West Virginia Registered Agent
When You Want More
A West Virginia registered agent is an individual resident or business that maintains a registered office address in West Virginia and is willing to accept service of process and official mail on behalf of a business. The agent must be capable of accepting service of any process, notice, or demand required by law to be served on a business.
With our West Virginia 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 West Virginia Registered Agents:
- Get West Virginia Registered Agent Service
- What Do West Virginia Registered Agents Do?
- Legal Requirements for West Virginia Registered Agents
- How Do I Change My West Virginia Registered Agent?
- What Makes Northwest Different From Other Services?
- West Virginia Registered Agent FAQs
- How To Order Registered Agent Service

What Do West Virginia Registered Agents Do?
At minimum, your West Virginia registered agent should maintain a physical address in the state and accept legal documents and official mail on behalf of your business.
Essentially, your registered agent’s address acts as the official place where any service of process and official mail for your West Virginia LLC, West Virginia corporation or West Virginia 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 West Virginia Registered Agents?
Whether your business is a West Virginia LLC, West Virginia corporation, or some other business registered with the West Virginia Secretary of State, the registered agent requirements are the same. According to West Virginia state statute §31D-5-501, registered agents must:
- Be a state resident or a person authorized to transact business in the state.
- Accept legal documents (service of process) during normal business hours.
How Do I Change My West Virginia Registered Agent?
There are two ways to change your registered agent in West 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 form with the West Virginia SOS. There is a $15 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.
West Virginia Registered Agent FAQs
Why Do I Need A West Virginia Registered Agent?
It’s all about due process. The reason businesses like LLCs and corporations have a registered agent is to make sure that every business in West Virginia can be served legal documents in the state.
Can I Be My Own Registered Agent In West Virginia?
Yes, you can be your own registered agent in West 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 West 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.
Where Is Northwest’s Registered Office In West Virginia?
We accept and scan all of our West Virginia clients’ documents on-site at our registered office in Hinton, WV.
Can I Use Your WV 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 West Virginia 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 West Virginia 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 West Virginia registered agent 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 West Virginia Company's Registered Agent?
- You can do a West Virginia business name search on the state’s website
- Type in the company name you are trying to look up.
- Look at the WV registered agent name and registered office street address.
If you want to legally notify someone through their registered agent service, just send a certified letter directly to the registered agent name and registered office address.
How Do I Resign From Being A Registered Agent In West Virginia?
In West Virginia, to resign as a registered agent, you need to submit a Statement of Resignation of Registered Agent (with $15 for processing) to the West Virginia Secretary of State. For a more detailed walkthrough, you can refer to our guide on how to resign as a registered agent in West Virginia.
How To Order West 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 West 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 West 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 West Virginia registered agent service or paying a bill but for keeping up with state corporate compliance.
Information Your WV Registered Agent Should Help You Understand:
- Domestic corporations cost $50 to file articles of incorporation. You can appoint your WV registered agent right on the articles.
- Domestic West Virginia LLCs cost $100 to file articles of organization. A West Virginia registered agent is required.
- Foreign corporations cost $100 to register.
- Foreign LLCs cost $150 to register. West Virginia registered agent is required.
- West Virginia filings take about 24 hours to get completed. Signatures do not need to be originals. Your registered agent does not need to sign the filings. You can fax any filing into the state with a credit card, or use their online system.
- If you are registering a foreign entity, you need a certificate of good standing from your home state dated within 1 year.
At Northwest, we can also form your LLC or form your corporation in West Virginia 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®.