Wisconsin DFI Business Entity Search Scraper

Search Wisconsin's official Corporate Records registry, run by the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions (DFI) at apps.dfi.wi.gov. Look up a business by name, or use advanced filters (organization type, active/inactive status, current vs. former names, registration date range) and get entity type, status, registered agent, principal office address, annual report filing history, and the full filing chronology. HTTP-only, no login, no CAPTCHA.

Data Source & Usage Notes

Read this before running a large job.

• No login, no CAPTCHA, no bot-protection challenge observed. apps.dfi.wi.gov/apps/CorpSearch is a plain, publicly accessible search — no account wall, no Cloudflare/Akamai/reCAPTCHA challenge on either the search or detail pages.
• Why Wisconsin, and not another state? Wisconsin's DFI Corporate Records search was chosen because it's fully open — no account wall, no CAPTCHA, no bot-protection challenge — and was verified live, multiple times, to return real, complete data. Some other state registries impose interactive "Human Verification" challenges that block automated access entirely; those are avoided in favor of sources that stay reliably accessible to everyone.
• 500-record cap per search. Wisconsin's own results page caps any single search (quick or advanced) at 500 rows — this is a genuine source-side limit, not an actor bug. The source itself reports "More than 500 records" when a query is this broad; narrow your search text or add filters for a complete result set.
• Detail-page enrichment is optional but on by default. Each result row already includes entity ID, name, type, registration date, and status for free. Turning on fetchDetails (the default) additionally fetches each entity's own detail page for registered agent, principal office address, annual report history, and full filing chronology — richer, but one extra HTTP request per result.
• Conservative by design. This actor only ever uses Apify's free datacenter (AUTO) proxy group as a defensive fallback — never a paid residential proxy — even though the source has no observed bot-protection requiring one.
• The entity detail page has its own request-volume gate, handled automatically. Confirmed live: an unusually high volume of rapid detail-page requests in a short window can trigger a temporary "403 Forbidden" from the source's own server for that page — the main search/results page is unaffected. The actor paces detail-page requests and automatically recovers from a temporary block; if detail enrichment keeps failing, it falls back to the search-row fields it already has for the rest of that run rather than failing the whole job.
• Give large jobs a generous run timeout. With fetchDetails on (the default), each result requires one extra detail-page fetch. A maxItems of 500 with details enabled takes roughly 4–5 minutes end-to-end (confirmed live); set a run timeout of 600s or more (Input > Run options) for large jobs rather than relying on a short default.
• Not affiliated with the State of Wisconsin. This is an independent third-party tool using the Department of Financial Institutions' own public, no-login search.

What this actor does

• Two search modes:
  • search — quick search: matches any part of the business name
  • advancedSearch — the same name search plus every filter the source's own Advanced Search page exposes
• 26 organization types as a filter — every domestic/foreign corporation, LLC, partnership, cooperative, trust, and name-reservation type Wisconsin's own dropdown lists
• Active / inactive filter — restrict to entities currently in existence, no-longer-in-existence, or both
• Name-history filter — search current names only, current + former names, or former names only
• Registration date range — restrict by the entity's registered effective date
• Text match type (Advanced search) — exact phrase, all words, or starts-with
• Full entity detail — registered agent name and address, principal office address, annual report requirements text, foreign-entity organization date/state, complete annual report filing history, and the entity's full chronology of filings (registrations, agent changes, amendments, etc.)
• Empty fields are omitted — you never have to guard against null

Output per business entity

• entityId — Wisconsin's unique entity/registration ID (e.g. G058614)
• entityName
• entityTypeCode, entityType — e.g. 12, Domestic Limited Liability Company
• registeredEffectiveDate — MM/DD/YYYY
• status, statusDate
• periodOfExistence — e.g. PER (perpetual)
• annualReportRequirements — the statutory filing-requirement text for this entity type
• foreignOrganizationDate, foreignState — for entities formed outside Wisconsin
• paidCapitalRepresented — when on file
• registeredAgentName, registeredAgentStreet, registeredAgentCity, registeredAgentState, registeredAgentZip
• principalOfficeStreet, principalOfficeCity, principalOfficeState, principalOfficeZip, principalOfficeCountry (for foreign principal offices)
• annualReports — list of {year, reel, image, filedBy, storedOn}
• chronology — list of {effectiveDate, transaction, processedDate, description} — every filing event on record
• certificatesOfNewlyElectedOfficers — when on file
• oldNames — former names, when on file
• detailUrl, sourceUrl — direct link to the entity's live detail page
• recordType: "businessEntity", scrapedAt

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search (quick) / advancedSearch (name + filters)
searchQuery	string	GOOGLE	Business name or search text
textSearchType	string	ExactPhrase	ExactPhrase / AllWords / StartsWith (mode=advancedSearch)
orgTypes	array	[]	One or more of the 26 organization-type codes; empty = all types (mode=advancedSearch)
includeActiveEntities	string	Include	Include (all) / Only (active) / Exclude (inactive only) (mode=advancedSearch)
includeOldNames	string	Exclude	Exclude (current names) / Include (current + old) / Only (old names) (mode=advancedSearch)
incorporationDateStart	string	—	Registration date lower bound, MM/DD/YYYY (mode=advancedSearch)
incorporationDateEnd	string	—	Registration date upper bound, MM/DD/YYYY (mode=advancedSearch)
fetchDetails	boolean	true	Fetch each entity's full detail page (registered agent, addresses, filing history)
proxyConfiguration	object	AUTO proxy	Apify proxy config; always datacenter (AUTO), never residential
maxItems	int	50	Hard cap (1–500) — the source itself caps any search at 500 rows

Example: quick search by business name

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "GOOGLE",
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example: advanced search — active domestic LLCs registered in 2023

{
  "mode": "advancedSearch",
  "searchQuery": "TECH",
  "textSearchType": "AllWords",
  "orgTypes": ["12"],
  "includeActiveEntities": "Only",
  "incorporationDateStart": "01/01/2023",
  "incorporationDateEnd": "12/31/2023",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: fast name-only pass (no detail enrichment)

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "MADISON",
  "fetchDetails": false,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Use cases

• Due diligence — confirm a counterparty's Wisconsin entity type, status, and registered agent before contracting
• Compliance & KYC — cross-check a business's legal entity name and registration date
• Registered agent research — see the registered agent and office on file for any Wisconsin entity
• Company formation research — filter by organization type and registration date range to study formation trends
• Name-availability research — search current and former names together to see if a name (or something close to it) is already on file
• Filing-history review — pull the complete chronology of filings for an entity (registrations, agent changes, amendments, terminations)

FAQ

What's the data source? The Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions' own free public Corporate Records Search at apps.dfi.wi.gov. This actor is an independent third-party tool and is not affiliated with the State of Wisconsin.

Is this data official / legally binding? No. For an official Certificate of Status or certified copies, use the state's own paid ordering channels (linked from each entity's detail page). This actor returns the same free-tier informational data the public search page shows.

Why did my run return 0 results? Either the query genuinely has no match, or your filters (organization type, active/inactive, date range) are narrower than expected. Try widening them, or switch textSearchType to AllWords for a looser match.

Why does the source say "More than 500 records"? Wisconsin's own results page caps every search at 500 rows — even the state's own site doesn't show more. Narrow your search text or add filters (organization type, date range) to get under the cap.

What's the difference between the two modes? search is a quick, name-only lookup. advancedSearch runs the same name search but also lets you filter by organization type, active/inactive status, current-vs-former names, and a registration date range — exactly the options on the source's own Advanced Search page.

How fresh is the data? Real-time — every search reflects the Department of Financial Institutions' database as of the moment of the search.

Does this cost extra for proxies? No. The actor only ever uses Apify's free datacenter (AUTO) proxy group, included in every Apify plan.