Minnesota wants a registered office, not a required domestic agent — and the free December 31 renewal is not that job

What Minnesota actually requires

Minn. Stat. § 5.36 is the Minnesota office-and-agent statute. A business entity shall continuously maintain a registered office in this state. That office need not be the same as the principal place of business or the principal executive office. If the current registered office listed with the Secretary of State is not an actual office location, or is solely a post office box, the company must give a new address that includes an actual office location. That new address may also include a mailing address or post office box. A fee may not be charged if the registered office is being changed only to bring the address into compliance. The new address must have been approved by the governing body. That is the street rule. We print it. We do not invent a shorter one.

The same section is who may serve. A business entity formed under the laws of Minnesota may designate a registered agent in its formation document. A business entity formed under the laws of another jurisdiction must designate a registered agent when registering to do business in Minnesota. The agent may be a natural person residing in this state, a domestic corporation or limited liability company, or a foreign corporation or foreign limited liability company authorized to transact business in this state. The registered agent must maintain a business office that is identical with the registered office. That is the may-versus-must split. Northwest’s Minnesota page says you are required by law to have an in-state registered agent. Bizee’s Minnesota page says every LLC in Minnesota must have one. Those are vendor sentences. Minn. Stat. § 322C.0113 is the LLC pointer: every limited liability company shall have a registered office and may have a registered agent, in the manner prescribed by section 5.36. Minn. Stat. § 302A.121 is the corporation pair. Every corporation shall have a registered office, and may have a registered agent, in the manner prescribed by section 5.36. We print the statute. We do not treat a vendor “must” as § 5.36.

Minn. Stat. § 322C.0201 is what the articles must say. Articles of organization must state the name, the street address of the initial registered office and, if the limited liability company has an agent for the service of process, the name of that agent at the registered office, and the name and street address of each organizer. Leaving the office off is a defect. Leaving the agent line blank is not. The same section prices formation at $135. The live Business Filings search we retrieved lists Limited Liability Company (Domestic) at $155.00 under File a New Business. Bizee’s Minnesota page prints $135 online and $155 paper. We print the statute and the portal. We do not invent a third number that makes them agree.

The Secretary of State Minnesota business corporation forms page and the foreign limited-liability-company forms page repeat the street ban in office copy. A registered office address in Minnesota is required. A post office box by itself is not acceptable. If designating a registered agent, it must be a person residing in Minnesota, a Minnesota entity, or a foreign entity authorized to do business in this state. The foreign-LLC page adds a second sentence: a registered office address in Minnesota and a registered agent is required. That matches § 5.36 for a foreign company. The shared Change of Registered Office/Agent form is the paper the office lists for a domestic corporation, a foreign corporation, a domestic or foreign LLC, a nonprofit, or a cooperative. A later fetch of some Secretary of State HTML pages returned a bot-check screen. We print the form pages we retrieved and the live portal. We do not invent a form number the office did not print.

Minn. Stat. § 5.36 is also how the company changes the line. The company files a statement that names the company, the new office if the office is changing, the new agent if the agent is being designated or changed, and the new agent name if only the name is changing. It must say that after the change the registered-office address and the agent’s business office will be identical. It must also say the change was authorized by a majority of the governing body present. A registered agent who moves, or who changes names, files one statement for each company the agent represents. That statement is signed only by the agent. Minn. Stat. § 5.29 is the bulk-change cap. When a registered agent for multiple entities files an instrument that changes its name or office address, each entity must be filed online as a separate transaction, and a separate filing fee charged. The aggregate fee shall not exceed $35,000. The live portal row we retrieved for Registered Office and/or Agent on a domestic business corporation is $55.00. ZenBusiness’s Minnesota page, last updated August 31, 2026, prices most domestic changes at $35 by mail and $55 online or in person, and foreign changes at $50 by mail and $70 expedited. The Secretary of State service-of-process page prints that same $35 / $55 and $50 / $70 split for serving the Secretary of State, not for changing the agent. We print the portal row, the vendor table, and the service-of-process table. We do not invent a fourth number that makes those jobs the same. Changing the office only to add an actual location is still free under § 5.36.

The same section is how an agent steps down. A registered agent may resign by filing a signed written notice of resignation, including a statement that a signed copy has been given to the company at its principal executive office or to a legal representative. The appointment of the agent terminates 30 days after the notice is filed with the secretary of state. That is a 30-day clock. It is not Tennessee’s same-day clock. It is not Maryland’s 10-day clock. ZenBusiness’s Minnesota page says the state does not provide a specific resignation form, that most domestic resignations are $35 by mail, and that Minnesota does not accept that resignation online or in person. We print the statute and the vendor form note. We do not invent an official resignation PDF we could not open.

Minn. Stat. § 322C.0208 is the yearly SOS paper this page will not confuse with the agent job. The heading on the Revisor site is Annual Report for Secretary of State. The body talks about an annual renewal. Beginning in the calendar year after the company files articles of organization, a limited liability company and a foreign limited liability company must file with the secretary of state by December 31 of each calendar year a renewal containing the items required by Minn. Stat. § 5.34. Notwithstanding section 322C.0205, subdivision 1, no fee is required to file an annual renewal. Section 5.34 asks for the registered office or designated office and the name of the registered agent for service of process, if any. The Secretary of State renewals page says renewing is, for most entity types, free. You may file at any point during the calendar year the renewal is due. The date on the Business Records Details page is the date the renewal is due by. Live records we opened listed Renewal Due Date 12/31/2026. The corporation forms page says there is no fee for filing the annual renewal if the entity is active and in good standing, and that a change to the registered office or agent needs the amendment form. That renewal can list a new agent name. Listing a name on a free yearly paper is still not the registered-agent job. The job is taking court papers at the Minnesota street.

Minn. Stat. § 322C.0705 is what happens if the renewal is missing. A domestic limited liability company that has not filed a renewal pursuant to this section is administratively terminated. The secretary of state shall issue a certificate of administrative termination. The names of the terminated companies must also be made available in an electronic format. A non-Minnesota LLC that misses the renewal has its authority revoked. The renewals page uses the words Administratively Terminated for an LLC that missed the due date. Another Secretary of State help page uses the words statutorily dissolved. We print both office phrases. We do not invent a winner. Minn. Stat. § 322C.0706 is the way back. The company may retroactively reinstate by filing a single annual renewal and paying a $25 fee. The live portal row we retrieved for Annual Reinstatement on a domestic LLC is $85.00. We print the statute and the portal. We do not invent a third number that makes them agree. Minn. Stat. § 5.26 is what good standing means: the company has complied with the filing and registration requirements in its governing chapter.

Minn. Stat. § 322C.0116 and Minn. Stat. § 5.25 are how papers are handed over. An appointed agent is an agent of the company for service of any process, notice, or demand. If the company does not appoint or maintain an agent, or the agent cannot with reasonable diligence be found at the agent’s street, the secretary of state is an agent upon whom process may be served, as provided in section 5.25. Section 5.25 says process may be served on (1) the registered agent, if any; (2) if no agent has been appointed, then on an officer, manager, or general partner; or (3) if no agent, officer, manager, or general partner can be found at the address on file, the secretary of state. Service on the secretary of state for an LLC files one copy and a $35 fee. A foreign corporation in the listed failure cases files one copy and a $50 fee. The office’s service-of-process page prices mail at $35 for Minnesota corporations and all other entity types, and $50 for foreign corporations; courier expedited service is $55 and $70. Those dollars are for serving the Secretary of State. They are not the registered-agent job, and they are not the change-of-agent fee.

The Business Filings portal sits on mblsportal.sos.state.mn.us. Paper and in-person amendments mail to First National Bank Building, 332 Minnesota Street, Suite N201, Saint Paul, MN 55101. The Secretary of State is Steve Simon. ZenBusiness’s Minnesota page prints that same St. Paul line and 651-201-1324. Those lines are the Secretary of State. They are not a commercial registered-agent suite. Minnesota does not post Florida-style 10–noon / 2–4 windows. We do not treat a company 9-to-5 line as Minn. Stat. § 5.36. Chapter 5A on the Revisor site is international student exchange visitor placement. It is not the registered-agent statute. We do not cite it as one.

Confirm the live office, and the agent if any, on the Minnesota Business Filings search before you treat a marketing city as current. Headquarters is not the registered office. The Secretary of State desk in St. Paul is not a vendor suite. That search returned a live lookup form on retrieval.

Cited prices, retrieved September 13, 2026

We print what the company’s official registered-agent page said on the retrieval date. No company publishes a different Minnesota registered-agent price from the national card, except where we note a Minnesota-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 13, 2026 from northwestregisteredagent.com/registered-agent and the Minnesota product page. First year free only if you form through them; we do not treat that bundle as the standalone price. The Minnesota page says you are required by law to have an in-state registered agent. We print that sentence. The live Minnesota-formed rule we retrieved is § 5.36: the company may designate one.
• Bizee: official registered-agent page: free first year with formation; standalone $149/year; year two $149/year. Retrieved September 13, 2026 from bizee.com/business-management/registered-agent. A bizee.com/llc/minnesota-registered-agent URL returned 404 the same day. The live Minnesota page is bizee.com/llc/minnesota/registered-agent. That page names a $135 online / $155 paper Articles fee, a December 31 annual report, and no state-level LLC franchise tax. It also says every LLC in Minnesota must have a registered agent. That is Bizee copy. We do not invent a Minnesota-only price from a missing hyphenated URL.
• LegalZoom: official overview retrieved September 13, 2026: “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 from legalzoom.com/…/registered-agent-overview.html. A legalzoom.com/articles/minnesota-registered-agent URL returned 404 the same day. A legalzoom.com/articles/registered-agent-in-minnesota URL also returned 404. We do not invent a Minnesota article or a higher year-two number.
• ZenBusiness: official Minnesota page: first-year and renewal dollars are the national card. The national page says $99 + state fees for the first year and renews at $199/yr, subject to change. The Minnesota page, last updated August 31, 2026, talks about $100 to several hundred dollars a year as a market range. That range is not a ZenBusiness price. We keep the national card. A zenbusiness.com/minnesota-resident-agent/ URL returned 404 the same day. The live Minnesota page is /minnesota-registered-agent/. That page correctly prints the domestic may / foreign must split. The same national page says they currently do not offer registered-agent service to PLLCs or nonprofits. That is their national exclusion, not a Minnesota statute. Retrieved September 13, 2026 from zenbusiness.com/registered-agent and the Minnesota registered-agent page.

A change of registered office or agent is a separate Secretary of State filing. We cite Minn. Stat. § 5.36, the portal’s $55 domestic-corporation change row, and the free compliance-only address change. The free December 31 renewal is still not the registered-agent job.

Who publishes a Minnesota street

A city is not a registered office. 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 Minnesota Business Filings search before you file. Headquarters is not the registered office. The Secretary of State’s St. Paul contacts are not vendor suites.

• Northwest. The Minnesota product page says they scan documents at their Minnesota office in Owatonna. The office-locations page lists Owatonna, MN 55060, Steele County, and says they leave the street off this list. No street is published. The two city lines match. Those city, ZIP, and county lines are vendor-claimed. We have not been to an Owatonna office.
• Bizee. Claims owned offices in all 50 states. The official registered-agent page names no Minnesota street. The live Minnesota product page names no Minnesota street. The hyphenated Minnesota URL we tried returned 404 on September 13, 2026. The contact page lists 17350 State Highway 249, Suite 220, Houston, TX 77064 as headquarters. That address is not a Minnesota registered-agent street.
• LegalZoom. The official registered-agent overview does not publish a Minnesota street. Both Minnesota article URLs we tried returned 404 the same day. We do not invent a suite. We do not treat a LegalZoom virtual-mail street as the registered-agent street.
• ZenBusiness. The Minnesota registered-agent page publishes no ZenBusiness street or city. It prints a Secretary of State contact at 332 Minnesota Street, Suite N201, St. Paul, MN 55101, telephone 651-201-1324. That is a published street. It is the Secretary of State, not ZenBusiness. The Business Filings portal lists the same building. We do not treat that St. Paul line as their suite.

If you are your own registered agent, the street on the public record is often your home. If you hire a commercial registered agent, the agent line is that organization’s name. Northwest names Owatonna, ZIP 55060, Steele County, on both the product page and the office list, and no street on either. LegalZoom published no live Minnesota article on the two URLs we tried. Bizee publishes no Minnesota street. ZenBusiness publishes the Secretary of State’s Minnesota Street contacts. We label every published city vendor-claimed. Use the Business Filings search.

In-state office, the post-office ban, and the free December 31 renewal

Minnesota wants a registered office that is an actual office location in this state. A Minnesota-formed company may name a registered agent at that office. A foreign company must. If an agent is named, that agent’s business office and the registered office must be the same street. A P.O. Box alone is not that street. Changing the office only to add an actual location is free. Change the agent on the Change of Registered Office/Agent filing. The live portal row we retrieved for a domestic corporation is $55. Resignation ends on the 30th day after the notice is filed. The LLC annual renewal is free and due by December 31, beginning the year after the articles are filed. Miss it and a domestic LLC is administratively terminated. The statute prices reinstatement at $25. The live portal row we retrieved is $85. Those filings are not the registered-agent job. Minnesota does not post a Florida-style 10–noon / 2–4 clock, and it does not run a Nevada-style ten-company commercial-agent register. Northwest claims Owatonna, ZIP 55060, Steele County. LegalZoom published no live Minnesota article. ZenBusiness publishes 332 Minnesota Street — the Secretary of State. Bizee names no Minnesota street. Process Score has not been to those offices. We do not treat a company 9-to-5 line as Minn. Stat. § 5.36.

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. The Minnesota page talks about a physical street during normal business hours. That is Bizee copy. Contact-page support hours are Monday–Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. CST. Those are support hours, not registered-office hours.
• Northwest: “We scan every document you receive right where you receive it—in our office.” The Minnesota page adds scans within minutes from Owatonna. Their mail-scanning 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. Both Minnesota article URLs we tried returned 404. 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 a Minnesota statute. The Minnesota page prints Secretary of State contacts at 332 Minnesota Street. That is office copy for the Secretary of State, not Minn. Stat. § 5.36.

Home-address privacy

A commercial registered agent is how most Minnesota owners keep a home off the agent line. The Secretary of State still publishes whatever other addresses you put on a formation filing or an annual renewal. Privacy of the agent line is not privacy of every field. A Minnesota-formed company can leave the agent line blank and still must list a registered office. Confirm the live line on the Business Filings 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 Minn. Stat. § 5.36.
• It does not treat the free December 31 annual renewal as the registered-agent job.
• It does not treat a Houston headquarters as a Minnesota street.
• It does not treat 332 Minnesota Street, Suite N201, as a vendor suite. Those contacts are the Secretary of State.
• It does not invent a Minnesota-only price a company did not print.
• It does not invent a LegalZoom Minnesota article the two URLs we tried did not serve.
• It does not treat a P.O. Box alone as the street.
• It does not invent a ten-company commercial-agent bar. Minnesota does not run that register.
• It does not treat Chapter 5A as the registered-agent statute. Chapter 5A is international student exchange visitor placement.
• It does not pretend a Minnesota-formed company must name an agent. § 5.36 and § 322C.0113 say the company may. A foreign company must.
• It does not invent a winner between the $135 formation fee in § 322C.0201 and the $155 portal row.
• It does not invent a winner between the $25 reinstatement fee in § 322C.0706 and the $85 portal row.
• It does not invent a winner between the portal’s $55 change row and the $35 / $55 split on ZenBusiness and on the service-of-process page.

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. Arizona makes the statutory-agent appointment wait on a signed acceptance: Arizona scorecard. Illinois gives you 60 days after your agent resigns, then you are not in good standing: Illinois scorecard. Ohio cancels the articles if you miss the 30-day statutory-agent notice: Ohio scorecard. Georgia wants the registered office at the same street as the agent: Georgia scorecard. Pennsylvania files a registered office, not a registered agent: Pennsylvania scorecard. New Jersey wants a street for your registered agent and will not take a P.O. Box alone: New Jersey scorecard. Colorado will not take a commercial mailbox or a P.O. Box as the registered-agent street: Colorado scorecard. North Carolina’s LLC annual report is $200 paper or $203 online by April 15. That filing is not the registered-agent job: North Carolina scorecard. Virginia’s LLC pays a $50 annual registration fee and files no annual report: Virginia scorecard. Washington files the agent’s prior consent and will not take a P.O. Box or a PMB as the street: Washington scorecard. Michigan’s statute names a resident agent and sends the filing to LARA: Michigan scorecard. Indiana’s live statute names a registered agent. Older Indiana law called the same job resident agent: Indiana scorecard. Massachusetts’s LLC statute names a resident agent. The $500 annual report cannot change that line: Massachusetts scorecard. Maryland’s statute names a resident agent and sends the filing to SDAT, not the Secretary of State: Maryland scorecard. Tennessee wants a registered office and a registered agent at the same street. The $300 LLC annual report is not that job: Tennessee scorecard.