LLC Registered-Agent and Registered-Office Requirements in Arizona

At a glance

Requirements one by one

Governing law and terminology

A.R.S. § 29-3101 names chapter 7 of Title 29 the Arizona limited liability company act. Arizona calls the process recipient the statutory agent, and LLC filings go to the Arizona Corporation Commission. A.R.S. § 29-3102 defines both the Commission and statutory-agent terms.

Continuous designation duty

Each domestic LLC must designate and maintain a statutory agent in Arizona under § 29-3115(A). The articles of organization state the agent's name and Arizona street and mailing addresses under § 29-3201(B)(3).

The duty is continuous. The later 60-day period in § 29-3708 is a threshold for administrative-dissolution proceedings, not permission to remain without an agent.

Eligible individual

An individual statutory agent must be an Arizona resident and must have a place of residence or business in the state under § 29-3115(B). The Act states no separate minimum age, citizenship, professional-license, or exact daily-hours test.

A member, manager, owner, or employee is not a special category. The Commission expressly says a member or manager may serve in the person's individual capacity, which means independently satisfying the resident-individual and address rules.

Eligible entity and self-service

Section 29-3115(B) permits a domestic corporation or Arizona LLC, plus a foreign corporation or foreign LLC authorized to transact business in Arizona.

The Arizona Corporation Commission's M002i and L010i instructions expressly state that the represented corporation or LLC cannot be its own statutory agent and must appoint someone apart from itself. Another qualifying Arizona LLC can serve; the subject LLC cannot simply list its own name.

Registered office, address, and hours

Arizona does not impose a separately named registered-office duty in these LLC sections. Instead, the statutory agent must have an Arizona residence or place of business, and the articles state the agent's Arizona street and mailing addresses.

The current Commission paper form implements the street field as a physical Arizona address and rejects a P.O. box there. The separate Arizona mailing address is also required on that form and may be a P.O. box. The Act does not set a specific 9-to-5 or other daily availability interval.

Consent and initial filing

Acceptance is not optional. Under § 29-3115(A), the appointment is ineffective until the Commission receives a record signed by the agent accepting it, unless the agent already signed the document making the appointment.

The current paper articles are organizer-signed and require the separate M002 Statutory Agent Acceptance with the filing. The M002 signer is the individual agent or an authorized signer for the entity agent. The organizer and agent signatures therefore serve different statutory functions; A.R.S. § 29-3203 assigns the initial-articles signature to an organizer.

Change, resignation, and replacement

The LLC may file a statement changing its agent or address under § 29-3116, or amend its articles. No member or manager approval is required for the statement of change, but the successor's signed acceptance is required unless that agent signed the statement itself. A.R.S. § 29-3202 requires the amendment or statement within 30 days after an agent or address change. An agent changing its own name or address may file under § 29-3118 and must promptly notify the LLC.

A compliant filed record ordinarily takes effect at its delivery date and time under § 29-3207. An agent's resignation is the exception specifically timed by § 29-3117: it ends on the earlier of the 31st day after filing or designation of a new agent. The resigning agent promptly sends the LLC notice of the filing date and has no chapter responsibility for later-tendered material once the resignation takes effect.

Agent duties and service

Section 29-3115(C) says the compliant agent's only chapter duties are to forward received process, notices, and demands to the latest company-supplied address; send the statutory resignation notice; and keep the agent information in the articles current.

Serving the statutory agent serves the LLC under § 29-3119(A), and service on the agent must be in a written record. The section preserves other service methods available under law outside the LLC Act.

Lapse consequences and fallback service

If the LLC has no agent or reasonable diligence cannot reach the agent, § 29-3119 supplies this sequence:

1. Registered or certified mail with return receipt requested, or a similar commercial delivery service, goes to the principal address in the LLC's latest Commission filing. Service occurs at receipt, the signed-return date, or five days after proper deposit, whichever comes first.
2. If agent and principal-address service fail, a copy may be handed to the individual in charge of a regular place of business or activity, provided that individual is not a plaintiff.

Unlike several states, § 29-3119 does not automatically make the Corporation Commission a service agent after those failures. It instead preserves any other means available under law.

Entity consequences are separate. Section 29-3202(J) bars an LLC that has not made a required articles amendment from maintaining a contract-or-transaction action until it amends. Section 29-3708 permits administrative-dissolution proceedings if the LLC lacks an Arizona agent for at least 60 consecutive days or fails for 60 days to notify the Commission of an agent/address change or resignation. The Commission gives written notice and another 60 days to cure or disprove the ground before dissolution; a dissolved LLC then may act only to wind up or seek reinstatement.

What trips people up

Another LLC may serve, but the represented LLC may not. Section 29-3115 permits an Arizona LLC as an entity agent, while the Commission's official filing instructions require a person or entity apart from the represented LLC.

The acceptance is separate from the organizer signature. On the current paper route, the organizer signs the articles and the agent signs M002. Filing only organizer-signed articles leaves the appointment ineffective and the paper package incomplete.

The 30-day, 31-day, and 60-day periods do different work. Known agent or address changes use the 30-day update rule; resignation ordinarily ends on day 31; and a 60-day no-agent or notice failure is a dissolution ground that still receives a further 60-day notice-and-cure period.

Common questions

Can an Arizona member be statutory agent? Yes, if the member is an individual Arizona resident with the required Arizona address and signs the acceptance. Membership alone is not the qualification.

Can the LLC appoint itself? No. The Arizona Corporation Commission's official instructions expressly require someone apart from the represented LLC, although another qualifying Arizona LLC may serve.

Can the street address be a P.O. box? No. The current Commission form requires a physical or street address for the agent. It separately requires an Arizona mailing address, which may be a P.O. box.

When does resignation take effect? On the earlier of the 31st day after the Commission files the resignation or designation of a new agent.

Is the Corporation Commission the automatic backup recipient? Not under § 29-3119. The LLC Act uses principal-address delivery and then the individual in charge of a regular business place, while preserving service methods under other law.

Statutes and sources

• A.R.S. §§ 29-3101-.3102 and 29-3115 — Act name, definitions, maintenance, eligibility, acceptance, address, and exclusive duties. https://www.azleg.gov/ars/29/03115.htm (accessed 2026-07-27)
• A.R.S. §§ 29-3116-.3119 — entity and agent changes, resignation, direct service, and fallback service. https://www.azleg.gov/ars/29/03119.htm (accessed 2026-07-27)
• A.R.S. §§ 29-3201-.3203 and 29-3207 — articles fields, 30-day updates, signatures, suit bar, and filing effectiveness. https://www.azleg.gov/ars/29/03202.htm (accessed 2026-07-27)
• A.R.S. § 29-3708 — 60-day lapse grounds, notice, further 60-day cure, dissolution, and post-dissolution limits. https://www.azleg.gov/ars/29/03708.htm (accessed 2026-07-27)
• Arizona Corporation Commission forms L010 and M002/instructions — current paper address fields, self-agent prohibition, required separate acceptance, and signatures. https://azcc.gov/docs/default-source/corps-files/instructions/m002i-instructions-statutory-agent-acceptance.pdf?sfvrsn=7f07b36f_2 (accessed 2026-07-27)

CTA audit

The live Ezel Arizona articles template correctly collects the statutory agent's Arizona physical and mailing addresses and tells the filer to submit a statutory-agent acceptance. But the generated document contains no acceptance signature block and does not generate or attach M002. Because the signed acceptance is a prerequisite to an effective appointment and part of the current paper filing package, this cell intentionally has no CTA template slug.