Arizona Statutory Agent Service for Your Company

The Corporation Commission's own forms explain the name: the role is called a statutory agent because a statute, A.R.S. § 29-3115, requires the company to appoint someone for the purpose. In everyday terms it is the same role other states call a registered agent.

Arizona does not route formation through the Secretary of State. The Arizona Corporation Commission's Corporations Division handles it, and that is where the agent is recorded. The Articles of Organization on form L010 list the agent with an Arizona street address and a mailing address.

The agent receives lawsuits, summonses and demands: under A.R.S. § 29-3119 an LLC may be served with any process, notice or demand required or permitted by law by serving its statutory agent. The Commission's forms also say its official notices are mailed to the statutory agent at its street address, unless a mailing address is provided. Our service extends to corporations, LPs, LLPs and nonprofits as well as LLCs. Since Arizona LLCs have no annual report, the agent address is one of the few standing items that has to be kept right on your own initiative.

The Commission's FAQ lists the options. An individual who resides in Arizona and is at least 18 years of age can serve. So can a domestic corporation or LLC, and so can a foreign corporation or LLC that is authorized in Arizona. Arizona states it flatly: an LLC cannot be its own statutory agent. A member or manager can serve, but only as an individual.

Unlike some states, Arizona states a minimum age for an individual agent, and it is 18. An individual agent must also reside in Arizona, which rules out owners who live elsewhere.

An out-of-state owner therefore needs an Arizona-resident individual or an entity as agent. A commercial service qualifies as a corporation or LLC authorized in Arizona, with an Arizona address of its own.

Arizona wants two addresses for the agent. The street address has to be a physical Arizona street address, not a P.O. box. The mailing address can be a P.O. box, and the Commission's form asks for it in Arizona.

Acceptance is real. Unless the agent signed the document that appointed them, the appointment is not effective until a record signed by the agent accepting it reaches the Commission. When you file online, the designated agent immediately receives an email, and if the agent does not accept the appointment within 3 days, or 72 hours, the filing is automatically rejected. Paper filers send form M002, the Statutory Agent Acceptance, with the Articles. You cannot name a person who has not said yes.

The Commission treats the addresses as public record, viewable by anyone. A home address used for the agent shows up next to your company's name.

This one is peculiar to Arizona. Under A.R.S. § 29-3201, within sixty days after the Commission files the articles, a notice has to run for three consecutive publications in a newspaper of general circulation in the county of the statutory agent's street address. But if that address is in a county with a population of more than eight hundred thousand people, the Commission puts the approval in its own database instead.

Form L010's instructions put it in plain terms. If the agent's street address is in Maricopa or Pima County, a notice is published on the Commission's website. Elsewhere in Arizona you have to publish in a newspaper, and the approval letter tells you which applies. Filing the newspaper's affidavit is optional.

So the agent address you choose can decide whether you pay a newspaper. It is worth knowing before you pick one.

Naming yourself costs nothing extra. If you live in Arizona, it can work. The trade is that your address becomes public, and the street address on file is where a process server will come. If you travel, work in the field or keep irregular hours, a served summons can sit, and the response clock on a lawsuit keeps running.

An employee, a partner or an Arizona attorney who is at least 18 and lives in the state can serve if they accept. They have to be someone who will not move away or lose interest, because a stale agent address is easy to overlook when there is no annual report to prompt a review.

A commercial agent puts a stable Arizona address on the record in place of yours. If you change homes, the agent address does not have to change with you.

The filing is the Statement of Change of Principal Address or Statutory Agent, form L020, filed with the Corporation Commission through the Arizona Business Center, which replaced eCorp on January 12, 2026, or on paper by mail or in person. The fee is $5, or $40 if you expedite. A card payment adds the Commission's 2.2% processing fee, with a $2 minimum. You do not need to amend the Articles of Organization, and the Commission says publication of a Statement of Change is not required.

We prepare and file the L020 when you move to Mainstay, and the state's fee goes through at cost. The new agent must accept the role in writing, the same as at formation. If no acceptance is in the Commission's system when a paper L020 is examined, it is rejected, so line up that acceptance before the filing.

Arizona has no annual report, so the Statement of Change is how you update agent information. The old agent stays on the record until the Commission processes the new one.

A statutory agent resigns on the Statutory Agent Resignation form, L032. The agent has to mail notice of the resignation to the LLC at an address that is not the agent's own. The resignation takes effect on the 31st day after the Commission receives it, or when a new statutory agent is appointed, whichever comes first, so the old agent stays for about a month. The Commission's current L032 form and fee schedule list a $10 fee, though its older instructions say there is none.

Arizona does not fill the seat for you. If a company ceases to have a statutory agent, or its agent cannot with reasonable diligence be served, A.R.S. § 29-3119 lets it be served by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, addressed to the company at its principal address.

The Commission may also administratively dissolve an LLC that goes at least 60 consecutive days without a statutory agent, or that fails to notify the Commission within 60 days after its agent resigns. The company has up to 60 days after the notice is delivered to fix it, and reinstatement costs $100. File the replacement before the resignation takes effect.

Our statutory agent service for Arizona is $149 a year and renews at $149. Arizona has no recurring state filing for an LLC, so there is no annual report to prepare. The price covers your agent and compliance reminders. If you want Mainstay to form the company, the $199 package covers the statutory agent as well as the Articles of Organization and your EIN application.

Your Arizona agent address becomes Mainstay's Arizona address. Papers served on your company are scanned and uploaded within the same business day, and there is no fee for that. Government mailings get three free scans a year, with a per-piece scan or shipping fee after that. Physical forwarding at no charge is not on offer in any tier.

Mainstay does not give legal advice, so how to respond to a lawsuit is for your attorney.