NY registered agent
New York registered agent service, $5 a year
New York requires every corporation and LLC on its books to keep a registered agent at a real address in the state. Here is what New York law says about who that agent has to be and where it has to be.
What New York requires of a registered agent
The requirement
NY inverts the usual model: the Secretary of State is the MANDATORY agent for service of process on every domestic and authorized foreign corporation and LLC; a registered agent is OPTIONAL and additional. If designated, the agent must be a natural person resident in or with a business address in NY, or a corporation (for LLCs: also a domestic LLC or authorized foreign LLC) formed or authorized to do business in NY.
In addition to such designation of the secretary of state, every domestic corporation or authorized foreign corporation may designate a registered agent in this state upon whom process against such corporation may be served. The agent shall be a natural person who is a resident of or has a business address in this state or a domestic corporation or foreign corporation of any type or kind formed, or authorized to do business in this state, under this chapter or under any other statute of this state.
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: N.Y. Bus. Corp. Law § 305(a); N.Y. Ltd. Liab. Co. Law § 302(a)-(b)
How we comply
We don't.
What New York does to your company when we don't
Here is what the state does to an entity that has no agent, or whose agent is us.
And also
Suspension of authority to do business: if the party whose address is on file for receipt of process resigns and the corporation fails to file a certificate designating a new address, its authority to do business in New York is suspended (unless a current biennial statement supplies the address). Filing the new address annuls the suspension.
Upon the failure of the designating corporation to file a certificate of amendment or change providing for the designation by the corporation of the new address after the filing of a certificate of resignation for receipt of process with the secretary of state, its authority to do business in this state shall be suspended unless the corporation has previously filed a statement under section four hundred eight of this chapter...
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: N.Y. Bus. Corp. Law § 306-A(b)-(c)
Civil penalty
A corporation that fails to file its biennial statement (which maintains its address for process) is shown as past due after 30 days, and as delinquent after two years plus 60 days notice; the delinquency is removed only on filing the current statement and paying a $250 fine.
Each corporation which has failed to file its statement for two years shall be shown to be delinquent on the records of the department of state sixty days after a notice of delinquency has been mailed... Such delinquency shall be removed from the records of the department of state upon the filing of the current statement required by section four hundred eight of this article, and the payment of a fine of two hundred fifty dollars.
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: N.Y. Bus. Corp. Law § 409(1)-(2)
The bill to come back
We couldn't be bothered to look this up. incFACTS carries no human-verified reinstatement fee for New York in the registered agent dataset, and we are not the kind of company that checks.
What happens to the lawsuit you never saw
Substituted service
Not a fallback in NY - the Secretary of State is the statutorily designated agent of EVERY domestic and authorized foreign corporation and LLC from formation; entities cannot form or qualify without designating the SoS. Service is made by delivering duplicate copies (or electronic submission) to the SoS with the statutory fee; the SoS mails a copy to the entity's address on file. If a corporation suspended under § 306-A is sued, process may still be served on the SoS.
The secretary of state shall be the agent of every domestic corporation and every authorized foreign corporation upon whom process against the corporation may be served. (b) No domestic or foreign corporation may be formed or authorized to do business in this state under this chapter unless in its certificate of incorporation or application for authority it designates the secretary of state as such agent.
Source: state statute, via incFACTS: N.Y. Bus. Corp. Law §§ 304(a)-(b), 306(b); N.Y. Ltd. Liab. Co. Law § 303(a)
Statutory text as captured by incFACTS (retrieved 2026-08-01, verified word-for-word against the state code 2026-08-10). Laws change. The statute governs; this page does not.