S.C. Code Ann. § 33-41-1170 – Application for certificate of authority; filing; determination by Secretary of State; registration, duration and renewal

(A) If the Secretary of State finds that an application for a certificate of authority to transact business in this State conforms to the provisions of this article and all requisite fees have been paid, the Secretary shall:
1. (1) endorse on each signed original and duplicate copy the word "filed" and the date and time of its acceptance for filing;
2. (2) retain the signed original in the Secretary of State's files; and
3. (3) return the duplicate copy to the person who filed it or the person's representative.
(B) If the Secretary of State is unable to make the determination required for filing by subsection (A) at the time any documents are delivered for filing, the documents are considered to have been filed at the time of delivery if the Secretary of State subsequently determines that:
1. (1) the documents as delivered conform to the filing provisions of this chapter; or
2. (2) within twenty days after notification of nonconformance is given by the Secretary of State to the person who delivered the documents for filing for the person's representative, the documents are brought into conformance.
(C) If the filing and determination requirements of this chapter are not satisfied within the time prescribed in subsection (B)(2), the documents shall not be filed.
(D) A certificate of authority to transact business in this State is effective for one year after the date the application is filed unless voluntarily withdrawn pursuant to Section 33-41-1190. Registration, whether pursuant to an original application or a renewal application, as a registered limited liability partnership is renewed if, during the sixty-day period preceding the date the application or renewal application otherwise would have expired, the partnership files with the Secretary of State a renewal application. A renewal application expires one year after the date an original application would have expired if the last renewal of the application had not occurred.