Change Your West Virginia Registered Agent: Form AAO, $15 Fee, Steps

Switching registered agents in West Virginia takes one form and $15. The form is the Application to Appoint or Change Process, Officers, and/or Addresses, which the state calls Form AAO. Quick terminology note: West Virginia's statutes say "agent for service of process" where most states say registered agent. Same role, different label. Here's how the change works in 2026.

Why Businesses Change Agents

Privacy Protection This is the big one. If the agent address on file for your company is your home or office, it sits in the Secretary of State's public database where anyone can look it up. Filing a change puts our address on the public record instead of yours.

Unwanted Visitors A public address means process servers can show up at that address during business hours. If that address is your house, strangers arrive at your door carrying legal papers. A professional agent takes that scene somewhere else.

Better Service If your current agent is slow to pass documents along, you're the one whose response deadlines burn while paper sits in a pile. We scan everything the day it arrives and email it to you.

Lower Price Plenty of registered agent services bill well over $100 a year. Ours is $99 annually, flat, with privacy as the focus.

Business Changes Moving out of West Virginia, closing a West Virginia office, or going fully remote all tend to force an agent change. A professional service gives you an address that never moves.

The Form: AAO, and Its $15 Fee

West Virginia handles agent changes on Form AAO, the Application to Appoint or Change Process, Officers, and/or Addresses. It's a single combined form used by every entity type, and it's filed with the Secretary of State's Business & Licensing Division. The state fee is $15.

You can download Form AAO directly from the Secretary of State, or make the same change online through the One Stop Business Portal, where West Virginia adds a $1.00 online processing fee. For LLCs, the change filing is authorized by W. Va. Code § 31B-1-109.

Steps to Change Your Registered Agent in West Virginia

1. Pick a replacement agent who qualifies. For an LLC, § 31B-1-108(b) allows an individual West Virginia resident, a domestic corporation, another LLC, or an out-of-state corporation or company authorized to do business here.
2. Complete Form AAO. Check your entity type at item 1, then fill in item 4, the section for changing the agent for service of process.
3. Collect the new agent's signature. The form requires the incoming agent to sign, consenting to the appointment.
4. File with the Secretary of State's Business & Licensing Division and pay the $15 fee, by mail with the PDF or online through One Stop.
5. Once the filing processes, pull up your company in the state's business search and confirm the new agent shows on the record.

We File the Change for You

Sign up and the paperwork stops being your problem. We prepare Form AAO with our West Virginia address, sign the agent consent, and submit the filing. There's no service charge for the change itself; the only money involved is the state's $15 fee. Your $99 per year covers the agent service.

From the moment the state processes the change, we're your registered office. Documents that arrive get scanned and emailed the same day, and your secure portal keeps a copy of everything. We also watch the compliance calendar for you: West Virginia annual reports are filed between January 1 and June 30 for a $25 fee, and waiting past July 1 tacks on a $50 late fee. Our reminders go out well before that happens.

Most changes move through the Secretary of State quickly. Until yours does, keep your current agent in place so there's never a gap in coverage.

Order Here Questions about changing your registered agent in West Virginia? Reach out at support@wvregisteredagent.org, Monday through Friday, 9am to 5pm ET.