Certified Copy

What is a Certified Copy?

A Certified Copy is a true and exact copy of your company’s incorporation documents or foreign qualification documents issued by the state of formation or foreign qualification.

How soon can I expect to receive my Certified Copy and how will it be shipped?

When a Certified Copy is included in or added to one of BizFilings’ incorporation service packages, there are certain cases when we ship the Certified Copy separate from your state-approved incorporation documents. This is typically dependent on the state’s process for issuing Certified Copies. In these cases, the document will be shipped by FedEx overnight if you purchased our Complete Incorporation Service or you added a Certified Copy and overnight shipping to the Standard or Basic Incorporation Services. For Standard and Basic Incorporation Services where overnight shipping is not selected, the Certified Copy will arrive via standard US Mail.

Please note, Certified Copies ordered as stand-alone items (not with one of our incorporation service packages), may take up to 4-6 weeks to obtain from the state.

What does a Certified Copy look like?

Many states allow for fax filing of the incorporation documents. In these cases, the incorporation documents are submitted to the state via fax and the state returns the state-approved Articles of Incorporation (for corporations) or Articles of Organization (for LLCs) to us by fax. Fax-filed incorporation documents often look different than if the incorporation documents were returned by mail. Because of this, some people think that a Certified Copy of fax-filed documents doesn’t look as official, but it is the certified, true copy.

Is there a limit to the number of Certified Copies that can be obtained on behalf of my company?

No, there is no limit to the number of Certified Copies that can be obtained for your company.