§ 8.01-301.How process served on foreign stock or nonstock corporations and foreign limited liability companies generally.

Section 8.01-301 gives plaintiffs several ways to reach a foreign corporation or foreign limited liability company. Personal service works on any officer, director, or registered agent of a corporation authorized to do business in Virginia, on any agent of an unauthorized foreign corporation transacting business here wherever that agent is found in the Commonwealth, and on the registered agent of a foreign LLC registered to do business in Virginia.

Substituted service is also available, but which Title 13.1 provision applies depends on whether the entity is authorized or registered to transact business in Virginia — one set of cross-referenced statutes applies if it is, and a different set applies if it is not. Separately, subdivision 3 lets a plaintiff use substituted service under § 8.01-329 or service under § 8.01-320 whenever the court's jurisdiction rests on Virginia's long-arm statute, § 8.01-328.1, regardless of whether the foreign entity is authorized to do business here at all.

Where in rem or quasi in rem jurisdiction is authorized, an order of publication under §§ 8.01-316 and 8.01-317 rounds out the available methods, again without regard to the entity's authorization status. As with the domestic-entity statute, this section is not exclusive of other valid means of service. And it adds a separate rule for subpoenas: a foreign corporation transacting business in Virginia that has a registered agent here is deemed to have consented to service and must respond to a subpoena served this way consistent with Virginia law and the Rules of the Supreme Court of Virginia.