Artifact Signing Public Trust: is a newly formed US LLC (under 1 month old) eligible for organization validation?

A newly formed U.S. LLC is not excluded by the current Artifact Signing onboarding guidance solely because it is under one month old, but Microsoft must still be able to validate the company’s legal identity and public records.

Eligibility and the conflicting three-year wording

The current Artifact Signing quickstart:

• Lists the United States as a supported location for Public Trust organization validation.
• Requires the legal entity’s name, website, organization-domain email addresses, business identifier, registered address, and an individual representative.
• Does not state a minimum organization age or three-year tax-history requirement.
• Advises keeping the legal entity’s public records current for faster onboarding. ^1^

Recent guidance addressing a newly formed U.S. LLC likewise reports no minimum organization-age restriction under the current onboarding requirements. ^2^

There is a documentation conflict: an MSIX signing page still says organizations need three years of verifiable tax history. ^3^ Older Trusted Signing Q&A answers repeat that condition, but they do not establish that it remains a current Artifact Signing organization-validation rule. ^4^

Therefore, the current Artifact Signing-specific guidance supports submitting the new LLC; it does not guarantee approval because validation depends on whether Microsoft can verify the supplied identity attributes.

Which Business Identifier to enter

The Artifact Signing form only says to enter “a business identifier for the legal business entity.” It does not publish a U.S.-specific rule choosing among an EIN, state entity number, and D‑U‑N‑S number. ^1^

Consequently, there is insufficient Artifact Signing documentation to state reliably that one of those three is mandatory or preferred. Do not infer Artifact Signing requirements from identifier rules documented for other Microsoft verification programs.

Use an identifier that:

• Belongs to the LLC itself.
• Is active and independently verifiable.
• Resolves to the exact legal name and registered address entered in the request.
• Matches the company’s current public records.

Because you already have all three identifiers, obtain confirmation from Azure support before paying if choosing the correct field value is a gating concern. Provide the three identifier types—not sensitive identifier values—and ask which type the current U.S. Artifact Signing validator expects.

Submission path

If proceeding:

1. Create the Azure subscription and Artifact Signing account.
2. Assign the submitting user Artifact Signing Identity Verifier.
3. In the Azure portal, open Artifact Signing account → Objects → Identity validations.
4. Select Organization → New Identity → Public.
5. Enter the LLC’s legal name and registered address exactly as shown in its public record.
6. Use the company website and two monitored email addresses on the company-owned domain.
7. Enter the selected business identifier and the representative’s legal name exactly as shown on their government-issued ID.
8. Submit the request and monitor both its status and the primary mailbox.

The expected status is initially In Progress. If individual verification or documents are needed, it changes to Action Required and instructions are sent to the primary email address. Identity validation must be completed in the Azure portal; it cannot be completed through Azure CLI. ^1^

If automated validation cannot verify the new LLC

Artifact Signing already has an additional-evidence path: when more documents are required, the request changes to Action Required and Microsoft sends upload instructions. ^1^ Keep the state formation/registration record, EIN evidence, D‑U‑N‑S record, domain ownership evidence, and matching address information available, but submit only what the validation workflow requests.

If the request changes directly to Failed without actionable instructions, open an Azure support case with the validation request ID; the portal may not expose the underlying failure reason. ^5^

If Microsoft ultimately cannot validate the LLC, the documented production alternative is an organization-validation code-signing certificate from a third-party certificate authority. ^3^ For Microsoft Store distribution, Store signing is another option.

References

1. Quickstart: Set up Artifact Signing
2. Azure Artifact Signing (Trusted Signing) — is a US LLC formed in 2025 ...
3. Sign an MSIX package
4. Trusted Signing is only available to organizations based in the USA and Canada that have a verifiable history of three years - Microsoft Q&A
5. Trusted Signing: Public Trust organization identity validation keeps failing for a recently incorporated EU company - what makes it pass? - Microsoft Q&A