Rhode Island Registered Agent
When you choose Northwest as your registered agent, you get instant service, Privacy by Default®, and a business address. Want more? Northwest is the only registered agent that can provide your business services from domains to DBAs easily, and all in-house. Want to learn more about what a registered agent does in Rhode Island? We'll explain the Rhode Island Department of State Business Services Division’s requirements, what your registered agent should do for you, and how to change your registered agent in Rhode Island.
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When You Want More
Our registered agent service gives you access to:
- Annual Report Help
- 1 Year Free Domain Use
- Registered Pawtucket Office Address
- 90 Day Free Website Hosting
- 90 Day Free Business Email Account
- 90 Day Free Business Phone Number
What Is a RI Registered Agent?
A 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, Rhode Island’s state statutes (§ 7-1.2-501), registered agents are legally required in Rhode Island. 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 RI?
The Rhode Island Business Corporation Act (§ 7-1.2-501) outlines that Rhode Island registered agents are required to:
- Be a Rhode Island resident or a company that provides resident agent services.
- Maintain a registered office (a physical address in Rhode Island).
- Accept legal documents (service of process) during regular business hours.
How Do I Change My Registered Agent?
There are two ways to change your registered agent in Rhode Island.
- Hire us and we’ll complete the change of agent form for you for free.
- Do it yourself and file a Statement of Change form with the Rhode Island Secretary of State.
Why Northwest Is the Best Registered Agent in Rhode Island
Our Rhode Island 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:
- 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.
As the nation’s top choice for starting businesses easily and affordably, we also offer in-house services to build your business’s online identity:
- Domain name: Pick a domain name for your business with your choice of extension (like .com and .net).
- Website: We provide a pre-built business website for you to customize using an open source platform, so it’s yours to own whether hosted by us or anyone you choose.
- Business email address: Create up to 10 business email addresses. For branding ease, they’ll all end in your chosen domain name.
- Phone number: Keep your personal line private by establishing a business phone number for client communications.
- Web hosting: Our web hosting service includes SSL security at no additional cost.
How to Order Northwest RI 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 registered agent once your business registration filing with the Rhode Island Secretary of State is complete.
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.
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 registered agent service or paying a bill but for keeping up with Rhode Island corporate compliance.
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Rhode Island Registered Agent FAQs
- State law requires all legitimate, registered businesses to appoint one.
- The Secretary of State will reject your business filing if you don’t appoint a registered agent.
- A registered agent requirement gives the public and the state a reliable way to contact your business.
Yes, you can be your own registered agent in Rhode Island. 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 Rhode Island 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 five days a week.
We accept and scan all of our Rhode Island clients’ documents from our office here in Pawtucket, RI.
Absolutely! When we are your registered agent, we send you a reminder and provide the forms and instructions for every state that you have registered agent service in!
Yes! If you would like to keep your own address off of the public record, we can help! We’re the only national registered agent that allows our clients to list our registered office address for every address on your corporate filings.
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 a unique address or suite number. Any mail we receive on your behalf would come 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.
Hire us first. Rhode Island will reject your business registration filing if you don’t have a registered agent. You can find all the forms and instructions you need to complete your filing instantly after you hire us.
This is how it works:
- A process server, county sheriff, or third party will walk into our office and hand us the documents (service of process), then we sign for them.
- The process server then gives an affidavit (a receipt of service) to the court as confirmation that they served us.
Note: Once your Rhode Island registered agent signs on your business’s behalf, you’ve been notified. So even if your registered agent never forwards those documents to you, technically, you had notice. This is a serious responsibility that we do not take lightly. Serving a registered agent is legal proof that you were notified. If you hire Northwest, long before the server submits their affidavit to the court, you will have received your documents because we scan them to your account within minutes of signing for the documents.
You can do a Rhode Island 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.
If you want to legally notify a business through their Rhode Island registered agent service, just send a certified letter directly to the registered agent name and registered office address.
In Rhode Island, to resign as a registered agent, you need to submit a Statement of Resignation of Registered Agent to the Rhode Island Secretary of State, Division of Business Services. For a more detailed walkthrough, you can refer to our guide on how to resign as a registered agent in Rhode Island.