Kansas Resident Agent Service and the Generally Open Office Rule

Kansas uses the terms resident agent and registered office, found in K.S.A. 17-7925 and 17-7926. Any reference to a registered agent in the statutes is deemed to mean the resident agent, so the two names describe one role. Business Services at the Secretary of State's office in Topeka keeps the record.

The agent is where lawsuits are delivered. Under K.S.A. 17-7925(b) the resident agent accepts service of process and other communications directed to the entity and forwards them, and also forwards documents sent by the Secretary of State. The role stays in place for the life of the company.

Articles of Organization on Form DL list the resident agent and the registered office in Kansas, and they do not list members or managers. The filing fee is $85 online and $90 on paper. Everything filed is public record and may be viewable online. Form DL asks for the name with a word of formation, the resident agent, the registered office in Kansas and the signature of an authorized person under penalty of perjury. The $85 online fee is the $75 base plus a $10 information and services fee, and paper adds a $5 technology fee, all effective February 27, 2026. This is the LLC statute, and the same agent service is open to corporations, LPs, LLPs and nonprofits.

K.S.A. 17-7925(a) allows four. The covered entity itself, an individual resident of Kansas, a domestic corporation or LLC, or a foreign entity authorized to transact business in Kansas. Form DL puts the same idea in its instructions: an individual, a business registered in Kansas, or the business itself.

Naming the company itself is allowed, but it works only if the company is in good standing and keeps a business office at the registered office that is generally open.

Out-of-state entities qualify when they are authorized to transact business in Kansas, which is how national agent services fit the statute.

Section 17-7925(b) sets the presence standard. A domestic entity acting as agent, including your own LLC, must be in good standing and maintain a business office identical with the registered office that is generally open. An individual agent must be generally present at a designated location in the state at sufficiently frequent times to accept service of process.

The registered office itself must be an address in Kansas where the resident agent may be regularly present. Form ROA says it must be a street, rural route or highway address, and that a PO box is unacceptable. The Secretary of State's office considers all documents it files public record, and they may be viewable online.

If your LLC runs from a home or has no Kansas office, it should not name itself. The practical choices are an individual or a service.

Kansas lets you be your own resident agent if you live in the state. It costs nothing beyond your time, but you must be generally present at a designated location often enough to take papers. If you are regularly on jobs or traveling, a delivery attempt can be missed and a default judgment can follow without your knowing a suit was filed.

A service puts its own address on the public record instead of yours. If you move your own office, the agent does not change.

The filing is Form ROA, the Certificate of Amendment for a change of resident agent and/or registered office. It costs $30 online and $35 on paper, and the state says online filings are processed within minutes. The same form covers a new agent, a new office address or both. An authorized person on behalf of the business must sign, and the statute lets the entity change its agent by action of its governing body or by any other means in its organic rules.

The form says the business name must match the name on record, and it needs the new resident agent and the new registered office address.

When you move to Mainstay, we prepare and file the Form ROA. The state's fee, $30 online, passes through at cost. Keep the old agent until the change appears on the public record, since an unrecorded change leaves a window nobody is watching.

A Kansas agent resigns without naming a successor on Form RAN, the Certificate of Amendment for Resignation of Resident Agent Without Appointing a Successor. The agent pays the $35 fee. The certificate has to state that written notice of the resignation was given to the entity at least 30 days before the filing, and under K.S.A. 17-7929 the resignation does not become effective until 30 days after the certificate is filed. If the agent has a successor, the entity has to ratify the change instead.

The entity then has to obtain and designate a new resident agent. If it does not do so within 60 days after the filing, the Secretary of State shall declare its organizing documents forfeited, and service can then be made on the Secretary of State under K.S.A. 60-304.

If the agent dies or moves from the registered office, the entity has 30 days to designate another resident agent. Otherwise service is made under K.S.A. 60-304, and the Secretary of State, after giving 30 days notice, may declare the entity's organic document forfeited. So appoint a replacement and file Form ROA promptly. If the old agent is a service you are leaving, cancel it after the new agent is on file.

Kansas service from Mainstay is $149 a year, renewing at $149. It is the agent role plus compliance reminders. The information report, which Kansas asks for every two years by April 15 with a $90 fee, is not filed under this service, so under the agent service the report stays yours to file. The $199 formation package files it, and it includes the resident agent, the Articles of Organization and your EIN application.

Your registered office becomes Mainstay's Kansas address. If your company is served, we scan and upload the papers the same business day, and charge nothing. The first three government mailings of a year are scanned free, then a per-piece scan or shipping fee applies. No tier includes free physical forwarding.