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

North Carolina's statute sets the fee for changing a registered agent but not a processing time, so check the Secretary of State's website for current turnaround before you rely on a date. To change your registered agent, file a statement of change of registered office or registered agent with the North Carolina Secretary of State. The filing fee is $5. This timing matters because your new agent becomes officially responsible for receiving legal documents once the Secretary of State files your statement. Until then, your current registered agent remains your agent of record for service of process. File as soon as your new agent agrees to serve, especially if you're replacing an agent due to service failures or moving to a more reliable provider.

What is the cost to change a registered agent in North Carolina?

Changing your registered agent in North Carolina costs $5, the statutory fee for an LLC's statement of change of registered agent or registered office, filed with the North Carolina Secretary of State. You can submit the statement through the Secretary of State's online filing portal or by mail to its Raleigh office. Make sure all information, including your current registered agent's name and the new agent's address, is accurate before submission. This low cost means you can update your registered agent affordably if your current agent relocates, becomes unavailable, or no longer meets your business needs.

Can I be my own registered agent for my North Carolina LLC?

Yes, you can serve as your own registered agent for your North Carolina LLC if you meet two requirements: you must be at least 18 years old and maintain a physical North Carolina street address (not a P.O. box) where you're available to receive legal documents during business hours. This arrangement saves you the annual fee that a registered agent service charges. However, understand that you'll personally receive all lawsuits, tax notices, and regulatory correspondence, missing service of process could result in a default judgment against your LLC. To name yourself, file a statement of change of registered agent with the North Carolina Secretary of State, which costs $5. Before committing, verify your availability to monitor mail consistently. If your circumstances change, you can switch to a professional agent by filing another statement of change with the updated information and fee.

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

No, changing your registered agent won't affect your LLC's good standing status with the North Carolina Secretary of State. You file a statement of change of registered agent and/or registered office with the Secretary of State, with the $5 filing fee. The critical requirement is keeping a registered agent in place: the Secretary of State may administratively dissolve an LLC that has been without a registered agent or registered office for 60 days, or that has not reported a change to them within 60 days. File your statement before your current agent's service ends to avoid a gap. For LLCs, good standing depends on timely annual report filings and a registered agent being on record, not on who that agent is.

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

North Carolina allows you to file your registered agent change online through the North Carolina Secretary of State's website (www.sosnc.gov). You file a statement of change of registered agent directly in the online portal, and the fee is $5. Alternatively, you may mail the completed statement to the Secretary of State in Raleigh or file it in person at their office. Online filing avoids mail time and gives you a record of submission. To proceed, visit the Secretary of State's website, choose the online filing option, and submit the statement with payment.

How to Change Your Registered Agent in North Carolina

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

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.

Not sure which service is right? Compare formation services →

Step diagram for changing an LLC's registered agent in North Carolina, showing the 6 filing steps required by the North Carolina Secretary of State. — The 6 steps to change your registered agent in North Carolina. Source: North Carolina Secretary of State.

How to File

1
Obtain the Change of Registered Agent form
Get the statement of change of registered office or registered agent from the North Carolina Secretary of State website at https://www.sosnc.gov or use its online filing system.
2
Complete the required information
Fill out your LLC's name, file number, current registered agent information, and new registered agent details including name and North Carolina street address.
3
Get consent from your new registered agent
Ensure your new registered agent agrees to serve and has a physical North Carolina address (PO boxes aren't acceptable for registered agent addresses).
4
Sign and date the form
The form must be signed by an authorized person of the LLC, typically a member or manager, and include the date of signing.
5
Submit the form with payment
File the statement of change with the NC Secretary of State along with the $5 filing fee. You can file online, by mail, or in person at the Secretary of State office.
6
Update your LLC records
Once approved, update your internal LLC records and notify any relevant parties (banks, vendors, etc.) of the registered agent change.

Need the North Carolina Secretary of State?

Go directly to the North Carolina Secretary of State website.

File with the North Carolina Secretary of State →

When Should You Change Your Registered Agent?

Your current registered agent is moving out of North Carolina or changing business addresses
You're switching from being your own registered agent to hiring a professional service
Your registered agent company is going out of business or providing poor service
You no longer want your home address listed as the registered agent address

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

Registered agent services for North Carolina 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

: North Carolina's statute sets the fee for changing a registered agent but not a processing time, so check the Secretary of State's website for current turnaround before you rely on a date. To change your registered agent, file a statement of change of registered office or registered agent with the North Carolina Secretary of State. The filing fee is $5. This timing matters because your new agent becomes officially responsible for receiving legal documents once the Secretary of State files your statement. Until then, your current registered agent remains your agent of record for service of process. File as soon as your new agent agrees to serve, especially if you're replacing an agent due to service failures or moving to a more reliable provider.
: Changing your registered agent in North Carolina costs $5, the statutory fee for an LLC's statement of change of registered agent or registered office, filed with the North Carolina Secretary of State. You can submit the statement through the Secretary of State's online filing portal or by mail to its Raleigh office. Make sure all information, including your current registered agent's name and the new agent's address, is accurate before submission. This low cost means you can update your registered agent affordably if your current agent relocates, becomes unavailable, or no longer meets your business needs.
: Yes, you can serve as your own registered agent for your North Carolina LLC if you meet two requirements: you must be at least 18 years old and maintain a physical North Carolina street address (not a P.O. box) where you're available to receive legal documents during business hours. This arrangement saves you the annual fee that a registered agent service charges. However, understand that you'll personally receive all lawsuits, tax notices, and regulatory correspondence, missing service of process could result in a default judgment against your LLC. To name yourself, file a statement of change of registered agent with the North Carolina Secretary of State, which costs $5. Before committing, verify your availability to monitor mail consistently. If your circumstances change, you can switch to a professional agent by filing another statement of change with the updated information and fee.
: No, changing your registered agent won't affect your LLC's good standing status with the North Carolina Secretary of State. You file a statement of change of registered agent and/or registered office with the Secretary of State, with the $5 filing fee. The critical requirement is keeping a registered agent in place: the Secretary of State may administratively dissolve an LLC that has been without a registered agent or registered office for 60 days, or that has not reported a change to them within 60 days. File your statement before your current agent's service ends to avoid a gap. For LLCs, good standing depends on timely annual report filings and a registered agent being on record, not on who that agent is.
: North Carolina allows you to file your registered agent change online through the North Carolina Secretary of State's website (www.sosnc.gov). You file a statement of change of registered agent directly in the online portal, and the fee is $5. Alternatively, you may mail the completed statement to the Secretary of State in Raleigh or file it in person at their office. Online filing avoids mail time and gives you a record of submission. To proceed, visit the Secretary of State's website, choose the online filing option, and submit the statement with payment.

Sources

4 documents

Each entry below is a document recorded in our verified North Carolina 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.

North Carolina statute: N.C.G.S. 57D-1-22 (filing fees)
sosnc.gov/divisions/business_registrationNorth Carolina Secretary of State: business entity filings
ncleg.gov/EnactedLegislation/Statutes/PDF/BySection/Chapter_57D/GS_57D-2-24.pdfNorth Carolina statute: Annual Report
sosnc.gov/divisions/business_registration/annual_report_helpNorth Carolina agency guidance: 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.

How we check facts

How to File

Obtain the Change of Registered Agent form

Complete the required information

Get consent from your new registered agent

Sign and date the form

Submit the form with payment

Update your LLC records