Virginia Registered Agent
With its business-friendliness and bustling economy, Virginia is a great place to form your business — or to expand into from another state. But if you’re doing business in the Commonwealth as a corporation or LLC, you’ll need a registered agent. Hire Northwest as your Virginia Registered Agent to get instant service, a Virginia mailing address of your own with mail forwarding, and Privacy by Default®.
If you’re looking for more, we’ve got a free domain name, website, and a local Virginia phone number for you, too. We’ll give you the inside story on what you should expect from an Virginia registered agent, and the Virginia State Corporation Commission's requirements.
When You Want More
$125 a Year Every Year
Northwest is the choice of professionals for registered agent service.
- Same-Day Scans, Instant Notifications
- Privacy by Default®
- Business Address & Free Mail Forwarding
- Free Domain, Website, Email & Business Phone
What Is a Virginia Registered Agent?
A Virginia registered agent is a person or company that you designate to receive legal mail (like service of process) on behalf of your business. Registered agents exist to provide an official and reliable way to contact your business.
If your business is ever served with a lawsuit, the process server will deliver the paperwork directly to your registered agent. At that point, your business is legally considered “served.” The registered agent should then forward you your mail, quickly and securely.
Per Virginia’s state statutes ((VA Code § 13.1-634, VA Code § 13.1-1015), registered agents are legally required in the state. At a minimum, your registered agent must list a physical address on the public record and be present at that address during business hours. But ideally, your registered agent should do more.
What Are the Legal Requirements for Virginia Registered Agents?
According to Virginia state code (§ 13.1-1015), a registered agent must:
- Be able to accept legal documents.
- Have a physical, registered office address located within the state of Virginia. No P.O. Boxes.
- Be a Virginia resident or domestic company. Business entities cannot be their own registered agents in Virginia.
How Do I Change My Virginia Registered Agent?
There are two ways to change your registered agent in Virginia.
- Hire us and we’ll complete the change of agent form for you for free.
- Do it yourself and file a Statement of Change of Registered Office and/or Registered Agent form with the Virginia SOS. There is no fee to file this form.
Why Northwest Is the Best Registered Agent in Virginia
Our Virginia Registered Agent Service includes the tools you need to keep your business running without a hitch. When you hire Northwest as your registered agent, you get:
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- Same-Day Scans: We scan your legal docs the same day we receive them and reach out if your essential mail goes unread.
- Privacy by Default®: We list our business address on public docs to keep your personal info safe. And unlike those other guys, we never sell your data.
- Corporate Guides®: Have questions? We have answers. Our guides are business experts whose sole job is to provide support for all your business questions.
And if you want more? Add free trials of any of these options at checkout:
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- Domain Name: Choose a domain name from a list of popular extensions (like .com and .net).
- Website: We provide a pre-built business website, customizable using an open source platform.
- Business Email Address: Create up to 10 business email addresses of your choosing. They’ll end in your domain name for branding ease.
- Phone Number: Keep your personal line private by using a business phone number for client communications.
How to Order Virginia Registered Agent Service
You sign up online, clicking on one of the buttons or links that says “HIRE US.”
We collect the first year of the registered agent service fee up front.
For new businesses, we’ll become your Virginia registered agent service once your business registration filing with the state is complete.
About a year later, we’ll send you an invoice for another year of Virginia registered agent service. If you want to keep using us, great; if you don’t, you can easily cancel.
With offices in every state, we make it easy to add registered agent services anywhere in the country. We don’t farm out work (or your info) to other companies—wherever you are, WE are your registered agent.
We make your account a real go-to resource for you, not just for Virginia registered agent service or paying a bill but for keeping up with Virginia corporate compliance.
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Virginia Registered Agent FAQs
- All businesses registered with the Virginia State Corporation Commission must appoint a registered agent.
- The Virginia Corporation Commission will reject your filing if you do not appoint a registered agent.
- The state government and general public must have a reliable way to contact your Virginia business with legal notices and other types of important mail.
Yes, you can be your own registered agent in Virginia. However, after considering the registered agent requirements most business owners elect to hire a registered agent service instead. Why? Well although being your own registered agent will cost you $0, a Virginia registered agent’s name and address becomes part of the public record. Additionally, the registered agent is required to be available to accept service of process during normal business hours 5 days a week.
We scan all documents locally from our office in Richmond, VA.
Yes. We’re the only national registered agent service that allows our clients to list our address for everything when you’re doing a filing to keep you private address off public records.
We don’t want ALL of your business mail. It’s not what we do. And it wouldn’t serve you well. You wouldn’t have unique address or suite number. Any mail we receive on your behalf would come to to Northwest Registered Agent, care of you.
But we understand that businesses and clients sometimes reach out to you through your registered agent. Through us. That’s why we give you 5 FREE scans of regular business mail a year. You can request any additional documents to be forwarded at a per document rate of $15.
You hire us first and then do your business registration filing with the Corporation Commission. The state won’t allow you to form an LLC or corporation without a Virginia registered agent. That way, you can take advantage of all the forms and instructions you need to complete your filing instantly after you sign up.
Serving a registered agent is legal proof that you were notified of an event. It doesn’t matter if the company sees the documents or even gets them from their registered agent. You were notified if your registered agent signs for the documents; this is a responsibility we take seriously.
- A sheriff, process server, 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 stating that they “served” us.
- Perform a Virginia business name search.
- Use the name of the company you’re trying to look up.
- Look at the VA registered agent’s name and registered address.
- If you want to legally notify a business through their registered agent, simply send a letter as certified mail to the registered agent at their registered office address.
In Virginia, to resign as a registered agent, you need to submit a Statement of Resignation of Registered Agent online, by mail or in-person to the Virginia State Corporation Commission. For a more detailed walkthrough, you can refer to our guide on how to resign as a registered agent in Virginia.