New Jersey Foreign Registration / Your NJ agent
The New Jersey registered agent for a foreign LLC: who may serve and how to change
A foreign LLC registering in New Jersey names one registered agent and a registered office with a New Jersey street address, and changing either later costs $25. Because the agent is the person who receives legal papers for the LLC.
Who may be the agent?
The filing instructions allow one agent only, an individual or a corporation duly registered and in good standing with the State Treasurer. The statute sets its own test: An agent for service of process must be an individual who lives in New Jersey or another person with authority to transact business in New Jersey. In practice that means a New Jersey resident you trust or an authorized company with an office in the state.
The office address
The office must be a New Jersey street address; a PO box may be used only if the street address is listed as well. A mailbox alone does not meet the rule. The street address matters because process servers visit it, and an LLC's papers are served there in person.
The notice email address
The Business Formation service asks for an email address that will receive registered agent notifications. Use an address that a person reads daily.
When the LLC has no agent in the state
An LLC that transacts business without a certificate is treated as having named the filing office to receive its legal papers. Service on the filing office costs $75 on the fee schedule for LLCs. A named agent avoids that route, because legal papers then reach a real person who forwards them to you.
Changing the agent or the office
A change of registered office or agent, or both, costs $25 and is filed online through the Annual Reports and Change Services under Change Registered Agent/Office. The same fee applies to the resignation of an agent without a successor. Update the record promptly, since the annual report asks for the agent too.
Resigning as an agent
An agent who wishes to stop serving can resign. The schedule lists a resignation without a successor in the same $25 line as a change, and a separate line for a resignation with the appointment of a successor. A resignation with a successor has its own line, quoted when you order.
Should the agent and the principal office be the same?
They can be, but they need not be. The main business address on the filing can be anywhere in the world, while the registered office stays in New Jersey.
Using a friend or relative
A New Jersey resident may serve as agent, and the statute allows it. The risks are practical: the person moves, forgets, or is out of reach when papers arrive. If you choose this route, tell them to forward everything the day it arrives and put their contact change on your calendar.
Using a company
A company agent in good standing with the Treasurer satisfies the filing instruction. Ask whether it is authorized to transact business in New Jersey, and whether it will email you scans of papers. We can act as your New Jersey agent and office, no added cost in year one, then the checkout page gives the renewal price.
What an agent change adds up to
The registration plus an agent change totals $125 in state fees.
Look-alike mailings
Registered agent details are public, so the agent's name and address attract mailings. The Division cautions that some outside sellers do not perform after payment. Treat an unexpected invoice for an annual report or an agent renewal with suspicion and check the state's own online service before paying.
Changing a New Jersey registered agent
Pick the new agent
One individual or authorized company, with a New Jersey street address.
Confirm acceptance
The new agent agrees to serve.
Open the change service
Annual Reports and Change Services, Change Registered Agent/Office.
Enter the entity credentials
Identification number and the formation month and year.
Pay the fee
$25 for an LLC.
Agent questions
Who can serve as the agent?
A New Jersey resident, or a person or company entitled to operate in the state.
Is a PO box acceptable for the office?
Only when the street address is listed too.
What does an agent change cost?
$25.
What if I name no agent?
The filing office becomes the LLC's agent for service.
Our fee and the New Jersey fee
Register in New Jersey
New Jersey
$199
+ $100 New Jersey fee
- The New Jersey Public Records Filing, completed from your answers
- A check that the home-state good standing certificate is ready to attach
- Our New Jersey agent and office, or an agent of your own choosing
- The filed record is returned to you
- Renewal: after the first year, the agent service renews at $149 a year
The Treasury's fee for a foreign LLC is $100, and checkout lists it on its own line, separate from our charge. $199 plus the state fee, including your first year of registered agent service; after that the agent service renews at $149 a year.
Sources
- New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services, registry fee schedules
- New Jersey Public Records Filing for New Business Entity, form and instructions
- New Jersey Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act, chapter 50
- New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services, Business Formation service
- New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services, Annual Reports and Change Services
- New Jersey Division of Revenue and Enterprise Services, solicitations by private companies
Ready to register in New Jersey?
Place the order and we prepare the filing in the form the Treasury expects.