Hire a Registered Agent in Virginia

A registered agent is the person or company named to receive legal papers and official state mail for a Virginia entity, at a physical Virginia street address called the registered office. It is required by Va. Code § 13.1-1015.

Yes. Every domestic and foreign LLC, corporation and limited partnership registered in Virginia must appoint and continuously maintain a registered agent and registered office under § 13.1-1015, from the day it files its formation document.

Only if you personally qualify under § 13.1-1015 — a Virginia resident who is a member, manager or qualifying officer of the LLC, or a member of the Virginia State Bar — with your business office at the registered office address. Many owners hire a service instead to keep that address off the public record.

No, with one narrow exception. § 13.1-1015 requires the registered office to be a physical street address; a P.O. box does not qualify unless the office is located in a Virginia town with a population under 2,000.

LLC Register charges $99 a year. Commercial registered agent services generally range from about $99 to $249 a year, based on published pricing checked 9/30/2026.

File a Statement of Change of Registered Agent/Registered Office with the Virginia State Corporation Commission through its Clerk's Information System, under § 13.1-1016. There is no separate state filing fee for this change.

If your agent resigns and you don't file a replacement within 31 days, the Commission mails an impending-cancellation notice; you then have until the last day of the second month after that notice to fix it before the entity's existence is automatically canceled under § 13.1-1050.2.

Virginia does not use a separately filed written consent form. Instead, § 13.1-1015 requires the entity to certify, on the Articles of Organization or the Statement of Change, that the person or company it names actually meets the statute's eligibility rule.

Only if they personally qualify under § 13.1-1015 — being a Virginia resident alone is not enough. They must also be a member, manager or qualifying officer of the LLC, or be a member of the Virginia State Bar, with a business office at the registered address.

Only if that company is itself a corporation, LLC or registered limited liability partnership authorized to transact business in Virginia, with a Virginia business office matching the registered office and a natural person designated in writing to accept service there, under § 13.1-1015.

§ 13.1-1015 makes forwarding the agent's sole statutory duty — it must send any process, notice or demand to the entity's last known address; LLC Register scans and emails it to you the same day we receive it.

Yes. The registered agent's name and registered office address are part of the entity's public filing with the Virginia State Corporation Commission, viewable through the Clerk's Information System.

Yes. A registered agent can resign, which starts a 31-day window for the entity to name a replacement before the Commission mails an impending-cancellation notice under § 13.1-1050.2.

No — Virginia's Annual Registration Fee under § 13.1-1062 is a flat $50 fee, not an information report, and it does not itself reconfirm your registered agent. Any change in agent must be filed separately, and promptly, on its own Statement of Change.

Yes, for every entity the SCC registers: domestic and foreign LLCs, corporations, limited partnerships and most other filing entities must appoint one under § 13.1-1015.

Yes. A foreign LLC must appoint a Virginia registered agent meeting § 13.1-1015's eligibility rule before the State Corporation Commission will approve its $100 Application for a Certificate of Registration (Form LLC-1052) — the same registered agent rule that applies to a domestic LLC.

No. Virginia allows an LLC to organize as a series LLC on its Articles of Organization, and the registered agent named for the series LLC as a whole covers every series registered within it — there's no separate per-series agent appointment.

Yes. A PLLC follows the same registered agent eligibility rule under § 13.1-1015 as any other Virginia LLC, naming its agent directly on Form LLC-1103, the Articles of Organization for a Professional Limited Liability Company.

Both. A resigning agent files its resignation with the Commission and must also give notice to the entity; the entity then has 31 days to name a replacement before the Commission mails an impending-cancellation notice under § 13.1-1050.2.

Virginia law allows process to be served on the Clerk of the State Corporation Commission once reasonably diligent attempts to serve your registered agent at the registered office have failed; the Clerk then forwards the papers to your entity's last known address.

Yes. A nonstock corporation must appoint and maintain a registered agent meeting the same § 13.1-1015 eligibility rule that applies to for-profit entities, and confirms it on its own $25 annual report filed with the Commission.

Yes. An LP organized under Virginia's partnership statutes (Title 50, Chapter 2.2) must maintain a registered agent and registered office in Virginia just like an LLC.

Search the State Corporation Commission's Clerk's Information System (CIS) by entity name or SCC ID; the result shows the entity's current registered agent name and registered office address.

No, not if you're keeping the same agent. The articles of conversion themselves carry the registered agent forward to the new entity type; a separate Statement of Change is only needed if you're also switching to a new agent.

Yes. A registered agent can update its own name or address directly with the State Corporation Commission without the entity filing anything — it keeps serving your entity under the new information.

Yes. A single eligible individual or an authorized registered agent company can be named on any number of Virginia entities at once, as long as each appointment independently meets § 13.1-1015's eligibility rule.

Yes. The IRS treats an annual registered agent fee as an ordinary and necessary business expense, deductible in the year you pay it.

Yes. Unlike a friend or family member with no role in the company, § 13.1-1015 specifically allows a member of the Virginia State Bar to serve as an individual registered agent even without also being a member, manager or qualifying officer of the LLC.

No. Virginia's LLC Act uses the term "registered agent" in § 13.1-1015, and "agent for service of process" describes the same role in plain language.

The Commission treats that the same as having no valid registered agent on file, which can start the same impending-cancellation notice process under § 13.1-1050.2 that follows a resignation.

You have to name one upfront. Virginia's Articles of Organization require the registered agent's name and registered office address before the Commission will file it — you can't leave it blank and add an agent afterward.

Your registered office is specifically where your registered agent accepts legal mail and must match the agent's own business office under § 13.1-1015; your principal office is wherever you actually run the business and doesn't have to be in Virginia at all.

No. A commercial mail-receiving service or mailbox rental doesn't meet § 13.1-1015's physical-address rule, and it doesn't qualify for the narrow exception that allows a P.O. box only in a Virginia town with a population under 2,000.

No. Virginia's public filings list only your registered agent's name and registered office address; no phone number or email address is required or published.

Yes. Nonstock corporations file their own $25 annual report with the State Corporation Commission every year, due by the end of their registration anniversary month, and it must show the current registered agent.

Yes — and for an individual who wants to self-serve without Virginia State Bar membership, § 13.1-1015 actually requires it: they must be a member, manager or other qualifying officer of the LLC to be eligible.

No. Virginia has no separate licensing or bonding requirement for registered agents, commercial or individual, beyond the eligibility and entity-authorization rules already built into § 13.1-1015.

No. § 13.1-1015 requires an individual registered agent to be a Virginia resident with a business office at the registered office address; owning Virginia real estate doesn't meet that requirement if you personally live elsewhere.

No. § 13.1-1015 limits a registered agent's statutory role to receiving and forwarding process, notices and demands addressed to the entity — it has no authority to sign contracts or act on the entity's behalf.

Yes. Nothing requires the two to be different — a small business commonly uses one Virginia street address for both, as long as it meets the registered office's physical-address rule under § 13.1-1015.