Georgia Registered Agent Service Without a Separate Change Form

Georgia calls it a registered agent at a registered office. The Secretary of State's Corporations Division forms and regulates LLCs, and its online system is eCorp. The Articles of Organization ask for the LLC's name or a valid name reservation number, the filer's name and address, a valid email address, the principal office mailing address, each organizer, and the name and address of the registered agent.

The state describes the registered agent as the person or entity designated to receive any service of process, documents or other official communication on behalf of the business, and says the agent must be located in Georgia. A Notice of Administrative Dissolution may be mailed to the LLC's principal office or to its registered agent. The agent is not a mailroom for your general business mail.

The text here is about LLCs. Corporations, LPs, LLPs and nonprofits can use the service as well. The registered agent and the LLC's principal office are separate fields. The principal office can be anywhere, even out of state. The agent's address cannot.

Under the statute, a domestic LLC's registered agent can be an individual resident of Georgia. It can be a corporation or another LLC. Or it can be a foreign corporation or LLC that has a certificate of authority to transact business in Georgia. Section 14-11-209 also requires the agent's business office address to be the same as the registered office address.

Then comes a flat rule from the Secretary of State: an entity cannot be its own registered agent. Your LLC cannot name itself.

A commercial agent generally qualifies as a Georgia corporation or LLC, or as a foreign entity with a certificate of authority, which is how owners who live in other states satisfy the requirement.

The registered agent's address must be a street address in Georgia, and the agent must be located at that address. A post office box or "mail drop" may not be used. georgia.gov describes the address as a physical street address in Georgia where an individual can be located in person for the company.

The agent is named on the Articles and the annual registration, so a home address used for the agent ends up on a state filing. Georgia's annual registration for an LLC lists only the registered agent, not members or managers.

The state's own description is the test: a Georgia street address where somebody can be found in person for the company.

A Georgia resident who works from a fixed office in the state can serve as the agent. There is no fee, and documents come straight to you. The cost is that the address must be one where you can be found in person. If a process server arrives while the office is empty, you can miss a lawsuit and learn about it only after a default judgment.

A missed state notice is expensive too. If the annual registration is not filed, the Division mails a Notice of Administrative Dissolution to the principal office or the registered agent. If that mail goes to an address nobody watches, the 60-day window to fix it can pass.

A registered agent service puts its own Georgia address on the record instead of yours.

Georgia has no separate change-of-agent form. The Secretary of State says the name of the registered agent, or the registered office, can be changed by filing an annual registration or an amended annual registration, both through eCorp. Section 14-11-209(c) says the same: the LLC changes its agent or office by filing an amendment to its annual registration.

The annual registration is filed between January 1 and April 1, and the fee is $60, which is the $50 statutory fee plus a $10 service charge. The amended annual registration, Form CD 920, is $30, made up of a $20 statutory fee and the $10 service charge. You can file it online in eCorp as an annual registration with changes, or on paper. If an agent resigns or moves mid-year, file the amended registration straight away rather than waiting for the annual one.

We prepare and submit the filing when you switch to Mainstay, and the $30 state fee is passed through at cost. The new agent's address replaces the old one on the public record once the state processes it.

A Georgia agent resigns by signing and delivering a statement of resignation to the Secretary of State, and there is no fee. On or before the filing date, the agent has to deliver or mail written notice of its intention to resign to the LLC at the most recent mailing address of its principal place of business in Georgia listed in the Secretary of State's records. The agent's role ends on the earlier of the filing of your annual registration or a statement naming a new agent, or the 31st day after the statement of resignation was filed.

If an LLC fails to appoint or maintain a registered agent, or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be found at the registered office, section 14-11-209(f) makes the Secretary of State an agent of the LLC on whom process, notice or demand may be served. The plaintiff certifies that it mailed the papers to the registered office and could not serve them there.

A missing agent can also lead to administrative dissolution under section 14-11-603. The Secretary of State may start the process if the LLC is without a registered agent or office for 60 days or more, or does not notify the Secretary within 60 days that its registered agent has resigned. The notice goes by first-class mail to the LLC at its principal office or to the registered agent, and you have 60 days to correct the problem. A dissolved LLC can only wind up its affairs. Reinstatement costs $260 and is available within five years of dissolution.

Mainstay's Georgia registered agent service costs $149 a year, and the same $149 at renewal. Included are your agent and compliance reminders. Your annual registration, which is filed between January 1 and April 1 for a $60 state fee, is not part of this service. The $199 formation package does that filing, includes the agent, and adds the Articles of Organization and your EIN application.

Your registered office on the eCorp record becomes Mainstay's Georgia address. If your company is served, the papers are scanned and uploaded within the same business day and nothing is charged for it. Government mailings are scanned free for the first three of the year, and each after that carries a per-piece scan or shipping fee. We forward no physical mail for free, on any tier.

Legal advice is not part of the service.