Arizona makes the statutory-agent appointment wait on a signed acceptance

What Arizona actually requires

A.R.S. § 29-3115 is Arizona’s LLC statutory-agent rule. Each limited liability company, and each registered foreign limited liability company, shall designate and maintain a statutory agent in this state. Unless the statutory agent signed the document making the appointment, the appointment is not effective until the agent or the company delivers a record to the commission signed by the agent accepting the appointment. Florida also files a written acceptance. Arizona’s extra line is that the appointment waits. We print that contrast once. We do not invent a third rule.

A.R.S. § 29-3115(B) is who may serve. The agent must have a place of business or residence in this state. The agent must be an individual resident of this state, a domestic corporation, a limited liability company, a foreign corporation, or a foreign limited liability company authorized to transact business in this state. The Articles of Organization instructions (L010i) add that an LLC cannot appoint itself. A member or manager may serve as an individual. An individual agent must be a permanent, full-time Arizona resident with a permanent, full-time physical or street address in Arizona. That individual’s mailing address, if any, must also be in Arizona. The Commission business-services FAQ also says an individual agent must be 18 years of age and reside in Arizona.

The same L010i instructions name form M002, Statutory Agent Acceptance. Deliver it with the articles. “If no statutory agent acceptance is in the Arizona Corporation Commission system at the time the Articles are examined, the Articles will be rejected.” Online, the FAQ says the agent can accept through the Arizona Business Center dashboard. Paper filings use the M002 form. The form itself lists no regular filing fee.

A.R.S. § 29-3116 is how an LLC changes the agent or the principal address. Unless the successor signed the statement of change, that new appointment is not effective until a record signed by the successor accepting the change reaches the commission. A.R.S. § 29-3117 is resignation. It takes effect on the earlier of the thirty-first day after the commission files it, or the designation of a new agent. The agent must promptly tell the company the filing date.

A.R.S. § 29-3119 is how an LLC is served. Serve the statutory agent. Service on the agent must be in a written record. If there is no agent, or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be served, the company may be served by registered or certified mail at the principal address on the most recent commission filing. The FAQ is blunt on the Commission’s own desk: the Commission will not accept service of process for LLCs.

A.R.S. § 10-501 is the corporation pair. A corporation shall continuously maintain in this state a known place of business, which may be the statutory agent’s address, and a statutory agent. The agent may be an individual who resides in this state, a domestic corporation, a foreign corporation authorized here, a limited liability company formed under title 29, or a limited liability company authorized here. The FAQ says a corporation’s known place of business must be a physical street in Arizona. P.O. Boxes and personal mailboxes are not permissible for that field. An LLC’s principal address may be anywhere. Both addresses are public.

A.R.S. § 10-502 is the corporation change. If the statutory agent changes, the filing needs the new agent’s name, street, and written consent. The change is effective on delivery to the commission. A corporation may use its annual report as that statement of change. A.R.S. § 10-503 ends the agency on the thirty-first day after the resignation is delivered. A.R.S. § 10-504 says the statutory agent may be served. If the corporation fails to keep an agent at the address on the commission record, the commission may accept service. The FAQ prices that path at $25, two copies, and an affidavit of attempted service. That is a corporation fallback. It is not an LLC path.

The street on the agent line is a place a person can walk up to, like 123 Main Street. L010i asks for a statutory-agent street. A separate mailing address may be a P.O. Box or a personal mailbox. We do not treat that mailbox as the street. Official notices go to the mailing line when one is listed.

Arizona also files an annual report, but only for corporations. The FAQ says LLCs are not required to file annual reports. A for-profit corporation pays $45. A nonprofit pays $10. File by the due date on the company’s commission record. You may file up to 90 days early. A six-month extension is available. The annual-report fee is still due with the extension. A late for-profit report adds $9 a month. That report is not the statutory-agent job.

L010i also explains publication. If the statutory-agent street is in Maricopa County or Pima County, a notice is posted on the Commission’s public-notice site. If the street is outside those two counties, the company publishes in a newspaper after the Commission approves the articles. We quote that instruction. We do not invent a third county list.

The Arizona Business Center business search is the live lookup. The Commission replaced eCorp with Arizona Business Center on January 12, 2026. Confirm the live name and street before you treat a marketing city as current. Headquarters is not the statutory-agent street. The Commission’s own Phoenix contact at 1300 W. Washington St is not a vendor suite. The Secretary of State’s contact at 1700 W. Washington St is a different office. It is not the Corporation Commission, and it is not a vendor suite.

Cited prices, retrieved September 5, 2026

We print what the company’s official registered-agent page said on the retrieval date. No company publishes a different Arizona statutory-agent price from the national card, except where we note an Arizona-page renewal line. We do not invent a renewal.

• Northwest Registered Agent: official page: “$125 Per Year.” Same price in year two on the national card. Five or more states is $100 a year per state. Retrieved September 5, 2026 from northwestregisteredagent.com/registered-agent and the Arizona product page. The older /arizona-registered-agent URL redirects to that page. First year free only if you form through them; we do not treat that bundle as the standalone price.
• Bizee: official registered-agent page: free first year with formation; standalone $149/year; year two $149/year. Retrieved September 5, 2026 from bizee.com/business-management/registered-agent.
• LegalZoom: official overview: “Get registered agent services for $249/year.” Product card: $249/year. Footnote: auto-renews at the purchase rate; “The renewal rate is subject to change.” Retrieved September 5, 2026 from legalzoom.com/…/registered-agent-overview.html. The Arizona registered-agent article (updated April 30, 2026) repeats $249 for the year and names no street.
• ZenBusiness: official Arizona page: “Starts at $99 + AZ state fees” for the first year. Renews at $199/year, subject to change. The same national page says they currently do not offer registered-agent service to PLLCs or nonprofits. That is their national exclusion, not an Arizona statute. Retrieved September 5, 2026 from zenbusiness.com/registered-agent and the Arizona statutory-agent page. The /arizona-registered-agent/ URL returned 404 the same day.

A change of agent is a separate Corporation Commission filing. We cite the official fee schedules, retrieved September 5, 2026, not company blogs. The LLC fee schedule (Rev. 3.2026) prices Articles of Organization at $50 regular and $85 expedited. A statement of change of principal address or statutory agent is $5. Statutory-agent resignation is $10. The corporation fee schedule prices a statement of change to known place of business, principal address, or statutory agent at no fee for regular processing. Corporation statutory-agent resignation is $10. For-profit annual reports are $45. Nonprofit annual reports are $10. Reinstatement is $100 on both schedules. Service of process left with the Commission is $25 on those tables. The FAQ limits that Commission desk to corporations.

Who publishes an Arizona street

A city is not a statutory-agent street. We print only the streets the companies publish for registered-agent use. We do not invent the rest. Confirm the live name and street on the Arizona Business Center business search before you file. Headquarters is not the statutory-agent street. The Commission’s Washington Street contact is not a vendor suite. The Secretary of State’s Washington Street contact is not the Commission, and it is not a vendor suite.

• Northwest. The Arizona FAQ answers “Where is Northwest’s registered office in Arizona?” with “We scan all documents locally from our office in Phoenix, AZ.” The same page also says, “We’re in Pima County, which is exempt” from the newspaper-publication rule. Phoenix is in Maricopa County. Pima County is the Tucson area. That is a conflict on the same product page. No street is published for either place. Same-day local scans are vendor-claimed. We have not been to a Phoenix office or a Pima County office. L010i does say Maricopa and Pima streets publish on the Commission site instead of in a newspaper. That does not tell us which county Northwest actually uses.
• Bizee. Claims owned offices in all 50 states. The official registered-agent page names no Arizona street. The contact page lists 17350 State Highway 249, Suite 220, Houston, TX 77064 as headquarters. That address is not an Arizona statutory-agent street.
• LegalZoom. The official registered-agent overview does not publish an Arizona street. The Arizona registered-agent article (updated April 30, 2026) also names no street. We do not invent a suite. We do not treat a LegalZoom virtual-mail street as the statutory-agent street.
• ZenBusiness. The Arizona statutory-agent page does not publish a ZenBusiness Arizona suite. The same page shows a Secretary of State contact at 1700 W Washington St, Fl 7, Phoenix AZ 85007. That is the Secretary of State, not ZenBusiness’s statutory-agent street, and not the Arizona Corporation Commission. The Commission’s public desk is 1300 W. Washington St. We do not treat either Washington Street line as their street. We have not been to a ZenBusiness Arizona office.

If you are your own agent, the street on the public record is often your home. If you hire a commercial statutory agent, the agent line is that organization’s name and its Arizona street. Of these four, none publishes an Arizona suite we can cite. Northwest names Phoenix and Pima County and no street. LegalZoom, Bizee, and ZenBusiness name no Arizona statutory-agent street. We label every city vendor-claimed. We have not been to those offices. Use the Arizona Business Center search.

In-state office and the signed acceptance

Arizona wants an in-state person or authorized company, a street a process server can walk up to, and a signed acceptance on the Commission record. Arizona does not run a Nevada-style ten-company commercial-agent register, and it does not publish a Wyoming-style $50 commercial-agent fee. None of these four publishes an Arizona statutory-agent street. Northwest claims Phoenix and Pima County on the same FAQ. ZenBusiness’s 1700 W Washington line is the Secretary of State. Bizee names no Arizona street. Process Score has not been to those offices. We do not treat a company 9-to-5 line as A.R.S. § 29-3115.

Service of process, not marketing mail

We grade scan-and-forward of service of process and official notices:

• Bizee: notifications by text and email; court papers mailed via FedEx with tracking; portal upload by employees.
• Northwest: “We scan every document you receive right where you receive it—in our office.” The Arizona page adds local Phoenix scans. Their mail-forwarding extras are a different product. We do not grade those extras as a mailbox.
• LegalZoom: upload, email, and a postcard for urgent legal mail; they say they shred junk mail. Junk-mail shredding is not the job we score.
• ZenBusiness: scan and upload to a dashboard; email; overnight the original for urgent legal notices. Their own FAQ says you cannot use the agent address as your business address. Their national product currently excludes PLLCs and nonprofits; that is their exclusion, not an Arizona statute.

Home-address privacy

A commercial organizational agent is how most Arizona owners keep a home off the agent line. The Commission still publishes whatever other addresses you put on articles or an annual report. Privacy of the agent line is not privacy of every field. Confirm the live line on the Arizona Business Center search.

Scorecards

What this page does not do

• It does not rank mailbox networks or virtual offices.
• It does not publish combined star ratings or a fake 4.8.
• It does not treat a company 9-to-5 line as A.R.S. § 29-3115.
• It does not treat the signed acceptance as optional. Arizona waits on that writing.
• It does not treat a Houston headquarters as an Arizona street.
• It does not treat 1700 W Washington St as a ZenBusiness suite. That contact is the Secretary of State.
• It does not treat 1300 W. Washington St as a vendor suite. That contact is the Corporation Commission.
• It does not invent an Arizona-only price a company did not print.
• It does not treat newspaper publication as the statutory-agent job.

Choosing among being the agent yourself, asking a lawyer, or hiring a commercial agent: DIY vs lawyer vs commercial. California’s scorecard is a different statute: California scorecard. Texas keeps the written consent with the company: Texas scorecard. Florida files the acceptance and posts a 10–noon / 2–4 clock: Florida scorecard. Delaware bans a virtual-only agent and sets the commercial bar above 50: Delaware scorecard. New York starts with the Secretary of State already on the agent line: New York scorecard. Nevada makes a commercial agent register at ten companies: Nevada scorecard. Wyoming bans UPS stores and virtual addresses as the registered office: Wyoming scorecard.