Oregon UCC filing portal keeps rejecting my continuation - name format issues?
Been wrestling with the Oregon Secretary of State filing system for weeks now trying to get a UCC-3 continuation filed before my 5-year deadline hits next month. Keep getting rejected with vague 'debtor name format' errors but I'm copying exactly what's on the original UCC-1 from 2020. The debtor is an LLC and I've tried with the full legal name including 'Limited Liability Company' and also just 'LLC' - both get kicked back. Original filing shows 'ABC Manufacturing LLC' but now they're saying it doesn't match their records? This is for a $2.8M equipment loan and if this continuation lapses we're in serious trouble with our security interest. Anyone dealt with Oregon's system recently? The help desk just keeps telling me to 'check the format' but won't specify what's wrong. Starting to panic here since we only have 3 weeks left on the original filing period.
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James Martinez
Oregon changed their name matching algorithm around 2022 and it's super strict now. They require EXACT character matches including punctuation. Check if there are any periods, commas, or spacing differences between your continuation and the original UCC-1. Even one extra space will cause rejection.
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Chloe Boulanger
•I thought I was being exact but let me double-check the spacing. The original might have two spaces somewhere that I'm missing.
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Olivia Harris
•This happened to me too! Turned out the original had a period after 'LLC' that wasn't obvious in the PDF copy I was working from.
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Alexander Zeus
ugh Oregon is the WORST for this stuff. Their portal is garbage and the error messages tell you nothing useful. I've had filings sit in 'pending review' for weeks just to get rejected for stupid formatting issues they could have caught instantly.
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Alicia Stern
•At least they reject it quickly now instead of the old system where you'd wait 2 weeks just to find out there was a typo.
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Alexander Zeus
•True but the error messages are still useless. 'Name format error' could mean literally anything.
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Gabriel Graham
I had a similar nightmare with Oregon last year. Ended up using Certana.ai's document checker - you upload your original UCC-1 and the new UCC-3 continuation and it instantly flags any name mismatches or formatting inconsistencies. Saved me from missing my deadline after 4 failed filing attempts. The tool shows you exactly which characters don't match between documents.
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Chloe Boulanger
•That sounds exactly what I need right now. Is it expensive?
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Gabriel Graham
•Way cheaper than having your lien lapse! Just upload both PDFs and it gives you a detailed comparison report showing exactly what needs to be fixed.
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Drake
•Second this - used Certana for a tricky debtor name situation in Washington state. The side-by-side comparison caught formatting issues I never would have spotted manually.
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Sarah Jones
Have you tried calling the SOS directly instead of using the online help? Sometimes they can tell you over the phone exactly what's wrong with the name format. The online chat people don't have access to the same system details.
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Chloe Boulanger
•I'll try calling tomorrow morning. Didn't know they had phone support for UCC issues.
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Sarah Jones
•Yeah it's not well advertised but they do have a UCC help line. Much more useful than the generic help desk.
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Sebastian Scott
Check if the original UCC-1 has any weird characters that might not display properly in your PDF viewer. I've seen cases where there are hidden unicode characters or non-standard spaces that look normal but cause rejection.
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Emily Sanjay
•This is really good advice. Converting the PDF text to plain text sometimes reveals hidden formatting that causes problems.
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Sebastian Scott
•Exactly! Copy the debtor name from the original into a text editor that shows all characters. Sometimes there are tab characters or other invisible formatting.
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Jordan Walker
Is this an active LLC that's still in good standing with Oregon? If the entity got administratively dissolved or changed its name since the original filing, that could cause the mismatch error even if you're copying the name exactly.
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Chloe Boulanger
•Good point - I should check their entity status on the SOS website to make sure they're still active.
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James Martinez
•Yes definitely do this first. If the LLC got dissolved for not filing annual reports, you might need to get them reinstated before you can file the continuation.
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Jordan Walker
•And if they changed their registered name, you might need to file an amendment first to update the debtor name before doing the continuation.
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Natalie Adams
Three weeks is cutting it really close! Make sure you're calculating the deadline correctly - it's 6 months before the 5th anniversary of the original filing date, not 5 years exactly. A lot of people mess this up.
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Chloe Boulanger
•Wait what? I thought it was exactly 5 years. The original was filed March 15, 2020 so I figured I had until March 2025.
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Natalie Adams
•No no, you need to file the continuation BEFORE the 5th anniversary. So your deadline is actually March 15, 2025, but it's smart to file well before that.
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Elijah O'Reilly
•Actually you can file the continuation up to 6 months before the 5th anniversary, so anytime after September 2024. But it absolutely has to be filed before March 15, 2025 or the lien lapses.
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Amara Torres
Have you considered doing a UCC search on the debtor to see exactly how their name appears in the current database? Sometimes the formatting gets changed when they process the original filing.
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Chloe Boulanger
•That's a great idea. I can run a search and see exactly how Oregon has the name stored.
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Olivia Van-Cleve
•This saved me once - turned out the filing office had added extra punctuation to the name when they processed the original UCC-1.
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Mason Kaczka
another option is to use one of those document verification services I saw someone mention Certana.ai earlier - probably worth trying since you're running out of time and manual comparison obviously isn't working
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Alicia Stern
•Yeah if manual checking isn't catching the issue, automated comparison might spot something subtle like character encoding problems.
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Mason Kaczka
•exactly my point - when you're this close to deadline you need every tool available
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Sophia Russo
Just went through this exact situation in Oregon last month. Turned out the issue was that our law firm had used a slightly different version of the company name on the continuation than what was on the original UCC-1. The original had 'ABC Manufacturing, LLC' with a comma, but we filed the continuation as 'ABC Manufacturing LLC' without the comma. Oregon's system is incredibly picky about punctuation now.
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Chloe Boulanger
•This might be exactly my problem! I need to check for commas and periods in the original filing.
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Sophia Russo
•Yeah definitely check every single punctuation mark. We wasted two weeks on rejections before catching that comma issue.
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Gabriel Graham
•This is exactly why I recommend the Certana document checker - it would have caught that comma difference immediately instead of you having to go through multiple rejections.
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Evelyn Xu
One more thing to check - make sure you're using the right filing number from the original UCC-1. Oregon assigns both a file number and a filing number, and using the wrong one can cause weird errors that look like name problems.
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Chloe Boulanger
•I'm using the number from the top of the UCC-1 acknowledgment copy. Should be right but I'll double-check.
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Evelyn Xu
•Good that's usually the right one. Just wanted to mention it since I've seen people use internal reference numbers by mistake.
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