Pennsylvania Registered Agent
When You Want More
A Pennsylvania registered agent is an individual or company that accepts service of process and other legal notifications on behalf of a Pennsylvania business. Both LLCs and corporations are legally required to have a registered agent. When we accept legal documents and other official business mail on your behalf, we contact you immediately and upload those documents to your secure online client account for you to view.
With our Pennsylvania registered agent service, get Privacy by Default®, business address, free mail forwarding, free Phone Service for 60 days, and local Corporate Guides®—only at Northwest.
Everything You Need To Know About Pennsylvania Registered Agents:
- Get Pennsylvania Registered Agent Service
- What Do Pennsylvania Registered Agents Do?
- Legal Requirements for Pennsylvania Registered Agents
- How Do I Change My Pennsylvania Registered Agent?
- What Makes Northwest Different From Other Services?
- Pennsylvania Registered Agent FAQs
- How To Order Registered Agent Service
Get Pennsylvania Registered Agent Service
Instant Online
Service
Sign up & immediately get a secure account where you’ll find:
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Pennsylvania business forms
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Decennial report reminders
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All your scanned & stored documents
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Easy access to all our business services
Do Business
the Right Way
See why the pros choose Northwest:
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Same price every year
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Free limited mail forwarding
- Free 60-day trial of Phone Service
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Privacy by Default®
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Lifetime support from our Corporate Guides®
Pennsylvania Registered Agent Service
$ 125 Per Year
Hire Us What Do Pennsylvania Registered Agents Do?
At minimum, your Pennsylvania registered agent or office provider accepts legal documents on behalf of the business at a physical address in the state.
In other words, your registered agent’s address acts as the official place where any service of process and official mail for your Pennsylvania LLC, Pennsylvania corporation or Pennsylvania nonprofit will be sent.
However, the right registered agent service can do much more. At Northwest, we go above and beyond the minimum to ensure top speed, security, privacy and support.
What Are the Legal Requirements for Pennsylvania Registered Agents?
According to Pennsylvania state law Title 15 §109, all business entities required to provide a registered office address and may enter into contract for the service of a Commercial Registered Office Provider (CROP). The Pennsylvania registered agent is required to:
- Be able to accept legal documents.
- Have a physical, registered office address located within the state of Pennsylvania. No P.O. Boxes.
- Must be a Pennsylvania resident or a business that provides registered agent services.
Note: If a company’s registered agent cannot be served after a reasonable attempt, the company’s secretary will be served at the company’s principal address. If your secretary cannot be reached, you’ll never know you were served. This could cause major problems for your business including the possibility of a judgment entered against you.
How Do I Change My Pennsylvania Registered Agent?
There are two ways to change your registered agent in Pennsylvania.
- Hire us and we’ll complete the change of agent form for you for free.
- Do it yourself and file a Change of Registered Office (Form DSCB: 15-1507/5507/8625/8825) with the Pennsylvania Department of State of Corporations and Charitable Organizations. There is a $5 fee to file this form.
What Makes Northwest Different From Other Services?
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. 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.
Pennsylvania Registered Agent FAQs
Why Do I Need A Pennsylvania Registered Agent?
- All businesses registered with the state must designate a registered office in their formation documents.
- The Pennsylvania Department of State will reject your filing if you do not appoint one.
- The state and the general public must have a reliable way to contact your Pennsylvania business with legal notices and other types of official mail.
Note: Pennsylvania’s statute requires businesses to designate a registered office instead of a registered agent, so you have to designate a place for service of process to be delivered and not a person or entity who will sign for it. To further confuse the point, PA registered agents are referred to as Commercial Registered Office Providers (CROPs). This requirement makes for odd wording, but is essentially the same as other states’ registered agent requirements. A commercial registered office provider in Pennsylvania is the same thing as a registered agent elsewhere. They’re just different terms.
Can I Be My Own Registered Agent In Pennsylvania?
Yes, you can be your own registered agent in Pennsylvania. 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 Pennsylvania 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.
Where Is Northwest’s Registered Office In Pennsylvania?
We scan all documents locally from our office in downtown King of Prussia, PA.
Can I Use Your Pennsyvlania Registered Office Address For Everything On My Business Filing?
Definitely! 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.
Can I Have My Business’s Mail Delivered To Your Pennsylvania Office?
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.
How Do Pennsylvania Registered Agents Get Served?
Service on your registered agent is legal proof that you were notified. Regardless of whether you actually receive the documents your Pennsylvania registered agent office provider signs for, once they accept the documents, you’ve been 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’ve hired Northwest, you’ve received your documents long before the process server hands in their affidavit to the court—because we scanned them to your online account within minutes of having been served.
How Do I Find A Pennsylvania Registered Agent?
- Perform a Pennsylvania business name search.
- Use the name of the company you’re trying to look up.
- Look at the PA 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.
What Is A Pennsylvania Commercial Registered Office (CROP)?
A Pennsylvania Commercial Registered Office (CROP) is a company that provides an official PA street address for your business to list on filings and DOS records. It is required by law to obtain a Pennsylvania CROP if your business does not have a physical location in the state, but it’s also a great way to keep your personal info OFF public records wherever your business is located.
*Northwest Registered Agent is officially recognized as a CROP provider by the PA Department of State.
How Do I Resign From Being A Registered Agent In Pennsylvania?
In Pennsylvania, to resign as a registered agent, you need to submit a Statement of Change of Registered Office by Agent to the Pennsylvania Department of State. For a more detailed walkthrough, you can refer to our guide on how to resign as a registered agent in Pennsylvania.
How To Order Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania 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 Pennsylvania registered agent service or paying a bill but for keeping up with state corporate compliance.
Information Your Pennsylvania Registered Agent Should Help You Understand:
- A domestic corporation in Pennsylvania will cost $125 to incorporate.
- A domestic LLC will also cost $125 to organize in Pennsylvania.
- Foreign corporations cost $250 to file, and you will need to appoint a commercial registered office provider. You do not need to include a certificate of good standing with your filing.
- Foreign LLCs cost $250 to file.
- Most corporate filings in Pennsylvania can be accomplished through their new online system. Or you can just mail or drop off your documents with the PA Department of State.
- Your Pennsylvania registered agent does not need to sign your filing, but you do need to list our name and county. Our office address in King of Prussia will fulfill this requirement. And by using us you’ll save on Pennsylvania corporation publication costs!
- You can elect us as your commercial registered office provider by using our CROP number.
- Your filing should include the docketing statement for instructions on what to do after the filing is complete. All PA docketing statements and forms are pre-populated with our PA-CROP info on them for your ease of use.
At Northwest, we can also form your LLC or form your corporation in Pennsylvania for $100 plus state fees. As part of our commitment to Privacy by Default®, we put our business address on your filings to better protect your privacy. And you always have the support of our Corporate Guides®.