, as long as you’re within the five-year window. After reinstatement takes effect, order your Certificate of Existence through eCorp the same way as any other entity in good standing.

1
Georgia Secretary of State. How to Guide: Register a Foreign Entity
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Georgia Secretary of State. Business Division FAQ
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Georgia Secretary of State. How to Guide: Online Services
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Georgia Secretary of State. Certificate of Existence
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Georgia Secretary of State. Corporations Division Filing Fees
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Georgia Secretary of State. Filing Fees and Expedited Processing of Document Filings
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USAGov. Authenticate an Official Document for Use Outside the U.S.
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GSCCCA. Apostille Documents – General Information
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Georgia Secretary of State. How to File Annual Registration
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Georgia Secretary of State. One Click Annual Registration
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Justia Law. Georgia Code 14-2-1422 – Reinstatement Following Administrative Dissolution
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Georgia Secretary of State. How to Guide: Reinstate an Entity