The United States has no national company registry. A company is created under one state's law, and that state keeps the file. Most large US corporations are incorporated in Delaware, but a company can be a Delaware entity on paper and a California or Texas company in practice, so the first step is to find out which state actually holds the record. Each state secretary of state runs a free search by name or entity number that returns the entity's status, its formation date, its registered agent and its principal address. That is the backbone of a US check, and it is free and public.
A US entity is formed at the state level, not federally, so the authoritative file lives with the secretary of state (or equivalent) of the state of formation. The state is usually printed on the company's own documents, and on the formation date the state shows. Searching that state's business entity database by name or entity number is free and needs no account.
What you get varies a little by state but is broadly the same: the exact legal name, the entity type (corporation, LLC, partnership and so on), the formation date, the current status (Active, Dissolved, Forfeited, Inactive and similar), the registered agent and the principal office address. Delaware, where a large share of US corporations are formed, publishes these through its Division of Corporations search.
Keep the date you ran it. A company that was Active last year can be Dissolved or Forfeited for non-payment of franchise tax today, and a dissolved entity cannot legally issue you an invoice.
If the company is publicly traded, the US Securities and Exchange Commission keeps a second, federal record: EDGAR. It is free to search and shows the company's filings, its CIK number, and - for most public companies - its beneficial ownership through the 13D, 13F and similar ownership forms. That is the closest the US public record comes to showing who controls a public company, filed by the company itself.
EDGAR does not cover private companies. For a private US entity, the state record is the only public registry there is, and it tells you about existence and status, not about the people behind the company beyond what that state publishes.
There is no central federal registry of all US companies, and there is no public search by employer identification number. Anyone who claims to look up every US company from one federal database is describing something that does not exist.
The state record answers identity, status, type and address. It does not show bank balances, contracts, whether this company is the one actually shipping your goods, or whether the account you were given belongs to the entity on the invoice. Those are answered by the payment details in writing and by the shipment documents, not by any secretary of state.
It also does not run a sanctions or export-control check. A company can be perfectly registered in Delaware and still appear on OFAC, the US BIS lists, or the UK, EU or UN lists. Because OFAC and BIS are US lists, a US check is where they matter most - run them against the exact legal name and any known aliases.
| Field | What it proves | What a problem looks like |
|---|---|---|
| State of formation | Which state holds the authoritative file | The state on the invoice does not match the state shown on the company's own formation documents |
| Entity type | Whether it is a corporation, LLC or partnership | An LLC introduced as the manufacturer, with no operating history behind it |
| Status | Whether the entity is still Active or has been dissolved or forfeited | Status reads Dissolved or Forfeited while it is still taking orders |
| Formation date | How long the entity has existed | A company formed weeks ago invoicing a large first order |
| Registered agent | The official contact on file in that state | No agent on file, or an agent shared by thousands of unrelated entities |
| Principal office address | The address on file | An address that does not match where business is actually done |
| SEC filings (public cos.) | The company's federal filings and ownership forms | A company claimed public that has no EDGAR record under that name |
| The five official lists | Whether the entity or its officers appear on sanctions or export-control lists | A name match on OFAC or US BIS, checked against the legal name you just read |
The registry answers identity, status and type. It does not answer intent or payment safety. Run the list check against the legal name the state record gave you, and compare the bank account to the entity that issued the invoice.
No. US entities are formed under state law, so each state keeps its own file through its secretary of state. There is no federal registry of all US companies, and there is no public search by employer identification number.
No. Delaware is where many US corporations are incorporated, but a company can be incorporated in one state and operate in another. Check the state shown on the company's own documents, and if it is publicly traded, also check SEC EDGAR at the federal level.
No. It confirms identity, status and type, not whether the bank account belongs to that entity or whether the company is on a sanctions list. Run the list check separately, and compare the payment details to the registered name.