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Section B — Supplemental Documents ~30 min

Articles of Incorporation / Organization for California Home Care Agency

CDSS requires the final, signed version of your formation documents as part of Section B. This is a quick step — you likely already have the document from when you registered your business.

What Document Do You Need?

This depends on your entity type:

- LLC: Your Articles of Organization (filed with CA Secretary of State) AND your Operating Agreement (the internal document that defines ownership, management, and signing authority).

- Corporation: Your Articles of Incorporation AND your Bylaws.

- Sole Proprietorship: Your Fictitious Business Name (FBN) Statement filed with your county clerk (if you use a DBA).

What "Final Signed Version" Means

CDSS wants the version that has:

1. The Secretary of State's stamp (for Articles of Organization/Incorporation) — this proves the state accepted your filing.

2. Signatures of all members/officers (for the Operating Agreement or Bylaws).

If your formation service (ZenBusiness, Bizee, etc.) sent you a PDF with a state stamp, that is what you upload.

Why This Matters

The business name and entity type in this document must exactly match what you entered on your HCS 200 application. If there is a comma missing, a different spelling of "LLC" vs "L.L.C.", or any other mismatch, CDSS will send back a correction request.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

  • 1Uploading a draft version without the Secretary of State stamp.
  • 2Business name in the document does not exactly match your HCS 200 application.
  • 3For LLCs: uploading only the Articles of Organization without the Operating Agreement. CDSS wants both.
  • 4For Corporations: uploading only the Articles of Incorporation without the Bylaws.

Tips

  • Check your email from your formation service — the stamped Articles are usually attached as a PDF.
  • If you are a single-member LLC and never created an Operating Agreement, you can use a template. Search "single member LLC operating agreement California" — many free templates exist.

What You Need to Do

  1. 1
    Locate your stamped Articles of Organization / Incorporation from the Secretary of State
  2. 2
    Locate your signed Operating Agreement or Bylaws
  3. 3
    Verify the business name matches your HCS 200 exactly
  4. 4
    Upload both documents below

Documents Needed

  • Final Signed Articles of Incorporation / Operating Agreement
    RequiredPDF · Max 10MB

Want us to handle this for you?

Our licensing team knows this form inside and out. For $999, we fill out every form, check every box, and submit the whole packet to CDSS on your behalf. You just answer a few simple questions.

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John Helmy

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John Helmy, Founder of HomeCareAtlas

Building tools and resources to help home care agency owners navigate licensing, compliance, and growth.