What do the status, standing, and registration_type fields mean?

Each registration in the response carries three fields that describe it, and they answer different questions.

• status is our normalization of the state’s standing into three values: active, inactive, or unknown. Use this for rules and automation, since it is consistent across all states.

• standing is the exact wording the state uses, for example "In Good Standing", "Forfeited", or "Administratively Dissolved". Use this when you need the state’s own language, for example on a customer-facing document. Wording varies by state.

• registration_type is domestic when that state is the business’s home state of formation, foreign when the business is registered there to operate but was formed elsewhere, and unknown when the state does not tell us. A business has only one domestic registration; every other state is foreign.

A status of unknown means the state did not provide a standing we could read, not that the registration is inactive. This is common for Delaware and, to a lesser degree, New Jersey.