How Long is a Certificate of Good Standing Good for?

What is a Certificate of Good Standing

A Certificate of Good Standing is a document issued by the Delaware Secretary of State that confirms that your entity is authorized to do business and has completed the following:

1. Paid annual franchise taxes
2. Filed an annual report (Corporations only, does not apply to LLCs)

A Certificate of Good Standing may also be referred to as a "Certificate of Existence" or a "Certificate of Status". Other states may use their own preferred terminology to refer to this document.

How to Get a Certificate of Good Standing

There are two ways to obtain a Certificate of Good Standing in Delaware.

The first is to get one from the Delaware Division of Corporations directly. You can access the service here by utilizing the document upload feature. The Division of Corporations does not have an option to deliver the document to you via email so the turnaround time on these includes processing plus mail delivery time of the physical document. 

The Incorporators Ltd. can obtain a Certificate of Good Standing from the Delaware Secretary of State for you. We offer an easy online form here and your Certificate of Good Standing will be delivered via email in a matter of hours. 

How Long Does it Take to Get a Certificate of Good Standing

If you order from The Incorporators, the turnaround time for a Delaware Certificate of Good Standing is the same day. In fact, we generally deliver your Certificate of Good Standing within hours, during normal business hours (M-F; 9:00am to 5:00pm EST). If you need a Good Standing immediately, you can select expedited for delivery via email within one hour. 

Turnaround time when ordering from the state directly depends on which service you pay for and if you upgrade your shipping speed. Timing varies from days to weeks. 

How Long is a Certificate of Good Standing Good for?

All certificates of good standing may be validated at the Delaware Division of Corporations link found here for one year from issuance. This means that the requesting party can confirm that it is a legitimate certificate, not a forgery. The date on the certificate means that as of the date of issuance, the company was in good standing with the state of Delaware. 

That said, the party requesting the certificate of good standing my give you a time frame of how recent the certificate needs to be. 

For instance, a bank you are working with to obtain a business loan may request a certificate of good standing before offering you a loan. They may request that the certificate of good standing be dated within 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, etc. It is up to the requesting party to determine how recent they'd like your certificate to be.

If you order a certificate of good standing from The Incorporators, you will receive the document via email and can then send the certificate to the party who requested it from you. They may then validate it and know that as of the date on the certificate, your company was in good standing with the state of Delaware. 

If you have any questions about Delaware certificates of good standing, feel free to contact us or give us a call.