How to cancel a registered agent service in New York

Step 1: the Certificate of Change that removes the agent from your New York record

One New York form, the Certificate of Change, can remove the agent and replace the service of process address.

Related guide: Does removing a registered agent change your service of process address?

On form DOS-1359-f (opens in a new tab), the revoke statement reads "The limited liability company hereby revokes the designation of its registered agent." The revoke statement has no blank for the agent's name. The address statement says the address "is changed to read in its entirety as follows" (DOS-1359-f), so what the certificate states replaces the whole entry.

The Certificate of Change that Remove Registered Agent files names no new agent. Depending on the record, it revokes the registered agent, replaces the LLC's service of process address, or does both. A member, manager or authorized person of the LLC signs it, and Remove Registered Agent files it with the New York Department of State.

An LLC can also fill in and file the certificate itself. For an owner filing it by hand, it comes to at least 10 hours of work, with everything right the first time; our operator timed it. Most of those hours go to steps a quick estimate leaves out: reading the LLC Law to choose the statements, checking with the agent company, calling the Department of State and waiting for its answer, and checking everything again before mailing. In our operator's experience, one small mistake on the form brings a correction letter and a resubmission. The DOS-1359-f guide lists where those hours go, from the form and its cover sheet to the mail.

Remove Registered Agent files electronically through its operator's service company account with the Department of State: the certificate goes into the Department's system when it is submitted, dated that day, with nothing to print, mail or scan. Of the 12 Certificates of Change our operator emailed to the Department of State from June 15 to July 1, 2026, 11 were dated the day they were sent or the next business day; a mailed one is dated no earlier than the day the mail reaches the Department. Remove Registered Agent applies LLC Law §211-A (opens in a new tab), §302 (opens in a new tab) and §301 (opens in a new tab) to your LLC's live record: which statements it calls for, and whether the address must be replaced. Each certificate Remove Registered Agent prepares carries the LLC's exact name and filing date on both pages, a completed filer block, the statements the record calls for and, where the service of process address is still the agent company's, a new one the LLC chooses. If the State asks for a correction, Remove Registered Agent makes the correction and resubmits the certificate at no charge. The Certificate of Change accepted by the State, or your full $100 back. With Remove Registered Agent, the LLC's part is to confirm its details by email, choose any new address and sign.

Revoking the agent alone also leaves the email address for notice of electronic service of process (e-service) as it is. The State's public record shows only whether e-service is "Permitted", never the email address itself. Where it shows "Permitted", the same certificate can also change or delete the e-service email address, as the LLC chooses.

Related guide: How to file DOS-1359-f to remove a New York registered agent

Does the State name a new agent, and how long does filing take?

• The State does not name a new agent when one is removed. Nothing is designated automatically, because the Secretary of State has been the agent for service of process of every New York LLC since its formation (LLC Law §301(a), (b) (opens in a new tab)).
• Filing is not mail only, and the State publishes no standard processing time. The New York Department of State's updates page (opens in a new tab) says "Please submit all filings and requests via email or mail." (read October 23, 2026). Remove Registered Agent files each signed certificate electronically through the E-Submission upload of eCorp, the Department of State's online filing system, under its operator's service company account; filers without a service company account email or mail the Certificate of Change. An uploaded certificate goes into the Department of State's system when it is submitted, dated that day, with a work order number, and there is nothing to print, mail or scan. Of the 12 Certificates of Change our operator emailed to the Department of State from June 15 to July 1, 2026, 11 were dated the day they were sent or the next business day; a mailed one is dated no earlier than the day the mail reaches the Department. The Department of State does not publish 30 to 50 days, or any other standard processing time, for a Certificate of Change.
• Our operator's record, by route. Of the 100 Certificates of Change our operator filed from January 12 to October 29, 2026, the 29 uploaded through eCorp's E-Submission, the route every certificate an LLC signs takes, had a median of under 1 day from filing to the State's response, and the 23 sent by mail a median of 7.2 days from mailing. These are past records, not a promise.

Related guide: How long does it take to remove a registered agent in NY?

Step 2: cancel or do not renew with the agent company

Cancelling the agent company's service is the LLC's own step, taken with the agent company under that company's terms.

Agent companies set their own terms for leaving, and the texts differ. We quote the companies' own words in the table below, dated and linked.

Related page: Removing a New York LLC's registered agent: the options compared

What a registered agent does, and when keeping one makes sense

A registered agent is a person or company, besides the Secretary of State, on whom process can be served.

Under §302(a), a registered agent is an agent "upon whom process against the limited liability company may be served". Process is the papers served to start or carry on a legal action, such as a summons.

The two routes work differently. When process against an LLC that is not suspended is served on the Secretary of State by personal delivery, §303(a)(1) (opens in a new tab) says the Secretary of State "shall promptly send one of such copies by certified mail, return receipt requested" to the LLC's address on file. For an LLC suspended under §301-A, service through the Secretary of State follows LLC Law §301-A(e)(2), quoted in how the State forwards process. An agent company forwards process under its own contract with the LLC.

Keeping a registered agent can make sense when an LLC wants a person or company in New York to receive process served on it and to forward it under a contract, alongside the State's own mailing. What an agent company does with the process it receives is set by its own contract with the LLC.

Related guide: Do you have to pay a registered agent every year in NY?

What each company's terms ask when you cancel

The companies' published terms differ. New York's rule does not.

New York makes a registered agent optional: "In addition to the designation of the secretary of state," an LLC "may designate a registered agent" (LLC Law §302(a)). A filing that only revokes the registered agent therefore leaves the LLC compliant with New York's registered-agent rule; the Secretary of State has been its agent for service of process since formation (§301(a), (b)).

Related guide: Cancelling a registered agent without a replacement in New York

We read these pages on October 29, 2026. The companies are in alphabetical order. The middle column quotes each company's own published pages, dated and linked; for three companies, no published terms were found. The right column is ours.

Where a company's own pages differ, each is quoted with its date.

Some companies' terms say their registered agent service can be provided through a partner or affiliate, so the agent named on an LLC's New York record can be a different company from the one the LLC pays.

Remove Registered Agent is not affiliated with any company in this table, and each company's words are its own. Whether a company accepts the filed record is between the LLC and that company.

Related guide: Can you be your own registered agent in New York?

Who does what

Cancelling a registered agent company's yearly contract does not change a New York LLC's State record: the State keeps listing the agent, and the LLC's service of process address, until a filing changes them. Remove Registered Agent files the Certificate of Change that takes the agent company off a New York LLC's State record and, where needed, replaces the LLC's service of process address with one the LLC chooses. With the State's filing receipt in hand, the LLC can then cancel or not renew its contract with the agent company, as that contract allows.

Remove Registered Agent files the Certificate of Change and sends the customer the State's filing receipt and what changed on the record. Cancelling or not renewing the agent company's service, and sending it that receipt, stays with the customer.

As of October 30, 2026, our operator has filed 100 New York Certificates of Change since January 2026, all accepted by the State: the same filing a New York LLC uses to revoke its registered agent. The Our work page lists every one: the day filed, how it was filed, the day the State responded and the days between.

Already ended your registered agent service?

After a registered agent service ends, a New York LLC's State record can still name the agent company, and its service of process address can still be that company's address. One Certificate of Change can take the agent company off a New York LLC's State record and, where needed, replace the LLC's service of process address.

Your LLC's State record, read for free before anything is filed

Remove Registered Agent reads your LLC's live State record for free, before anything is filed.

You enter your LLC's name or DOS ID in our record check. It shows the registered agent the State lists for your LLC, if any, and its service of process address, where the Secretary of State mails a copy of any process against the LLC that is served on the Secretary of State, then says what one Certificate of Change would change and what it costs.

Remove Registered Agent, a document filing service for New York LLCs, is operated by Sandeep Arneja LLC. It is not a law firm, and this page is general information, not legal advice.