Updated September 6, 2026. Quick answer: In North Carolina, this role is called a registered agent, governed by N.C. Gen. Stat. Section 55D-30 (registered office and registered agent required), Section 55D-31 (change of registered office or agent), Section 55D-32 (agent resignation), Section 55D-33 (Secretary of State as substitute agent). North Carolina charges $5.00 to file an LLC’s statement of change of registered agent or registered office (N.C. Gen. Stat. Section 57D-1-22(a)(6)), and its statute requires the registered agent’s own business office to be literally identical to the entity’s registered office address, not merely “in the state.”
What the address rule requires
G.S. 55D-30 requires, in the statute’s own words, “A registered office that may be the same as any of its places of business or any place where it conducts affairs”; the registered agent’s business office must be identical to that registered office address; meaning the agent must actually maintain an office there, not merely a mailbox.
Who can serve as your registered agent
Per 55D-30, the agent may be: (1) a North Carolina resident individual whose business office is the same as the registered office; (2) a domestic corporation, nonprofit corporation, or LLC meeting the same identical-office requirement; or (3) a foreign entity authorized to do business in NC with an office matching the registered address.
What happens if you don’t have one
Per G.S. 55D-33, when an entity fails to maintain a registered agent, or the agent cannot be found at the registered office with due diligence, or its certificate has been revoked, the Secretary of State becomes the entity’s agent for service; the serving party delivers duplicate copies to the Secretary of State along with the fee, and the Secretary forwards one copy by certified mail to the entity’s principal office address on file. Under G.S. 55D-33, the Secretary of State automatically becomes the entity’s agent for service the moment there’s no valid registered agent/office; service on the Secretary of State “is effective for all purposes from and after the date of the service on the Secretary of State”, meaning the entity can still be sued and bound even while out of compliance.
How to change your registered agent
The NC Secretary of State’s own FAQ instructs filers to “File a Statement of Change of Registered Office or Agent – Form BE-06”, and no certificate is needed. The filing fee is $5.00: N.C. Gen. Stat. Section 57D-1-22(a)(6) sets the fee for a “Limited liability company’s statement of change of registered agent or registered office or both” at $5.00, and subsection (a)(9) sets the same $5.00 for a designation. The FAQ’s “there is no fee” line is about a different filing; a registered agent resigning on Form BE-07; which Section 57D-1-22(a)(8) does list as “No fee”. (source: N.C. Gen. Stat. Section 57D-1-22 (ncleg.gov); North Carolina Secretary of State, Business Registration Division FAQ (sosnc.gov))
This page covers what North Carolina’s own law requires. For the general question of whether you should pay a commercial service or serve as your own agent, see registered agent: do you actually need to pay for one.
Every citation on this page was read directly from the state’s own statute, Secretary of State site, or official filing form this session (or, where that site could not be reached, from an independently cross-checked legal-database mirror of the same codified text, disclosed below). General information, not legal advice; fees and specific procedures can change, and your state’s Secretary of State has the final say for any individual filing.
Related: North Carolina’s LLC Certificate of Good Standing cost, including who issues it and how fast you can get one.