Registered Agent Requirements in Georgia

Georgia requires every formal business entity to maintain a designated person or company responsible for accepting legal and government documents. That designee is your registered agent — and skipping this requirement puts your entire entity at risk.

Why Georgia Mandates a Registered Agent

The state needs a guaranteed way to reach your business. Courts need to deliver lawsuit papers. The Secretary of State needs to send compliance notices. Tax authorities need to transmit demands. Without a reliable recipient at a known physical address, none of this works.

Georgia closes this gap by statute: O.C.G.A. § 14-11-209 for domestic LLCs, O.C.G.A. § 14-11-703 for foreign LLCs doing business in the state. An agent must be on file, at a real Georgia street address, at all times.

Who Georgia Allows to Serve

Georgia's own Business Division FAQ, applying § 14-11-209, lists four eligible categories:

Individuals: Any Georgia resident with a physical in-state address.

Domestic corporations: Eligible.

Other domestic LLCs: Also eligible. Plenty of outdated articles insist Georgia bars LLCs from serving as registered agents. The state's own FAQ contradicts them, so treat any guide making that claim as stale.

Foreign corporations and foreign LLCs: Eligible when they hold a Georgia certificate of authority.

The one blanket prohibition: self-appointment. Your entity cannot name itself as its own registered agent. An owner can serve personally as an individual, but the company cannot fill its own slot.

The Address Test

Georgia's registered office rule has teeth. The office must be a street address in Georgia, and it must be identical to the agent's business office address. PO boxes fail. So do commercial mail drops. And the agent must actually be located at the listed address, not merely receive forwarded mail there. State records even log the agent's Georgia county.

Documents Your Agent Receives

• Lawsuits and legal claims (service of process)
• Subpoenas
• Secretary of State correspondence
• Annual registration notices
• Tax department communications
• Regulatory filings and government orders

Entities That Must Have One

If you operate any of the following in Georgia, a registered agent is mandatory:

• Limited liability companies
• Corporations (C-corp or S-corp)
• Limited partnerships
• Nonprofit corporations
• Foreign entities qualified to do business in Georgia

The Privacy Dimension

Your registered agent's address appears on public records maintained by the Georgia Secretary of State. Anyone can search those records online. If you list your personal address, expect junk mail, door-to-door solicitors, and the possibility of a process server at your home.

Using a professional service means our Georgia address appears instead of yours. Your residential information stays out of public databases entirely.

Why Business Owners Delegate This Role

Availability conflicts — If you travel, work remotely, or simply cannot guarantee presence at a fixed Georgia address through the business day, you risk missing critical documents.

Multiple entities — Managing agent duties across several LLCs or corporations multiplies the administrative burden.

Document management — A professional service scans, organizes, and archives everything digitally so nothing gets lost in a stack of paper.

Our Service: $99/Year, Flat Rate

Georgia Registered Agent.co provides:

• Physical Georgia street address on your state filings
• Same-day scanning and email delivery of all received documents
• Advance alerts before the January 1 - April 1 annual registration deadline
• Private online portal for document storage and retrieval
• Your personal address removed from public records

No SOP scan fees for Georgia. No setup costs. One flat annual rate.

Getting Started

New entity? List us as your registered agent on your formation documents filed with the Georgia Secretary of State.

Switching from another agent? Georgia has no dedicated change form; the swap is made on your annual registration ($60) or via Form CD 920, the Amended Annual Registration, for a $30 state fee. We take over the moment the state records it.