🇺🇸How to verify a supplier in United States

Registry

no single federal company register: incorporation is a state matter, so the state Secretary of State register is the primary record, with SAM.gov for federal-contractor identity and SEC EDGAR for public companies

Company ID

state entity or file number from the Secretary of State, plus a Unique Entity ID (UEI, 12 characters) in SAM.gov and a Central Index Key (CIK) in SEC EDGAR

Cost

Free basic lookup

Active status

In a state register the status field reads "Good Standing" or its local equivalent, and a company that stopped filing shows as void, forfeited or dissolved. In SAM.gov an entity is usable only while its registration is Active, because that record expires every 12 months and lapses if not renewed.

• There is no nationwide US company search, and any site offering one is a reseller: check the state where the company says it is incorporated. Delaware, the most common state of incorporation, publishes a free entity search at https://icis.corp.delaware.gov/eCorp/EntitySearch/NameSearch.aspx (checked live, 200).
• SAM.gov is the federal contractor and grant register, so presence there proves a verified identity and address for doing business with the US government, not that the company manufactures anything. Its entity search answered 200 on 2026-08-05.
• Public companies only: SEC EDGAR company search (https://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch, 200) and the machine-readable filings API (https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK{10-digit}.json, 200 for a real CIK). The SEC requires every automated request to declare a real contact in the User-Agent header, and the bare path https://data.sec.gov/submissions/ answers 404, which is why a base-path check reads as dead.
• A US federal tax number (EIN) is not publicly searchable for ordinary companies, so an EIN alone proves nothing a buyer can verify.

Before you sign: five asks no registry can answer

The register proves the company exists and who signs. It says nothing about whether the supplier survives a bad quarter, a fire or a key person leaving. Serious suppliers answer these five asks without friction; hesitation on any of them is information too.

• Business continuity: what happens to your order if their plant loses power, a strike hits or their systems go down? Ask for the plan, not a reassurance.
• Liability insurance: is product or professional liability insured, with which insurer and to what ceiling? A certificate of insurance is a one-page email for a real firm.
• Exit terms: how do you terminate if it goes wrong, what notice and fees apply, and how do you get your tooling, molds or data back?
• Support in numbers: ask for response and resolution times as figures, not adjectives. A supplier who commits to hours in writing has a support process; one who writes fast support does not.
• Named people: who exactly runs production and who owns your account? Continuity of a named team matters more than a polished sales deck, and employee-review sites often show whether that team stays.

General commercial hygiene, not legal advice.