Updated August 17, 2026. Quick answer: you cannot. South Carolina has no statute letting an out-of-state LLC become a South Carolina LLC while remaining the same legal entity — and none letting a South Carolina LLC leave, either. This is one of the stronger negatives in the table: it rests on what the statute affirmatively says, not on silence. The route that does work is a merger under S.C. Code Ann. § 33-44-904.
Why the answer is no
South Carolina does have a chapter people point to — S.C. Code Ann. §§ 33-44-901 to 33-44-914 — and it does contain the word conversion. What it governs is an in-state entity-type change: one kind of South Carolina entity becoming another kind of South Carolina entity. The state’s only domestication statute proper sits in Title 33 chapter 9 and is corporation-only. Neither reaches an LLC changing its jurisdiction of organisation.
That was confirmed twice, including against the Secretary of State’s own filings catalogue, which has no domestication category for any entity type. If the transaction were available there would be a form for it.
The route that does work
Merger into a newly formed LLC under S.C. Code §33-44-904, which expressly permits an SC LLC to merge with or into a ‘foreign limited liability company’ (and vice versa for outbound); or dissolve the origin-state LLC and separately form a new SC LLC; or simply foreign-qualify — register the existing out-of-state LLC to transact business in SC under Art. 10 (§§33-44-1001 et seq.) without changing its state of organization.
In practice that means: form the new South Carolina LLC, then merge the existing out-of-state LLC into it under S.C. Code Ann. § 33-44-904. Rights, contracts and liabilities pass by operation of law. The honest caveat is that a merger produces a surviving entity rather than a continuation — so the formation date is the new entity’s, and continuity of EIN, bank accounts and counterparty consents depends on IRS and counterparty rules rather than on this statute. It is still substantially better than dissolving.
And there is a third option people skip past: if you have moved to South Carolina but the entity does not need to be a South Carolina entity, you can simply foreign-qualify — register the existing LLC to transact business here and leave its state of organisation alone. That is often the right answer and it is the cheapest one.
What is commonly published about South Carolina
Aggregated formation-service/relocation content (surfaced via web search, not cited as a source) lists South Carolina among states that currently allow LLC domestication or conversion, without qualification.
S.C. Code Title 33 ch. 9 is titled Domestication of a Foreign Corporation and is defined for corporations only; the LLC Act, chapter 44, has no analogous jurisdiction-change provision at all. The claim conflates a corporation-only chapter with an LLC equivalent that does not exist.
We would rather be the table that says a widely repeated figure is not in the statute than the table that repeats it.
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 leaving | Why there is no route out | What the code offers instead |
|---|---|---|
| Delaware | the statute affirmatively limits it | 6 Del. C. § 18-209 |
| Kentucky | nothing in the code permits it | KRS 275.345 to 275.365 |
| Massachusetts | the statute affirmatively limits it | Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 156C, § 59(b) |
| Missouri | nothing in the code permits it | Mo. Rev. Stat. §§ 347.127 to 347.135 |
| New Mexico | nothing in the code permits it | NMSA 1978 § 53-19-62 |
| New York | nothing in the code permits it | NY LLC Law § 1001(b), certificate of merger under § 1003 |
| South Carolina | the statute affirmatively limits it | S.C. Code Ann. § 33-44-904 |
| Washington | the statute affirmatively limits it | RCW 25.15.416 to 25.15.431 |
| West Virginia | nothing in the code permits it | W. 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 — see the Delaware page. 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.
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 is on the domestication states list.
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.
- Delaware — https://delcode.delaware.gov/title6/c018/sc02/index.html. Statutory text, read 2026-08-12.
- Kentucky — https://apps.legislature.ky.gov/law/statutes/chapter.aspx?id=38578. Statutory text, read 2026-08-12.
- Massachusetts — https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXXII/Chapter156C. Statutory text, read 2026-08-12.
- Missouri — https://revisor.mo.gov/main/OneChapter.aspx?chapter=347. Statutory text, read 2026-08-12.
- New Mexico — https://api.realfile.rtsclients.com/publicfiles/ee3072ab0d43456cb15a51f7d82c77a2/1c940b98-cdb8-45ad-839f-7645c176a0c7/ch53art19.pdf. Statutory text, read 2026-08-12.
- New York — https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/LLC/1001. Statutory text, read 2026-08-12.
- South Carolina — https://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/t33c044.php. Statutory text, read 2026-08-12.
- Washington — https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=25.15.436. Statutory text, read 2026-08-12.
- West Virginia — https://code.wvlegislature.gov/email/31B/. Statutory text, read 2026-08-12.
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.