Certificate of Authority in Iowa – Filing Service

Foreign Corporation in IA

If you are a corporation headquartered in another state and want to transact business in Iowa, you will need an Iowa Certificate of Authority from the State of Iowa. This is obtained by filing as a foreign corporation with the Iowa Secretary of State, Corporations Division. Once filed, the State of Iowa will return a completed certificate of authority to you. An Iowa foreign corporation should not be confused with an out-of-country corporation. Any corporation not actually formed (Created) in Iowa is called a foreign corporation.

We charge for the state filing fees plus $100 to prepare and file the Foreign Iowa Corporation Certificate of Authority form with the Iowa Secretary of State, Corporations Division. We also will obtain the documentation needed from the home state of your incorporation to submit your paperwork.

If you want to do the filing yourself: you just need to sign up for our registered agent service in Iowa and you’ll find the foreign corporation form is already in your client account immediately. You’ll also find some filing tips on how to submit your paperwork with the state. You are required to have an Iowa registered agent anyway, so we try to make this an easy process for you, whether you want us to do the filing or you want to do the filing yourself.

What Are My Next Steps?

-You sign up for our registered agent service first. Next, you can look at the form for foreign corporations in your online account and also at the included filing tips. If you don’t want to do the filing yourself, you just click the “Add services” tab in your account, and add our filing services for $100 plus the state filing fees. At all times, you can check the real time status of our work in progress. Once we are finished with your Iowa foreign corporation registration, we always store the filing into your client account, email it to you, and mail you the original filed documents.