Georgia Registered Agent
To start a business in Georgia, you’ll need a registered agent to handle legal notices and get them to you fast. Finding a reliable and local registered agent in Georgia shouldn't be hard. With Northwest, you get a dependable, locally-based registered agent who handles state mail and compliance filings on behalf of your business.
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$125 a Year Every Year
Find out why business owners choose Northwest:
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One Year of Free Domain Registration
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What Is A Georgia Registered Agent?
A Georgia 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 state statute, registered agents are legally required for registered businesses in Georgia. 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 Registered Agents in Georgia?
In accordance with Georgia’s registered agent requirements, your registered agent must:
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- Be an individual who is a resident or a domestic or foreign corporation registered in Georgia.
- Maintain a physical address in Georgia, not a P.O. Box or virtual office.
- Be open during regular hours (9 AM to 5 PM) to accept service of process.
How Do I Change My Georgia Registered Agent?
The only way to change your registered agent is to update your registered agent when you file your Georgia Annual Report with the Georgia Secretary of State. It’s a relatively simple process.
For more info, check out our page: How to Change Registered Agents in Georgia.
Why Northwest Is The Best Registered Agent In Georgia
Whether you’ve got a Georgia LLC, Georgia corporation, or a Georgia nonprofit, selecting the right registered agent is a critical decision for your business’s success. That’s why Northwest provides all of our registered agent customers with:
- Same-Day scans, instant notifications: We accept and scan your docs at our local Georgia office the same day. We notify you instantly and reach out to you if your essential mail goes unread.
- Privacy by Default®: For every client and every service, we minimize the exposure of and access to your personal data. We never sell your data. We list our own business address on public docs to better keep your personal info safe. Our commitment to privacy puts our clients first.
- Free limited mail forwarding: As your registered agent, we automatically accept and scan your state and legal mail. Sometimes, however, we receive personal or business mail from clients or companies trying to connect with your business. We’ll accept and scan these for you as well—up to five documents a year FREE. We’ll also scan additional mail at a per doc rate of $15.
- Unlimited mail forwarding: Expecting much more business mail? For $20 a month, we also offer unlimited Georgia mail forwarding. Our unlimited option includes a Georgia business address with a unique suite number—great for listing on your website, establishing a business presence, or giving a home or online business a more professional appearance. We even accept Amazon Verification Cards, but we can not be your Amazon return address since our offices aren’t equip to hold anything beyond regular sized mail.
- 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.
If you’re ready for more, Northwest can help. We provide more than just legal services. We’ve got everything you need to turn your business plan from a to-do list to a customer-facing, money-making machine.
Want to get your business in front of eyes across the world? Claim your custom domain name. When you tack on website hosting, we’ll get you an expert-built website, hosted and secured by us.
Want to start talking to suppliers, advertisers, customers, and more? Set up business email addresses and a separate business phone number so you can protect your data and keep your communication professional.
How to Order Georgia 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 Georgia Registered Agent Service once your business registration filing with the Georgia Corporations Division is complete.
About a year later, we’ll send you an invoice for another year of Georgia 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 Georgia Registered Agent Service or paying a bill, but for keeping up with Georgia corporate compliance.
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Georgia Registered Agent FAQs
For starters, state law requires all legitimate, registered businesses to appoint a registered agent. Plus, the Georgia will reject your business filing if you don’t appoint a registered agent.
Also, if you can’t commit to being consistently available, or simply want to keep your personal information private, using a service like Northwest just makes good business sense.
Yes, you can legally act as your own registered agent—and some business owners choose to do so. But most prefer to hire a professional registered agent service. Why?
Because a Georgia registered agent’s name and address become part of the public record. That’s not ideal if you value your privacy. Plus, a registered agent must be available to receive legal documents (service of process) during regular business hours, Monday through Friday.
We accept and scan all of our Georgia clients’ documents on-site at our registered office in Atlanta, GA.
Definitely! Georgia corporations and LLCs or corporation need to complete the GA annual report. As part of our registered agent service, we’ll not only send you a reminder, but we’ll make sure you have access to all the forms and filing instructions you need to stay compliant.
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 your 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 five FREE scans of regular business mail a year. You can request any additional documents to be forwarded at a per document rate of $15.
Want more? Sign up for Georgia Mail Forwarding, and for just $20/month we’ll set you up with a real Georgia address, unique suite number, secure online account, and a choice of two mail forwarding options: same-day digital scanning or weekly physical mail forwarding. We’re even able to accept Amazon Verification Cards.
You should hire us first and then form your LLC or corporation because the Georgia Secretary of State will reject your business registration filing if you don’t list your GA registered agent. You’ll find all the forms and instructions you need to complete your filing instantly after you place an order.
Service on your registered agent is legal proof that your company was notified. Regardless of whether you actually receive the documents your Georgia registered agent signs for, once they accept the documents, you’ve been legally notified. This is a serious responsibility that we do not take lightly. This is how it works:
- A process server, the county sheriff, or any third party will walk into our office and hand us the documents (service of process), which we sign for.
- The process server then gives an affidavit (a receipt of service) to the court as confirmation that they “served” us.
Note: If you hired Northwest, you’ll receive your documents long before the process server hands in their affidavit to the court, because we scan them to your online account within minutes of service.
To find a company’s registered agent:
- You can do a Georgia business name search.
- Type in the name of the company you’re searching for.
In the results, you’ll find the registered agent’s name and registered office street address.
In Georgia, to resign as a registered agent, you need to submit submit a Statement of Resignation of Registered Agent to the Georgia Secretary of State, Corporations Division in-person, online or by mail.
For a more detailed walk-through, see our page, How to Resign As a Registered Agent in Georgia.