CHECKING NAME AVAILABILITY FOR A CORPORATION IN New York

The State of New York maintains a web site where you can do a preliminary check to determine whether the corporate name that you desire is available. CLICK HERE

New York does not provide telephone confirmation of name availability. However, for a fee of $5.00 you can present a written request for preclearance of a corporate name. The preclearance request should be sent to the New York State Department of State, Division of Corporations, State Records and Uniform Commercial Code, 41 State Street, Albany, NY 12231. Your request should state that you wish to determine the availability of a corporate name. You can request multiple names but the fee is $5.00 per name.

These determinations are non-binding and a final determination cannot be made until the documents are received and processed.

If you want to assure that the name you verify will be available when you file your Articles of Incorporation, we suggest that you file for a NAME RESERVATION before you send in your Articles. The initial reservation period is 60 days. The fee to Reserve a corporate name in advance is $20.00. You are also permitted to extend this time twice.

Application For Name Reservation

NOTE - if you reserve your corporation name in advance, you are required to include a copy of the original receipt that you receive from the state of New York when you originally reserve your corporation name.

It is suggested that you search in a few different ways depending upon what name you select. You should search for the entire name that you wish to secure. Print out the results of this search and keep it for your records. You should also do a partial name search to determine what names may be close, but not exactly like the name you wish to obtain.

For example, if the name that you have chosen is ABC Vending Supplies, Inc., you should search ABC Vending Supplies, ABC Vending, and perhaps ABC Ven so you will get a picture of what names may be similar to the one you have selected.

Checking the corporate name in advance is necessary and will save you a lot of time. If you do not check first, your incorporation papers will be returned to you if there is a conflicting name and you will need to start over again from scratch.

We suggest that you do not make any expenditures in reliance on the name you choose until after your documents have been accepted by the New York corporations office.

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