ZenBusiness reviews its own products and services and compares them to others in the industry.
SunDoc Filings has a reasonable price point for foreign qualifications. Here at ZenBusiness, we don’t currently offer foreign qualification service, but we can help you start and maintain your domestic LLC or corporation in your home state.
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Are you expanding your business into an additional state? Congratulations — this is an important step in your company’s life cycle! To ensure this process goes as smoothly as possible, consider hiring a reputable foreign qualification service to handle the legal paperwork on your behalf.
The foreign qualification process is quite similar to the business formation process in many states, although the fact that each state creates its own rules and regulations can complicate things a bit. Essentially, foreign qualification is obtained by filing a form usually known as the Certificate of Authority, which grants your business the right to operate in an additional state.
SunDoc Filings is a viable option for foreign qualification services, for a handful of reasons. Let’s quickly review its pros and cons before we dig into the details.
SunDoc Filings’ foreign qualification service costs $99 plus your state’s fee. It includes a preliminary name search of your state’s business database, along with the filing of your Certificate of Authority (or similarly named document).
However, in most states, that’s all you get with SunDoc Filings, unlike most of its competitors, who also offer to prepare your documents. For what it’s worth, SunDoc Filings’ website does note that they “can help” with preparing your documents, but there’s no information about how much help or how much it would cost.
For those of you with California businesses though, SunDoc Filings has a unique advantage. Because this company is located in Sacramento, CA, SunDoc Filings representatives visit the Secretary of State’s office in person three times a day, giving this company fast turnaround times in this state.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that it doesn’t offer to prepare your documents as part of its foreign qualification service, SunDoc Filings lacks value compared to many competitors. This is especially true when you consider that MyCompanyWorks hits this same price point while also preparing your Certificate of Authority application.
For domestic business formations, SunDoc Filings is an acceptable option. At $79, it has a reasonable price point, but it’s a rather barebones package that doesn’t include many valuable features. For domestic service, we offer a free package that’s nearly identical to the SunDoc Filings $79 offer (you’ll pay your state’s fee either way).
SunDoc Filings is a smaller company than large-scale operations like LegalZoom or Rocket Lawyer. SunDoc Filings has been around since 1999, and it’s served around 100,000 customers, so this company isn’t inexperienced — it just has a lower volume of customers than some of its major competitors.
This company has a solid customer feedback reputation. We found nearly 3,400 reviews of its services, and SunDoc Filings still holds down a 4.9/5 average rating score, indicating positive feedback from its customers.
There isn’t anything that really stands out in a good or bad way regarding SunDoc Filings’ customer support. We’re not huge fans of their rather limited hours of availability (8 am to 5 pm ET on weekdays), but they’ve always responded to our questions with efficient, accurate answers. That said, SunDoc Filings doesn’t offer extended customer support availability like we provide to our customers.
The entire point of using a foreign qualification service is to make this part of your business run seamlessly with little-to-no effort on your part. SunDoc Filings fits the bill, as it’s simple to place orders, renew services, and navigate its website. However, the lack of document preparation services means you’ll still need to handle much of the heavy lifting yourself.
The process of ordering foreign qualification services from SunDoc Filings is simple. Here’s an overview of what you can expect when you click the “Get Started” button on the SunDoc Filings foreign qualification service page. Keep in mind that the process for foreign qualification can vary from state to state, but in most states, it will look something like this.
Related: How Does My Business Get a Foreign Qualification?
By far the largest collection of customer feedback for SunDoc Filings is found on Trustpilot, where this company has more than 3,300 reviews and a good average rating score of 4.9 out of 5. We found quite a few customers talking about how they appreciate SunDoc Filings’ user-friendly services, as well as plenty of comments about how fast its California turnaround times are.
SunDoc Filings earned an honorable mention spot in our list of the best foreign qualification services available. While the fact that it doesn’t offer to prepare your foreign qualification documents certainly holds down SunDoc Filings’ placement in this guide, no other company can get your LLC or corporation qualified to do business in California quicker than SunDoc Filings.
Disclaimer: The content on this page is for information purposes only and does not constitute legal, tax, or accounting advice. If you have specific questions about any of these topics, seek the counsel of a licensed professional.
Written by Team ZenBusiness
ZenBusiness has helped people start, run, and grow over 700,000 dream companies. The editorial team at ZenBusiness has over 20 years of collective small business publishing experience and is composed of business formation experts who are dedicated to empowering and educating entrepreneurs about owning a company.
LLC Services Reviewed
Foreign Qualification by State
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