District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection
District of Columbia Business Entity Search
Last updated . Register data is refreshed nightly.
Check whether a business name is already on file with the District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection. Free, no account, all entity types.
District of Columbia Business Entity Search
Search the state's official business records.
The District's register is at corponline.dcra.dc.gov, run by the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection. Free, no account, one reCAPTCHA, and it publishes something no state register does.
It publishes beneficial owners
This is the thing that sets DC apart from every state in the country.
Open a record and you get Beneficial Owner Information, listing each one by name, type and address. The example record carries four, all marked Individual, alongside three named directors and an incorporator.
No state register in our set publishes beneficial ownership. Several publish managers or members (New Hampshire, Washington, Illinois), but that is who runs the company, not who ultimately owns it. DC publishes both.
If your question is who is actually behind this company, the District answers it and almost nowhere else does.
One search, two answers
Results arrive on two tabs, counted separately:
- Business Results: 97 for a search on Acme
- Licensing Results: 22
So a single search covers company registrations and the licenses issued to trade. In most states those are different systems with different search boxes, and a name can be registered as a company while the license sits under something else entirely.
The search itself takes a business name, a licensee name, an initial file number, a license number or an address, with Contains, Starts With or Exact Match. It defaults to Contains, which is the thorough one.
Check the filing-history notice before concluding anything
The record carries a notice that is easy to skim past and matters:
For filings done prior to 12/2025, documents will only be available for filings submitted online. Filings submitted in-person or by mail prior to 12/2025 will show 'No documents found.'
So an empty filing history does not mean a company has never filed. It may mean the filings were made on paper before December 2025. The notice adds that older entities may have additional filings not listed, and points you at the Corporations Division.
South Dakota prints a similar warning about its own pre-2016 coverage. Both are the sort of thing a register rarely admits, and both change how you read an absence.
The rest of the record
Record name, entity type and election type. Entity status, color-coded. The initial file number. Street and mailing addresses. An entity email address. File date and effective date. Then a Purpose stated in full prose. The example runs to a paragraph describing charitable and educational objects under ยง 501(c)(3).
Biennial Report Information gives the report status and the next date due.
Registered Agent Information names the agent, its type, status, email, phone and street address, and flags whether it is a Commercial RA, a useful field that distinguishes a professional agent from an individual.
Who decides
Beneficial owners and licenses and all, the register still only records what was filed. Acceptance is judged by the Corporations Division under the District of Columbia Limited Liability Company Act of 2010, D.C. Code Title 29, Chapter 8.
Before you rely on it
Read the beneficial owner section. It is the reason to use this register over almost any other.
Check both tabs. A name can be clear as a business and taken as a license.
Do not read an empty filing history as no filings. Anything on paper before December 2025 will not appear.
Look at the Commercial RA flag to tell a professional agent from a person.
District of Columbia filing facts
| Filing | Fee | Form |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate of Organization | $99.00 | DLC-1 |
| Biennial report | $300.00 | BRA-25 |
| Amendment | $220.00 | |
| Name reservation or transfer | $50.00 | |
| Certificate of good standing | $50.00 | |
| Reinstatement | $300.00 |
The District has the cheapest formation fee of almost anywhere and one of the most expensive recurring filings in the country. $99 to start; $300 every two years to stay.
That works out at $150 a year, which is more than New Hampshire's $100, more than double Washington's $70, and thirty times New York's $9 biennial statement. Over ten years a DC LLC pays roughly $1,600 in recurring fees against New York's $45.
The first biennial report is due by 1 April of the calendar year after you register, then every two years. An amendment at $220 costs more than twice the formation fee, which is worth knowing before you file something you will need to change.
15,860 applications were filed over the 52 weeks to 26 September 2026 (63 a business day, up 7.0%), ranking the District 46th of 51.
What the register will not tell you
The District has 23,923 live registered marks, and they look like nowhere else in the country:
| word | live marks | times more common than nationally |
|---|---|---|
| washington | 650 | 37x |
| states | 651 | 32x |
| association | 1,613 | 15x |
| united | 855 | 14x |
| institute | 775 | 8x |
| foundation | 782 | 6x |
| health | 601 | 3x |
Association, united, states, institute and foundation: that is not a consumer economy, it is the vocabulary of national bodies, trade groups and non-profits headquartered in the capital because that is where the policy is. Association alone appears in 1,613 marks.
Compare Vermont, whose crowded words are maple and mountain, or Oregon's brewing and coffee. The District's register reads like a directory of institutions.
If you are naming an organization here and reaching for association, institute or foundation, expect company. 95.9% of the District's marks are filed from Washington itself, which is the least surprising concentration figure in this entire set.
What the District of Columbia portal looks like
Captured from the live register. Personal names and addresses are blacked out; everything else is as the state publishes it.
District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection business services
Business registrations in District of Columbia are held by the District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, which maintains the public register this page searches, accepts new filings, and issues the certificates a bank or a counterparty may ask you for. Contact them directly for anything that has to be official.
| Business entity search | corponline.dcra.dc.gov |
|---|---|
| Phone | (202) 671-4500 |
| Address | 1100 4th Street, SW, Washington, DC 20024 |
| Office hours | 8:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m. (Thu 10:30 a.m.) |
| LLC filing fee | $99 |
| Processing | 4-5 business days |
The office handles registration, not disputes. If a name is already taken, they will tell you it is unavailable but not who holds it beyond what the public record shows, and they will not advise on whether your name infringes someone’s mark.
Common questions about District of Columbia business entity searches
How do I check if an LLC exists in District of Columbia?
Search the name on this page or on the state's own portal. What District of Columbia does by default is worth knowing before you read the result: contains. A match means the entity is on file, and its status line tells you whether it is still active.
How do I verify a company is registered in District of Columbia?
Search the name, then open the record rather than reading the results line. You get record name, entity type and election type, entity status, colour coded, the initial file number, street and mailing addresses and an entity email address. The status on the record is the one to trust: a dissolved company still appears in a search and still holds its name.
Does a clear search mean my District of Columbia business name is approved?
Not on its own. A no-match result means the name is not on the District of Columbia register today, which is a preliminary answer rather than approval: District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection decides when it reviews the filing. Worth knowing about District of Columbia in particular: read the filing history notice before assuming a company has none. DC says documents are only available for filings submitted online, and anything filed in person or by post before December 2025 will show no documents found. An empty filing history here means the paperwork is not scanned, not that nothing was filed.
Can I look up who owns a business in District of Columbia?
The District of Columbia register shows the registered agent and, depending on the filing type, officers or organizers. It does not list members or shareholders for every entity, so the register identifies who accepts legal service rather than who owns the company.
How much does it cost to register a business name in District of Columbia?
District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection charges $99 to file the Certificate of Organization, which is the document that forms the company, and currently takes 4-5 business days to process. Reserving a name beforehand is a separate and smaller fee. Confirm the figure with the state before you file: schedules move.
Sources
- District of Columbia business entity search, the official register this page queries.
- Filing fees and processing times: District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, Corporations Division Fees: Limited Liability…, verified 2026-09-10. Current schedules are published by the District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection.
- Formation activity: Census Bureau Business Formation Statistics, retrieved via FRED at the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis.
- Federal trademark data: United States Patent and Trademark Office, 3,374,058 live registrations cross-referenced against the state registers. Live excludes both abandoned applications and cancelled registrations.
- Office contact details: District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, confirmed against the office’s own contact page.
- Naming and reporting rules: District of Columbia Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection, Corporations Division Fees: Limited Liability Company.
- Naming statute: D.C. Code 29-103.02, published by the state.
- State seal: public domain image via Wikimedia Commons.