Illinois Secretary of State Business Search (Step-By-Step)

Are you forming a corporation, LLC or business entity in Illinois?

How do you do an Illinois Secretary of State Business Search?

Looking for an awesome step-by-step guide?

We are super excited to begin!

Let’s search in the Illinois Secretary of State Business Search database!

Are you ready?

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Business Search Registry

In Illinois, the state offers an online database to the public allowing anyone to perform a search to locate any business entity registered in the state.

To search for a business entity, you’ll need to access the Illinois Secretary of State Business Search registry.

It looks like this:

Once you access the online business database, proceed to the next step.

Step 2: Database search methods

You can search for different types of business registered with the state, such as:

• Domestic Business Corporation
• Domestic Close Corporation
• Domestic Medical Corporation
• Domestic Professional Service Corporation
• Domestic Not-for-Profit Corporation
• Foreign Business Corporation
• Foreign Non-Profit Corporation
• Domestic Standard Limited Liability Company
• Domestic Series Limited Liability Company
• Foreign Standard Limited Liability Company
• Foreign Series Limited Liability Company
• Domestic Limited Partnership
• Domestic Limited Liability Partnership
• Foreign Limited Partnership
• Foreign Limited Liability Partnership

Also, there are different methods that you can use to search for business entities, such as:

• Search by Business Name
• Search by Key Word
• Search by Partial Word

Let’s look at each of these search methods one by one.

Method 1: Search by Business Name

The search by business entity name function is the most widely used type of business entity lookup.

All you have to do is to enter the name of the business entity you are searching for to see if there is a match in the database or not.

When you do a search by “Name”, the term that you’ll search for will appear at the beginning of the corporation or LLC entity name.

Once you have entered the required fields, click the button “Continue”.

Method 2: Search by Key Word

The next possibility is to search by Key Word.

Doing a search with a key word or key term allows you to retrieve search results where the term appears anywhere in the business entity name.

Method 3: Search by Partial Word

The next option is to search using a partial word found in the entity name.

This type of search allows you to find words at the beginning of any word in the name.

Step 3: Search results 

Once you’ve performed your desired search, you will then be presented with the business entity search results.

If you did a search using corporation, LLC or entity name, you will see the following search results page:

The search results page presents to you the following information:

• Entity Type
• File Number
• Corporation/LLC Name

If there is a company or business having a name that matches your search query, you will see it on the search results page.

Step 4: Select entity 

If you have found a business matching your query or a business entity that you would like to get further information on, you should click on the hyperlinked business entity name from the search results page.

Step 5: Business entity information

To complete your business entity search in Illinois, you’ll end up getting the business entity records or information made available publicly by the state.

The entity information page looks like this:

The business entity information provides some valuable information about the business entity selected.

Here is a quick overview:

Corporation File Detail Report:

• File Number
• Entity Name
• Status 

Entity Information:

• Entity Type
• Type of Corporation
• Incorporation Date
• State
• Duration Date

Agent Information:

• Name
• Address
• Change Date

Annual Report:

• Filing Date
• For Year

Officers:

• Officer Name 
• Officer Add

On the business information page, you have the option of purchasing a certificate of good standing or clicking on other links such as:

• File annual report
• Adopting assumed name
• Articles of Amendment effecting a Name Change
• Change of Registered Agent and/or Registered Office

Takeaways 

There you have it!

You have now performed an Illinois Secretary of State Business Search?

Let’s look at a summary of the process.

Illinois Secretary of State Business Search:

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