National Registered Agent Service
If your LLC or corporation does business in multiple states, it makes sense to hire a national registered agent service. Think of it like buying registered agent service in bulk—it’s cheaper and more convenient than appointing several registered agents individually.
At Northwest, we’re big enough to handle your multi-state business but small enough to pick up the phone and offer personal service. We have an office in every state (plus D.C. and Puerto Rico!). Our national registered agent service comes with free limited mail forwarding, expert Corporate Guides®, free Phone Service for 60 days, and Privacy by Default®. Plus, get extra savings with service in 5 or more states.
On this page:
What Does a National Registered Agent Do?
What Are the Legal Rules for National Agents?
Who Needs a National Registered Agent?
Why Hire Northwest?
National Registered Agent FAQ
How to Order National Registered Agent Service
Real Time Delivery
No Matter Where You’re Located, As Your Registered Agent We:
- Locally Scan Everything To You
- Notify You In Real Time
- Provide Corporate Guide™ Service
- Never Charge Hidden Fees
HIRE USImmediate Service
Your instant online account has the forms to file. Along with:
- Best way to file direct
- Annual report reminders
- All documents we receive for you
- Company management system
Registered Agent Service for 5 or More States
$100 Per StateWhat Does a National Registered Agent Do?
There’s really no such thing as a national registered agent. That’s because registered agents must be local.
So, a national registered agent is actually a team of registered agents—one in every state. When you hire a national registered agent, you get a local registered agent in every state where you do business, as is usually required by state law. Each registered agent must:
-
- Have a physical address in the state where you transact business.
- Be open at that address during business hours.
- Accept documents on your behalf and get them to you.
What are the Legal Rules for National Registered Agents?
Yes. Each state has their own set of requirements for registered agents. Those requirements can be found in your state statutes, but generally, a registered agent must be a resident of the state or a company within the state, have a local, physical address, and accept and forward legal documents.
At Northwest, we know which states offer the most privacy, which states are slow, and which states are just downright weird (we’re looking at you, New York). We’ve been at this long enough to know how to satisfy the statutory requirements across the country. We can keep your business compliant—no matter where you’re doing business.
Who Needs a National Registered Agent?
If your company will transact business in more than one state, it’s smart to hire a national registered agent service. You need a registered agent service in every state where you do business, and it helps logistically to handle all of your registered agent communications through one secure account.
At Northwest, we scan and upload legal mail to your secure account the day it arrives in our office. We’ll also help you keep track of when and how you need to file annual reports to your local secretary of state—a task that can get pretty confusing as soon as you start filing in multiple states with varying deadlines.
Why Hire Northwest as My National Registered Agent?
At Northwest, we do business the right way. We’re dedicated to getting you your docs fast, protecting your privacy and offering you support. Here’s how:
-
- Same-Day Scans, Instant Notifications: We accept and scan your docs at our local office the same day. We notify you instantly and reach out to you if your essential mail goes unread.
- Privacy by Default®: We automatically minimize the exposure of and access to your personal data. If we can put our address on a public doc instead of yours, we do. If we don’t have to list your personal info, we don’t. We have tough privacy policies to keep your data safe and private. And we never sell your data.
- Free Limited Mail Forwarding: Of course we’ll get you your state and legal mail. That’s our job. But what if we get some of your regular business mail? It happens a lot—clients and businesses trying to connect with you via your registered agent. We scan 5 documents per year for FREE in each state where you have service. We can also scan additional mail at a per document rate of $15.
- Corporate Guides®: Have questions? We have answers. Our guides are business experts whose sole job is to provide phone and email support for all your toughest business questions.
National Registered Agent FAQs
Business entities like LLCs and corporations are nearly always required to have a local registered agent with a physical address in every state where they transact business. A national registered agent can meet these requirements in every state and streamline that process.
The purpose of having a registered agent is to provide the public with a reliable way to reach you with important legal mail, like a summons or lawsuit. If you don’t have a registered agent in the state where you want to do business, the local Secretary of State will typically reject your filing.
You can certainly be your own registered agent in the state where you live. But if you need a registered agent in more than one state, being your own registered agent is impossible. You’d have to be in two places at once, and as we know from watching sitcoms, that never ends well.
Most businesses that transact business in multiple states hire a national registered agent service. Why? It’s cheaper and more convenient than appointing individual registered agents separately. Plus, a registered agent’s name and address becomes part of the public record, and most business owners like to keep their own address private.
Yes! We allow our clients to use our addresses anywhere on public filings. This keeps your private address off the public record, sparing you a tsunami of junk mail and preserving your privacy.
Well, no. We don’t want ALL of your business mail. We’re here to accept legal notices and service of process on your behalf. Having your bank statements, invoices, and whatever else sent here doesn’t serve you well.
That said, we understand that businesses and clients sometimes reach out to you through your registered agent (us). That’s why we give you 5 FREE scans of regular business mail a year in each state where you have service. You can request any additional documents to be forwarded at a per document rate of $15.
Hire us first. Your formation documents will likely require you to list a local registered agent, so you won’t be able to form an LLC or corporation (or qualify your existing foreign LLC or corporation in a new state) without one. After you hire us, you’ll be able to find all the forms (and instructions) you need in your account with us.
- A process server, the sheriff, or any third party will walk into our office and hand us legal papers (service of process).
- The process server then gives an affidavit to the court that they “served” us.
When a registered agent is served, that business is considered notified in the eyes of the law. Even if your registered agent never sends you your documents, you’re notified. That is a serious responsibility, and we don’t take it lightly.
It depends on your state, but most states keep an online business database on their Secretary of State’s website. Once you locate your local state’s database, search for the name of the company you’re trying to find and click on their business record. There, you should find the company’s public business record, filings, and registered agent information.
If you want to legally notify someone through their registered agent, send a certified letter directly to the registered agent name and registered office address.
How to Order National Registered Agent Service
Sign up online by clicking the “HIRE US” button.
For five or more states, it’s $100 per state.
For new businesses, we’ll become your registered agent when the state’s Secretary of State processes your formation documents. If you are registering an existing business in a new state, we’ll become your registered agent once your Certificate of Authority is accepted.
About a year later, we’ll send you an invoice for another year of registered agent service. If you want to keep using us, great; if you don’t, you can easily cancel.
If your business expands to more states, you can easily add registered agent services anywhere in the country. We have offices in every state plus D.C. and Puerto Rico. We don’t farm out work (or your info) to anyone else.
You can use your account for filings and corporate compliance, too. It’s your go-to resource for understanding how to maintain and expand your business.