California Experiences Extreme Filing Delays

California is experiencing extreme delays in the time it takes to process Articles of Incorporation and Articles of Organization for new business entities. Historically, a filing would take about 7 to 10 business days to process. Presently, it is taking anywhere from 7 to 27 business days for the Secretary of State to process these filings, with wild fluctuations within that range. The delayed processing time is a direct result of budget constraints plaguing the State. To cope with a decrease in funds budgeted to the Secretary of State, the Fresno and San Francisco satellite offices have been closed, diverting all filings to the Sacramento office. The delays are not expected to improve, and worsened with the recent closing of the of the San Diego satellite office on April 2, 2010. Further, the Secretary of State has been experiencing some technical computer issues resulting in additional delays. While we have discouraged our clients from paying the additional filing fees for expedited filings in California due to the high cost, expedited filing may be the only option for our clients with time sensitive filings.