How long does it take to change a registered agent in Illinois?

The change takes effect when the Illinois Secretary of State files your statement of change of registered agent; the state fee is $25. The Secretary of State offers expedited handling of filings for an additional $50. Until the statement is filed, your old registered agent remains your agent of record for receiving service of process, so do not end their service before the change is on file. If your current agent is unreliable, file promptly and consider the expedited option. We were unable to retrieve a published processing time from ilsos.gov, so allow extra time rather than filing on the deadline.

What does it cost to change a registered agent in Illinois?

Changing your registered agent in Illinois costs $25, paid to the Illinois Secretary of State. This is the state filing fee for a statement of change of registered agent, registered office, or both. The Secretary of State also offers expedited handling for an additional $50. The fee applies each time you change agents, which makes it an affordable administrative update. To proceed, get the current statement of change form from the Illinois Secretary of State website, complete it with your new agent's information, and submit it with the $25 fee. We were unable to retrieve a published processing time from ilsos.gov, so allow extra time.

Can I be my own registered agent in Illinois?

Yes, you can serve as your own registered agent in Illinois if you live in Illinois, use an Illinois street address for the registered office, and are available there during business hours to receive legal documents and official correspondence. However, this has practical costs. As your own registered agent, you'll receive lawsuits, subpoenas, and regulatory notices directly at that address, which becomes public record with the Illinois Secretary of State. You must respond to a lawsuit within the deadline stated in the summons, or the LLC can face a default judgment. Many Illinois LLC owners hire professional registered agents to keep their home address out of the registered agent entry and make sure documents are received. To change your registered agent, file a statement of change of registered agent with the Illinois Secretary of State ($25 filing fee).

Will changing my registered agent affect my LLC's good standing in Illinois?

No, changing your registered agent won't by itself affect your LLC's good standing with the Illinois Secretary of State. What matters is that the LLC always has an agent on record. If your current agent resigns, Illinois law requires a new registered agent to be placed on record within 60 days after the resignation notice, and an LLC that does not keep a registered agent in Illinois can be administratively dissolved after notice. The filing fee for the statement of change is $25, payable to the Illinois Secretary of State, and the change takes effect when the Secretary of State files it. Next step: submit your completed statement to the Illinois Secretary of State and keep the filed copy for your records. We were unable to retrieve a published processing time from ilsos.gov, so allow extra time rather than filing on the deadline.

Can I file the registered agent change online or do I need to mail it?

Check the Illinois Secretary of State website at https://www.ilsos.gov for the current ways to submit a statement of change of registered agent, including whether it can be filed online. Whichever method you use, the state fee is $25, and the change takes effect when the Secretary of State files the statement, so your LLC's current agent stays on record until then. If timing matters, the Secretary of State offers expedited handling of filings for an additional $50. We were unable to retrieve a published processing time from ilsos.gov, so allow extra time rather than filing on the deadline.

How to Change Your Registered Agent in Illinois

Complete guide to updating your LLC's registered agent with the Illinois Secretary of State, including required forms, fees, and filing procedures.

By Edmond Hui · Last updated: October 2026

Affiliate disclosure: We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

Get registered agent service from NorthwestRegistered agent service is $125/yr. The included first year applies only when you form a new LLC with them ($39 plus your state's filing fee), so it does not apply to an LLC you already have. Registered agent customers are enrolled by default in annual report filing at $100 plus state fees, charged automatically to your saved payment method and cancellable any time.

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Step diagram for changing an LLC's registered agent in Illinois, showing the 5 filing steps required by the Illinois Secretary of State. — The 5 steps to change your registered agent in Illinois. Source: Illinois Secretary of State.

How to File

1
Obtain consent from your new registered agent
Before filing any paperwork, confirm your new registered agent agrees to serve and has a valid Illinois street address. Get written consent if using a professional service.
2
Complete the Statement of Change of Registered Agent
Prepare a statement of change of registered agent (it can also change the registered office address). Include your LLC's name, its current registered office and agent, the new agent's name and Illinois street address, and a statement that the members or managers authorized the change. Get the current form from the Illinois Secretary of State website at https://www.ilsos.gov.
3
Pay the required filing fee
The state filing fee is $25. The Secretary of State also offers expedited handling of filings for an additional $50.
4
File the form with the Illinois Secretary of State
Submit the statement to the Illinois Secretary of State. Check ilsos.gov for the current filing methods and mailing address.
5
Update your LLC records and notify relevant parties
Once the change is processed, update your internal LLC records and notify banks, vendors, and other business contacts of your new registered agent information.

Need the Illinois Secretary of State?

Go directly to the Illinois Secretary of State website.

File with the Illinois Secretary of State →

When Should You Change Your Registered Agent?

Your current registered agent is moving out of Illinois or closing their business
You want to switch from being your own registered agent to a professional service
Your registered agent has become unresponsive or failed to forward important documents
You're relocating your business and need an agent with a local Illinois address

Hiring a service is optional. You can name yourself or another individual with a street address in Illinois, and the FAQ below gives Illinois's own rule.

Registered agent services for Illinois LLCs, by renewal price

Affiliate disclosure: Northwest Registered Agent, Bizee, ZenBusiness and LegalZoom pay us a commission if you sign up through our link, at no extra cost to you. We list only the registered agent services we have an affiliate relationship with, so this is not a survey of the whole market.

This table is not scored. The four are listed cheapest annual renewal first, and the rows below it say which one fits which situation. The scored ranking, and the formula behind it, is on the formation services review, which orders them on three-year cost, BBB rating and Trustpilot score.

Service	With formation, year 1	Annual renewal	BBB	Trustpilot	Privacy
Northwest Registered Agent	Included with $39 formation	$125/yr	A	4.1/5 (297)	Says it does not sell your information; runs its own servers
Bizee	Free year one (some visitors are being shown shorter free periods, so confirm at checkout)	$149/yr	C (unaccredited)	4.8/5 (26,100+)	No data-sharing commitment
ZenBusiness	$99, not included in any plan	$199/yr	A	4.8/5 (32,500+)	Partial
LegalZoom	Not included, $249 extra	$249/yr	A+	4.6/5 (32,900+)	Partial

Note: Bizee holds a C rating from the BBB and is not accredited. BBB's profile carries a live alert describing a pattern of complaints about unexpected charges, difficulty canceling and filing delays, and Bizee has posted a response to it. We flag this so you can make an informed choice.

Prices are each provider's standard published rates; year-one pricing applies when you form your LLC through the same service. BBB and Trustpilot figures as recorded September 15, 2026, not re-checked since, and both sources update continuously. These are the dates the figures were last written to our dataset, which is the most we can show: they are not verification dates. See how we evaluate these companies in our full formation services review →

This guide is general information, not legal or tax advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. It reports what each state publishes about filing deadlines, fees, and the consequences of missing them, with the sources this page cites. It cannot tell you what your own company owes: the date turns on when and where you formed, states change these rules between our reviews, and in several states an entity-level tax falls due in a year when no report does. Confirm your own dates with the filing office named on this page before you rely on one here, because missing a deadline can cost the company its good standing or, in many states, its existence.

Read this guide for another state:

Frequently Asked Questions

: The change takes effect when the Illinois Secretary of State files your statement of change of registered agent; the state fee is $25. The Secretary of State offers expedited handling of filings for an additional $50. Until the statement is filed, your old registered agent remains your agent of record for receiving service of process, so do not end their service before the change is on file. If your current agent is unreliable, file promptly and consider the expedited option. We were unable to retrieve a published processing time from ilsos.gov, so allow extra time rather than filing on the deadline.
: Changing your registered agent in Illinois costs $25, paid to the Illinois Secretary of State. This is the state filing fee for a statement of change of registered agent, registered office, or both. The Secretary of State also offers expedited handling for an additional $50. The fee applies each time you change agents, which makes it an affordable administrative update. To proceed, get the current statement of change form from the Illinois Secretary of State website, complete it with your new agent's information, and submit it with the $25 fee. We were unable to retrieve a published processing time from ilsos.gov, so allow extra time.
: Yes, you can serve as your own registered agent in Illinois if you live in Illinois, use an Illinois street address for the registered office, and are available there during business hours to receive legal documents and official correspondence. However, this has practical costs. As your own registered agent, you'll receive lawsuits, subpoenas, and regulatory notices directly at that address, which becomes public record with the Illinois Secretary of State. You must respond to a lawsuit within the deadline stated in the summons, or the LLC can face a default judgment. Many Illinois LLC owners hire professional registered agents to keep their home address out of the registered agent entry and make sure documents are received. To change your registered agent, file a statement of change of registered agent with the Illinois Secretary of State ($25 filing fee).
: No, changing your registered agent won't by itself affect your LLC's good standing with the Illinois Secretary of State. What matters is that the LLC always has an agent on record. If your current agent resigns, Illinois law requires a new registered agent to be placed on record within 60 days after the resignation notice, and an LLC that does not keep a registered agent in Illinois can be administratively dissolved after notice. The filing fee for the statement of change is $25, payable to the Illinois Secretary of State, and the change takes effect when the Secretary of State files it. Next step: submit your completed statement to the Illinois Secretary of State and keep the filed copy for your records. We were unable to retrieve a published processing time from ilsos.gov, so allow extra time rather than filing on the deadline.
: Check the Illinois Secretary of State website at https://www.ilsos.gov for the current ways to submit a statement of change of registered agent, including whether it can be filed online. Whichever method you use, the state fee is $25, and the change takes effect when the Secretary of State files the statement, so your LLC's current agent stays on record until then. If timing matters, the Secretary of State offers expedited handling of filings for an additional $50. We were unable to retrieve a published processing time from ilsos.gov, so allow extra time rather than filing on the deadline.

Sources

5 documents

Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified Illinois sources, and each entry says what the document is. Some statutory text is read from an accurate mirror rather than from the state's own host, and those say so. Where we hold the citation but no stable public link, the citation is printed on its own rather than pointed at a guessed address.

Illinois statute: 805 ILCS 180/1-35 and 1-36 (registered agent; change of registered agent)
Illinois statute: 805 ILCS 180/50-10 (filing fees)
ilsos.gov/departments/business-services/limited-liability-companies.htmlIllinois Secretary of State: business entity filings
ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/080501800K50-1.htmIllinois statute: Annual Report
ilga.gov/Documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/080501800K50-15.htmIllinois statute: Annual Report

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Edmond Hui · Founder, MyStateLLC

Edmond Hui is a software engineer and serial entrepreneur based in New York who has founded multiple online businesses across e-commerce, media, and information publishing. Before transitioning into tech, he spent years as a commercial real estate professional closing deals totaling over 100,000 square feet, giving him firsthand experience with business formation and entity structuring. He built MyStateLLC to provide the free, state-specific LLC guidance he wished existed when forming his own companies.

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How to File

Obtain consent from your new registered agent

Complete the Statement of Change of Registered Agent

Pay the required filing fee

File the form with the Illinois Secretary of State

Update your LLC records and notify relevant parties