Registered Agent Service for Foreign Entities in Alabama

Organize a company under some other state's law, start operating in Alabama, and Alabama classifies it as a "foreign" entity that must register with the Alabama Secretary of State. For an LLC, the filing is the Foreign Limited Liability Company Application for Registration, which must list an Alabama registered agent at a street address in Alabama. Our agent service covers that for $99/year.

When Foreign Qualification Is Required

Alabama Code Section 10A-1-7.01 tells an out-of-state LLC to register before it transacts business here, and it gives the phrase a wide meaning. Under Alabama's foreign entity rules:

• "Transacting business" covers conducting a business, an activity, or any other activity, for profit or not
• No list of exempt activities exists, so there is no safe harbor for things like meetings, bank accounts, or one-off deals
• Registration under these rules is excused where another Alabama law or a federal law already authorizes your particular business here
• Once registered, the LLC must keep its registration in place for as long as it transacts business in Alabama

With a definition that broad, an office, staff, or regular work in Alabama should be treated as a reason to register. Whether a handful of sales into the state counts is a legal judgment, so put borderline cases to an Alabama business attorney.

What a Foreign Entity's Registered Agent Does

Section 10A-1-5.31 obliges each registered foreign entity to maintain an Alabama registered agent plus an Alabama registered office. Eligible agents are an individual Alabama resident or an entity formed in Alabama or registered to do business here. The agent has to run a business office at that registered office address and cannot do the job purely by virtual office, by mail forwarding, or by the two combined. The registered office itself has to sit at an Alabama street address where a process server could deliver papers to the agent personally, and a mailbox or answering service alone does not qualify.

After your registration is filed, your Alabama registered agent:

• Accepts lawsuits, plus any process, notice, or demand aimed at your LLC in Alabama
• Is the party the Secretary of State serves with written notice if grounds to revoke your registration arise
• Scans tax notices and compliance mail from state agencies and emails them to you the day they arrive
• Keeps the in-state street office that Alabama law calls for

The Application for Registration must list your registered agent and registered office, so the filing cannot go in without one. An LLC that does business here without registering keeps its contracts and can still defend itself in court, but it cannot maintain a lawsuit in an Alabama court until it registers. Once it has transacted business in Alabama for more than 90 days, the Secretary of State may collect a late filing fee of $150 for each year of delinquency and can hold the registration until that fee is paid, and the Attorney General may sue to stop the LLC from doing business in Alabama.

How to Foreign-Qualify in Alabama

1. Reserve your name with the Alabama Secretary of State. Alabama makes a foreign LLC reserve its name first and attach the name reservation certificate to its application. A reservation costs $25 by mail or $28 online and lasts one year. The name you use in Alabama must contain the words "Limited Liability Company" or one of the abbreviations "L.L.C." or "LLC," and the Secretary of State has to be able to tell it apart from every name on its records. If your legal name is taken, reserve a fictitious name and have your LLC's governing authority adopt it by resolution. Alabama asks for no good standing document from the state where you formed; the application simply has you certify that your LLC exists as a valid LLC there.

2. Appoint an Alabama registered agent. Your agent must be physically located in Alabama at a street address (no PO boxes) and keep a business office there. Alabama sets no business-hours rule for agents. We meet the address and office requirements.

3. File the Foreign Limited Liability Company Application for Registration. Filing online through the state's Online Services site costs $156 all told, the state portal's charge included. To file on paper, mail two typed copies with a self-addressed, stamped envelope and the $150 fee to the Secretary of State, Business Services, P.O. Box 5616, Montgomery, AL 36103; a card payment on a mailed filing adds 3% plus $2. Attach your name reservation certificate. The form asks for your LLC's home jurisdiction and formation date, its principal office, its registered agent and office, and the date it began or will begin doing business in Alabama.

4. Receive your filed registration. The Secretary of State publishes no standard processing time, and its fee schedule shows no expedite fee for business entity filings. The form notes that an online filing takes only as long as typing the request; documents filed online stay available to download for 15 days, and no notices are mailed.

5. Comply with ongoing obligations. There is no annual report for LLCs at the Alabama Secretary of State's office; starting in 2024, that report is for corporations only. The recurring item is the business privilege tax with the Alabama Department of Revenue: if your LLC's tax works out to more than $100, it files a return due on the same date as its federal income tax return, and at $100 or less it is exempt and files nothing. Keep your agent and registered office current (changing either costs $100), and amend your registration within 90 days of any change it reports ($100). The Secretary of State can begin revocation if your LLC goes 60 days without a registered agent or office. To leave Alabama, file a Certificate of Withdrawal ($100) together with a certificate of compliance from the Department of Revenue.

Why Use Us

• Physical Alabama address for the registered office your application names
• SOP delivery service for Alabama, so every lawsuit, notice, or filing reaches you quickly while you run the entity from another state
• Compliance reminders for the business privilege tax and other Alabama deadlines
• $99/year flat fee, the same price for a domestic or a foreign entity

Keeping up with Alabama from out of state is harder with nobody on the ground here. We are that local presence, scanning everything the state sends to your registered agent address and emailing it to you the same day.

We can take the registration filing off your plate as well. Preparing and submitting your Foreign Limited Liability Company Application for Registration runs $199 on top of Alabama's $150 registration fee, and that $199 also pays for twelve months of Alabama registered agent service from the start. Starting in the second year, keeping us as your agent costs $99/year.

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Order Here Questions about foreign qualification? Visit our FAQ or reach out.