California (US)
How to use Kausate in California (US) — what you can call, and which identifiers it uses
New to the API? Start with the jurisdictions overview, which explains how ordering, identifiers and documents work everywhere.
Company data here comes directly from California Secretary of State.
One of the jurisdictions under United States, whose page lists the others and covers the national register separately.
What you can call here
What each operation does is the same everywhere and is explained on the jurisdictions overview.
| Operation | Status |
|---|---|
| Autocomplete | Coming soon |
| Company search | Live |
| Company report Includes: Registered details and Legal representatives. | Live |
| Prefill | Live |
How to search
Start with company search and jurisdictionCode: "us-ca". Pass the name as companyName, a registration number as companyNumber, or both to narrow the result. Here companyNumber is read as entityNumber.
Fields
To say exactly what you mean, send an advancedQuery instead. California (US) understands these fields:
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
name | Company name to search for. |
entityNumber | California SOS entity (file) number to search for. |
Examples
{ "jurisdictionCode": "us-ca", "advancedQuery": { "name": "Apple" }}California (US) also accepts entityNumber.
Company identifiers
Search by passing the registration number as companyNumber — it is matched against the schemes this register can search on, so you do not name the scheme yourself. Not every scheme below is searchable; the rest label the values returned in a company’s identifiers.
| Identifier | Appears as | Format |
|---|---|---|
| CA Entity Number California Secretary of State entity (file) number. Corporations have a 7-digit number, canonically zero-padded (e.g. '0281233') though often shown stripped ('281233') or with a leading 'C'; LLCs and LPs have a 12-digit number. Corporation numbers are normalized to the 7-digit zero-padded form (a leading 'C' is stripped); LLC/LP numbers are kept as-is. | us_ca_entity_number | ^C?[0-9]{1,7}$|^[0-9]{12}$ |
Identifier notes
- When searching by entity number rather than by name, use the full identifier with any leading zeros (for example 0281233) — search only matches the zero-padded form, even though the number is commonly printed without it (281233), and the stripped form returns no matches. Requesting a company report by identifier handles this padding automatically; it only matters when you construct a search yourself.
Local notes
Gotchas
| Trap | What happens |
|---|---|
| Reservations match like companies | A name or entity-number search can match a "Name Reservation" or a "Foreign Name Registration" rather than an actual operating company — these are a held name or a name filing, not a formed business. Check the returned legal form before treating a match as a real, operating entity. |
| 'Pending Termination' reads active | A status of "Active - Pending Termination" reads as active — the termination filing has not taken effect yet. Check the status text, not just the active flag, if pending terminations matter to you. |
| California name may differ | For an out-of-state entity registered in California, the returned name is its California-registered name and can differ from its home-state name, which is carried as an additional legal name. Compare both against its home-state records. |
Glossary
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
FTB | FTB is California's Franchise Tax Board, the state tax agency. It appears inside compound status values such as "Suspended - FTB" or "Terminated - FTB Admin", showing that the tax agency — rather than the Secretary of State — took the action. |
SOS | SOS is the Secretary of State's own office. It appears inside compound status values such as "Suspended - SOS" or "Terminated - SOS Admin", showing that the Secretary of State — rather than the tax agency — took the action. |
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