Just a heads up. If you’re hoping to get a new corporation started quickly, plan on waiting at least a month, unless you are ready to pay substantial expediting fees.
Due to budget cutbacks, the Secretary of State has closed or consolidated a number of functions and several regional offices. They’ve been forced to close offices in San Francisco, San Diego and Fresno, meaning more documents are filed in the remaining Sacramento and Los Angeles offices.
They’ve also eliminated paid overtime for staff members and the use of temporary staffing to help with the workload especially during heavy filing periods.
So what does this mean for you, the entrepreneur filing your business documents?
Some perspective: in February of this year, we were seeing Articles of Incorporation, counter-filed in Sacramento, being processed in 5-8 business days. The turnaround time in May and June has averaged 28-30 business days. With holidays and weekends, plan for at least a month before your Articles are approved, you can obtain a Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN) and open your business bank account.
Good news: in recent weeks, the LLC filings (Articles of Organization) have been processing faster, due to a light load on the LLC processing division. LLCs are being formed closer to 2 weeks.
Certificates of Dissolution for corporations and limited liability companies has been longer, but not as long as Articles: 12-15 days. For Amandments to Articles of Incorporation or Organization (usually for a corporation or LLC name changed), these are also longer than they were last year, but shorted than Articles, also at about two week.
So…don’t wait. Get on it, and get that business of yours rolling. And best of luck building that dream!
