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How to Move an LLC to Delaware (Conversion, $330)

Updated August 17, 2026. Quick answer: yes for coming in, and no for going back out. A foreign LLC can convert into a Delaware LLC under 6 Del. C. § 18-214, for $330 across two filings. But Delaware provides no statutory route for a Delaware LLC to domesticate to another US state — the section people cite for that is limited to non-US jurisdictions. Going out is a merger.

What Delaware’s statute actually says

The operative provision is 6 Del. C. § 18-214, and the state’s own term for the transaction is conversion. What makes a provision count for this purpose is narrow and worth stating: the act’s defined “converting entity” or “other entity” has to expressly reach an entity formed under another jurisdiction’s law. An LLC turning into a corporation inside one state is a different transaction that nearly every state allows, and conflating the two is how the published counts drift.

What the filing is and what it costs

Inbound: Certificate of Conversion to Limited Liability Company + Certificate of Formation, filed simultaneously with the DE Secretary of State under 6 Del. C. §§18-214(b), 18-206. Outbound to another US state: no domestication filing exists under Delaware’s LLC Act; the practical route is a Certificate of Merger under §18-209, merging the Delaware LLC with and into a newly formed LLC in the destination state.

That figure is two filings, not one — a certificate of conversion and a certificate of formation, filed simultaneously. A page quoting only one of them understates it.

That is the entity-law filing fee only. Registered agent, foreign qualification in any state where you still do business, and any tax clearance the state you are leaving demands are all separate.

Getting an LLC back out of Delaware

This is the part that catches people, usually years later. 6 Del. C. § 18-213(a) restricts Delaware’s outbound transfer to “any jurisdiction, other than any state,” and § 18-101(19) defines State to include the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and every US territory. There is no statutory outbound domestication to anywhere in the United States. The route out is merger under 6 Del. C. § 18-209, which expressly reaches an entity formed under the laws of any other state: you form the destination-state LLC and merge the Delaware entity into it. That works, but the survivor is a new entity rather than a continuation.

Check both ends of the move, not just the destination

A move needs two things to be true: your destination has to let the entity in, and your current state has to let it out. Nine states have no statutory route out, so an LLC formed in one of them cannot domesticate anywhere, however welcoming the destination is. That is where most published advice goes wrong — it checks one end.

State you would be leavingWhy there is no route outWhat the code offers instead
Delawarethe statute affirmatively limits it6 Del. C. § 18-209
Kentuckynothing in the code permits itKRS 275.345 to 275.365
Massachusettsthe statute affirmatively limits itMass. Gen. Laws ch. 156C, § 59(b)
Missourinothing in the code permits itMo. Rev. Stat. §§ 347.127 to 347.135
New Mexiconothing in the code permits itNMSA 1978 § 53-19-62
New Yorknothing in the code permits itNY LLC Law § 1001(b), certificate of merger under § 1003
South Carolinathe statute affirmatively limits itS.C. Code Ann. § 33-44-904
Washingtonthe statute affirmatively limits itRCW 25.15.416 to 25.15.431
West Virginianothing in the code permits itW. Va. Code § 31B-9-904, articles of merger under § 31B-9-905

Delaware is the surprise on that list and it is not a mistake — its domestication article does not reach US states. For the other eight, the substitute is a merger, not a dissolution: form the new entity in the destination state and merge the old one into it. Merger produces a surviving entity rather than a continuation, so it is genuinely not the same thing as domestication — but it keeps far more alive than dissolving does.

What is commonly published about Delaware, and why it is wrong

That 6 Del. C. § 18-212 is ‘the’ Delaware LLC domestication statute, or otherwise governs a Delaware LLC’s move to or from another US state.

§ 18-212 governs the domestication of non-United-States entities and its own text excludes an LLC formed under the laws of a state. The inbound route is 6 Del. C. § 18-214, whose “other entity” carries no such carve-out.

What this page does not tell you

This is entity law. It does not tell you whether the IRS will treat your Delaware LLC as a continuation for federal tax purposes, what happens to your EIN, or what the state you are leaving will want in tax clearance before it lets the entity go. Those are real questions with different sources behind them, and we would rather leave the gap visible than fill it with something we have not read. This page sells nothing and links to no filing service. Moving an LLC is a filing-desk task with a statutory answer, and the answer is either in your two states’ codes or it is not.

The full 51-jurisdiction table, with the statute behind every cell, is on the domestication states list; the three routes are compared on how to move an LLC to another state.

Sources

Every row on this page is statutory text. No formation service, no registered-agent marketing page and no aggregator is cited anywhere in this cluster — those are the only publishers of the competing versions.

Where else you can move it: 25 more destination guides, added September 3, 2026, each read from that state’s own statute. Check the destination end before you file at this one.

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