Northwest Registered Agent Address: What It Covers and Where It Appears on Record

Two questions sit behind a search for the Northwest Registered Agent address: what it does for your entity, and who can see it. A commercial registered agent's address fills one field on your filings, the registered office where a process server can deliver a summons during business hours. Delaware's corporation statute defines the registered office as "the address of the registered agent located in this State being appointed to accept service of process and otherwise perform the duties of a registered agent" (8 Del. C. § 131).

That field is public in the states detailed below, and it sits beside fields the agent's address does not replace: the principal office, the organizer or incorporator, and in disclosure states the managers, members, officers, or directors. A software company qualifying in ten states or a fund manager running 80 LLCs needs to know which fields the agent fills.

What the Northwest Registered Agent address covers

A commercial registered agent's address, Northwest's included, gives your entity an in-state service address where legal process and state notices can be served, and the statutory function is limited to that role.

The statutory function of the registered office

Delaware's LLC Act requires each LLC to maintain "a registered office, which may but need not be a place of its business in the State of Delaware," and requires the agent to keep an office "generally open during normal business hours to accept service of process" and to forward what it receives (6 Del. C. § 18-104). Washington's Secretary of State says "PO Boxes, Private Mailbox, and virtual 'real addresses' may not be used for the Registered Agent physical address" (Washington SOS address requirements, RCW 23.95.400 to 23.95.460).

Delaware tightened this in 2025: after SB 95, a registered agent "may not perform its duties or functions solely through the use of a virtual office, the retention by the agent of a mail forwarding service, or both" (8 Del. C. § 132(b)(2)). A commercial agent serving more than 50 entities must also "be generally present at a designated location within this State during normal business hours to accept service of process" (8 Del. C. § 132(c)).

What the address is not

A registered agent address serves the statutory role above and does not by itself provide general mail forwarding.

Where the address appears on the public record

The registered agent's name and address can appear on formation documents, periodic reports, foreign qualification applications, and online entity searches in the jurisdictions reviewed here. Ohio uses the term "statutory agent," and the Washington filing discussed below is an exception where only the commercial agent's name appears.

Formation and foreign qualification filings

The field generally appears at formation and again when an entity files a foreign qualification:

• Texas: Form 205 requires the agent's name and registered office address for a new LLC.

• Delaware: The Certificate of Formation must state "the address of the registered office and the name and address of the registered agent" (6 Del. C. § 18-201).

• Florida (foreign qualification): Form CR2E221 states the agent's address must be a Florida street address; a post office box or post office drawer is not acceptable.

Periodic reports and searchable databases

Delaware corporations generally list the agent's name and address on the annual franchise tax report due March 1; confirm the deadline against current Delaware instructions each year. Delaware LLCs, LPs, and GPs file no annual report and pay a flat annual tax, currently $300 for the 2025 tax year; that rate rises to $400 starting with the 2026 tax year under House Bill 400, first due in 2027 (Delaware franchise tax FAQs).

Florida's annual report requires a Florida street address for the registered office. The California SOS states that "the name and the physical street address of the agent for service of process is a public record, open to all" (California SOS FAQs), and Florida's Sunbiz allows search by agent.

The Washington exception and MRAA states

The Washington registration statement states that for a Commercial Registered Agent "an address is not required" because the commercial registered agent has a verified address on record with the Office of the Secretary of State. This follows the Model Registered Agents Act, which 12 jurisdictions have adopted in full: Arkansas, District of Columbia, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Montana, Mississippi, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming (Uniform Law Commission).

Under the Act, a commercial agent's listing statement has the effect of amending the registered agent filing for each covered entity to delete the former agent's name and address, per the mechanism Washington implements at RCW 23.95.420(4), so one filing by your agent updates every entity covered by the listing statement. Nevada requires any agent serving 10 or more entities to register as a commercial agent (NRS 77.320).

What the agent's address does not keep off the record

Listing a commercial agent's address removes your own address from one field only; the principal office, organizer, and management fields stay separately required and separately public.

Principal office rules by state

Delaware SB 95, enacted in 2025 and effective August 1, 2025, eliminated provisions treating a corporation's registered office as its principal office and bars a corporation from using its agent's address as its principal place of business unless it acts as its own agent (Delaware SB 95). For Delaware franchise tax report information, the statute requires the actual principal place of business. The LLC companion bill carries the virtual-office prohibition, but the principal-place-of-business restriction applies to corporate franchise tax reports.

Texas does not require your registered office to be your principal place of business; the Form 401 instructions also note that the registered office may not be solely a mailbox or telephone-answering service (Tex. Bus. Orgs. Code § 5.201). Washington's SOS says the principal office "can be the same as the Registered Agent, or it can be a separate location where records are maintained" (RCW 23.95.105(28)). Florida and California treat the two as separate fields without an explicit rule on overlap.

Management disclosure that survives the agent's address

Who appears alongside the agent depends on state and entity type:

• Delaware LLC or LP: The Certificate of Formation needs only the name, registered office address, and agent name; no annual report follows, so member and manager names do not ordinarily appear on the listed formation or annual filings.

• Delaware corporation: All directors and at least one officer, with addresses, each year (8 Del. C. § 502(a)(4)).

• California LLC: All managers or all members, with addresses, on the Statement of Information (Form LLC-12) filed with the Secretary of State.

• Texas LLC: Form 205 at formation, then officers, directors, or managers annually via the Public Information Report, filed with the Texas Comptroller rather than the Secretary of State.

Hold 50 Delaware LLCs and your manager names do not ordinarily appear on the listed Delaware filings; qualify the same entities in California or Texas and those names land on a periodic filing.

Federal forms ask for the entity's own location

The IRS asks for the entity's physical location, and FinCEN generally asks covered entities for their principal place of business.

IRS Form SS-4 and the responsible party

The December 2025 revision of the SS-4 instructions permits a P.O. box on the mailing address lines, and accepts a care-of third-party address if Line 3 is completed, but requires the entity's own physical address on Lines 5a and 5b, and Line 6 tells you to enter the entity's primary physical location. On the responsible party, IRS Publication 1635 states that the IRS does not authorize the use of nominees to obtain EINs.

FinCEN reporting after August 14, 2026

FinCEN's final rule, effective August 14, 2026, made permanent the March 26, 2025 interim rule limiting "reporting company" to entities formed under foreign law and registered to do business in a U.S. state or tribal jurisdiction. Domestic U.S. entities are exempt under the final rule (FinCEN BOI).

The foreign companies still report the street address of their principal place of business, and FinCEN's FAQs allow a registered agent's address only when the company has no U.S. principal place of business.

Changing agents, and what a stale address costs

An agent change is a public filing with a fee in each of the states below, and a stale address creates default judgment exposure.

Change and resignation filings

Change fees run per entity in most states, with only a few offering an agent-initiated bulk filing.

In Texas, failure to meet registered-agent maintenance requirements may result in involuntary termination or revocation. In Delaware, failure to maintain a valid agent can lead to charter voidance for a corporation or cancellation of an LLC's certificate of formation and loss of good-standing status.

Default judgment exposure

In Delphi Corp. v. Orlik, 831 N.E.2d 265 (Ind. Ct. App. 2005), a commercial agent's employee failed to forward the complaint and the default judgment was affirmed. Under Indiana's controlling case law, an agent's failure to forward a complaint is imputed to the entity it represents, so the entity can face the same default judgment exposure as if it had received the papers directly and set them aside.

For an acquirer folding entities into a portfolio, the agent field on each acquired entity is the first record to check.

Consolidate your registered agent coverage with Discern

One agent address lands on formation certificates, periodic reports, and searchable state databases, each with its own change fee and its own rules for what counts as a valid physical address. Discern's registered agent service keeps that address current across all 51 jurisdictions and every entity type, and change of agent filings are included at no additional cost.

For compliance teams managing multi-state entity portfolios, Discern handles registered agent coverage, annual report filings, and foreign registrations from a single platform. That matters most at scale: updating one entity's agent address does not mean tracking down a separate form and fee in every other state where that entity is registered.

Book a demo with Discern to see how one registered agent platform handles your filings across multiple jurisdictions.

Frequently asked questions about registered agent addresses

These answers summarize what a commercial registered agent address covers and what remains separately visible or required.

What does the Northwest Registered Agent address cover?

It provides the in-state registered office where legal process and state notices can be delivered during normal business hours. That statutory function does not by itself include general mail receipt and forwarding.

Is a registered agent address public?

The agent's name and address can appear on formation documents, periodic reports, foreign qualification applications, and searchable state databases in the jurisdictions reviewed here. Washington's commercial-agent filing is an exception because the agent's verified address remains on file with the Secretary of State.

Does the registered agent address replace the principal office address?

No. The principal office is a separate filing field, and states may also require organizer, incorporator, manager, member, officer, or director information depending on the jurisdiction and entity type.

What happens when you change registered agents?

The change generally requires a public filing and a fee for each entity, although some states offer agent-initiated bulk filings. A stale address can prevent legal documents from reaching you and expose the entity to termination, revocation, loss of good standing, or default judgment risks.