Title 7
Corporations, Associations, and Partnerships
Chapter 1.2
Rhode Island Business Corporation Act
Part 14
Foreign Corporations
R.I. Gen. Laws § 7-1.2-1401
§ 7-1.2-1401. Admission of foreign corporation and other entities.
(a) No foreign corporation has the right to transact business in this state until it has procured a certificate of authority to do so from the secretary of state. No foreign corporation is entitled to procure a certificate of authority under this chapter to transact any business in this state which a corporation organized under this chapter is not permitted to transact. A foreign corporation may not be denied a certificate of authority because the laws of the state or country under which the corporation is organized governing its organization and internal affairs differ from the laws of this state, and nothing contained in this chapter authorizes this state to regulate the organization or the internal affairs of the corporation.
(b) Without excluding other activities which may not constitute transacting business in this state, a foreign corporation is not considered to be transacting business in this state, for the purposes of this chapter, because of carrying on in this state any one or more of the following activities:
(1) Maintaining or defending any action or suit or any administrative or arbitration proceeding, or effecting the settlement of the suit or the settlement of claims or disputes.
(2) Holding meetings of its directors or shareholders or carrying on other activities concerning its internal affairs.
(3) Maintaining bank accounts.
(4) Maintaining offices or agencies for the transfer, exchange, and registration of its securities, or appointing and maintaining trustees or depositaries with relation to its securities.
(5) Effecting sales through independent contractors.
(6) Soliciting or procuring orders, whether by mail or through employees or agents or otherwise, where the orders require acceptance outside of this state before becoming binding contracts.
(7) Creating, as borrower or lender, or acquiring indebtedness or mortgages or other security interests in real or personal property.
(8) Securing or collecting debts or enforcing any rights in property securing the debts.
(9) Transacting any business in interstate commerce.
(10) Conducting an isolated transaction completed within a period of thirty (30) days and not in the course of a number of repeated transactions of like nature.
(11) Acting as a general partner of a limited partnership which has filed a certificate of limited partnership as provided in § 7-13-8 or has registered with the secretary of state as provided in § 7-13-49.
(12) Acting as a member of a limited-liability company which has registered with the secretary of state as provided in § 7-16-49.
(c) Any "other entity", as defined in § 7-16-5.1(a), Massachusetts trust or business trust established by law of any other state, desiring to do business in this state, is deemed to be a foreign corporation and is required to register under, and comply with the provisions of, this chapter.
History of Section.
P.L. 2004, ch. 216, § 2; P.L. 2004, ch. 274, § 2; P.L. 2005, ch. 120, § 1; P.L. 2005, ch. 130, § 1.