California does not offer a professional LLC

What California offers instead

Does a licensing board have to approve the filing?

Yes in substance, though not at the counter. Corporations Code § 13404: "no professional corporation shall render professional services in this state without a currently effective certificate of registration issued by the governmental agency regulating the profession," issued under the Business and Professions Code or the Chiropractic Act and expressly authorising delivery of the services by a professional corporation. Section 13401 exempts a list of medical and health care professions from needing that certificate. The filing office does not police any of it and says so: "The California Secretary of State does not license corporations. For licensing requirements, please contact" the regulating agency, and its form tells filers to "Contact the California professional state board or agency that controls your profession to find out if your profession is authorized to be a professional corporation in California."

Which occupations California treats as professional

A general licensed-profession test, tied to three named bodies of law rather than to a list of occupations. Corporations Code § 13401 defines professional services as "any type of professional services that may be lawfully rendered only pursuant to a license, certification, or registration authorized by the Business and Professions Code, the Chiropractic Act, or the Osteopathic Act." A "licensed person" is an individual holding the credential to perform the same services the corporation renders, and § 13401 defines a professional corporation as one "engaged in rendering professional services in a single profession," except as § 13401.5 allows.

Does the agent requirement differ from an ordinary California LLC’s?

No. California sets no separate agent requirement for a professional entity — it is the same requirement an ordinary California LLC files under.

No difference. California's term is agent for service of process, and the Moscone-Knox Act adds no separate agent rule for professional corporations. A professional corporation files Articles of Incorporation - Professional with the same agent designation as any California corporation.

Why California answers this way

California does not have a PLLC, and the prohibition is explicit rather than incidental. Corporations Code § 17701.04(e) reads in full: "Nothing in this title shall be construed to permit a domestic or foreign limited liability company to render professional services, as defined in subdivision (a) of Section 13401 and in Section 13401.3, in this state." Section 17701.04(b) leaves one narrow door: an LLC "may render services that may be lawfully rendered only pursuant to a license, certificate, or registration authorized by the Business and Professions Code, the Chiropractic Act, the Osteopathic Act, or the Yacht and Ship Brokers Act, if the applicable provisions of" those acts "authorize a limited liability company or foreign limited liability company to hold that license, certificate, or registration." So the question in California is never "can I form a PLLC," it is whether the licensing act itself lets an LLC hold the licence. What licensed Californians use instead: a professional corporation, which the Secretary of State offers as its own filing, "Articles of Incorporation - Professional"; or, for five professions only, a registered limited liability partnership. The Secretary of State's own description of the LLP: "An LLP is a partnership that engages in the practice of public accountancy, the practice of law, the practice of architecture, the practice of engineering or the practice of land surveying, or provides services or facilities to a California registered LLP that practices public accountancy or law, or to a foreign LLP." The office also publishes Form CONV LLC-PC, Articles of Incorporation with Statement of Conversion, for an existing California LLC converting into a California professional corporation, which is the route out for a company that formed as an LLC and then needed to practise.