US Virgin Islands

Every domestic corporation must maintain a principal office or place of business in the USVI with a resident agentRegistered agentThe person or company an entity must continuously maintain in a state to receive service of process and official mail.Read the full entry → in charge of it, who may be an officer of the corporation, an individual resident in the USVI, or a corporation located in the USVI, on whom process against the corporation can be served (§ 51). A qualified foreign corporationDomestic / foreignRelative to one state's records: an entity is domestic in the state that formed it and foreign everywhere else it registers to do business.Read the full entry →'s agent must at appointment be an individual resident in, or a corporation located in, the USVI (§§ 401, 405(a)). An LLC (domestic, or foreign authorized to do business) must continuously maintain a designated office plus an agent for service of process with a physical address; the LLC agent must be an individual VI resident, a domestic corporation, another LLC, or a foreign corporation or company authorized to do business in the VI (§ 1109).

Consent required: no.

Domestic corporations: if process cannot with due diligence be served on any authorized person, it may be served in duplicate on the Lieutenant Governor (plaintiff pays $25, taxed as costs if plaintiff prevails), and the Lieutenant Governor notifies the corporation by letter at its last registered office (§ 348). Qualified foreign corporations: if the corporation has no designated agent at the time, process, orders and notices may be served on the Lieutenant Governor or an official designated by him (§ 404); after withdrawal, service is on the Lieutenant Governor with a $25 fee (§ 407(c)-(d)). LLCs, domestic and foreign: if the company fails to appoint or maintain an agent, or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be found at its address, the Lieutenant Governor is deemed the company's agent, with service perfected per § 1112(c).

• Charter Forfeiture Domestic. If a resident agent resigns without a successor and the corporation fails to designate a new resident agent before the resignation becomes effective (30 days after filing), the Lieutenant Governor certifies the facts to the United States attorney, who must commence an action in the district court to forfeit the corporation's charter.
• Fines Foreign. A foreign corporation doing any business in the USVI without complying with 13 V.I.C. §§ 401-405 (which include designating and maintaining an authorized agent) may be fined up to $500 per offense; any agent transacting business for such a corporation faces the same fine.
• Replacement Deadline Foreign. If a qualified foreign corporation's designated agent dies, removes from the USVI, or resigns, the corporation must substitute, designate and certify a new agent to the Lieutenant Governor within 10 days.

Filing officeFiling officeThe agency that keeps the business register.Read the full entry →

Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Division of Corporations & Trademarks

State fee

corporationTradeName: $25.00; llcTradeName: $50.00; soleProprietorship: $25.00; generalPartnership: $25.00; lpAndLlp: $25.00; nonProfitCorporation: $25.00; renewal: $100.00 biennial, UNIFORM across entity typesEntity typesLLC (limited liability company), corporation (for-profit; 'profit corporation' in some states' vocabulary), nonprofit corporation, LP (limited partnership), LLP (limited liability partnership), LLLP (limited liability limited partnership),Read the full entry → - raised from $50 effective 2021-10-01 by Act No. 8184; cancellationCorporation: $25.00; cancellationLLC: $50.00; nameReservation: $30 for 30 days; LLC trade names $50 for 120 days; expediteExpeditePaying the state to process a filing faster than its standard queue - same-day, 24-hour, even 2-hour tiers in some states.Read the full entry →: $250 (24-hour) plus the filing fee; certifiedCopy: $25.00; writtenSearch: $30.00

Term

2 years, running from the anniversary of original registration

Renewal

not recorded

Publication

Not required.

Online filing

Not available

The regime

The USVI has a mandatory trade-name registration regime: anyone doing business under a name other than their own - and every copartnership or association of individuals doing business in the territory - must file a certificate with the Office of the Lieutenant Governor within five days BEFORE commencing business. Corporations and LLCs operating under a name other than their charter name are subject to the same chapter. Non-filers can be enjoined and are barred from suing on business-related claims. The Lt. Governor's glossary states expressly that 'fictitious or pseudo name and doing business asDBA / fictitious nameA name a business operates under that is not its legal name - 'doing business as.' Also: assumed name, trade name, fictitious business name.Read the full entry → (DBA) also mean trade name.'

Where it is filed

The Office of the Lieutenant Governor, Division of Corporations and Trademarks, which is the registry for all corporate filings in the territory. All trade-name registrations (except exempt LLCs) are submitted through the Division's online Catalyst system (corporationsandtrademarks.vi.gov).

Publication

No newspaper-publication requirementPublication requirementA few states require newly formed or registered entities to publish a notice in designated newspapers (New York's LLC publication is the expensive example) - a real cost of formation that fee tables usually omit.Read the full entry → appears anywhere in chapter 21. The filing consists of the acknowledged certificate and the fee; the Lieutenant Governor prescribes the forms.

Term and renewal

Renewal-based. Under the 2019 codified text, every registrant had to renew every two years ($50). Current law after two amendments: Act No. 8184 raised the renewal fee to $100 effective October 1, 2021, and Bill No. 35-0084 (passed Dec. 19, 2023, approved by Governor Bryan) amended § 1213 to let registrants choose 2-, 6-, or 10-year renewal intervals at $100, $300, and $500 respectively - confirmed by the Lt. Governor's official renewal notice of March 2026.

Name restrictions

A registered trade name may not be the same as, or so similar as to cause confusion with, the trade name of any person or entity - foreign or domestic - doing business under that name in the territory. No other content restrictions (deceptive-name bars, entity-indicator rules) appear in chapter 21.

Assumed names for registered entities

Corporations and LLCs doing business under any name other than the charter name are subject to the whole chapter: certificate under corporate seal signed by the president/VP and secretary, acknowledged, filed with the Lieutenant Governor within five days before commencement, with a certified copyCertified copyA copy of a filed document that the state certifies as true and complete, with an official seal or certification page.Read the full entry → filed by the Lieutenant Governor with the clerk of the District Court in the judicial division where the articles are filed.

Penalties

The Lieutenant Governor refers non-filers to the Attorney General, who may sue in the District Court to enjoin the carrying on of the business.
A non-filer may not commence or maintain any action in any USVI court to enforce rights or obligations arising out of the business; nonresident individuals, partnerships, and unincorporated associations are also denied business licenses until they comply with the process-agent requirement.
On ceasing to do business, a certificate of cessation must be filed within ten days; failure works a $10 forfeiture recoverable by the Lieutenant Governor.
Failure to renew within six months of expiration forfeits title to the trade name, which becomes available to the next filer.

Official source

ltg.gov.vi/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Corporation-and-Trademarks-Fee-Listing-Business-Entities-and-Trade-Names-Updated-April-22-2019.pdf↗ (opens the official source)