Puerto Rico does not offer a professional LLC

What Puerto Rico offers instead

Does a licensing board have to approve the filing?

No licensing board approves the filing. The certification runs through the filing itself and then through the annual report. Clause CUARTO of the Department of State's incorporation form states that all the incorporators and shareholders are duly licensed, or otherwise legally authorised, by the Government of Puerto Rico to offer the professional service described in clause TERCERO. Artículo 18.15 then requires that the annual report of a professional corporation certify that its shareholders, directors and officers remain duly licensed, certified, registered or otherwise legally authorised in this jurisdiction to render the same professional service as the corporation.

Which occupations Puerto Rico treats as professional

A general licence test with an illustrative, not exhaustive, list. Artículo 18.02(A) defines "servicio profesional" as any type of professional service to the public that by statute, regulation or case law could not be rendered by a corporation before this Act took effect and for which a licence or other legal authorisation is a condition precedent to rendering the service. It then adds, expressly "a modo de ejemplo sin limitar la generalidad de este término", that the professional services covered include those provided by architects, certified or other public accountants, podiatrists, chiropractors, dentists, doctors of medicine, optometrists, osteopaths, professional engineers, veterinarians and lawyers, the last subject to the Rules of the Supreme Court. Artículo 18.01 frames the chapter's purpose as incorporating an individual or group who render the same professional service to the public and for which the law requires them to hold a licence.

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

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

Not different. Clause SEGUNDO of the professional corporation form asks for the designated office in Puerto Rico, physical and mailing, and "el Agente Residente a cargo de dicha oficina", which is the same resident agent block an ordinary Puerto Rico corporation completes.

Why Puerto Rico answers this way

Puerto Rico has a professional corporation and no professional LLC. The Department of State publishes the list of what it actually registers, and that list includes "Corporaciones profesionales (Ley Núm. 164-2009)" but offers only three flavours of compañía de responsabilidad limitada, con fines de lucro, sin fines de lucro and con fin social, plus their foreign equivalents. The registration form catalogue matches: there is a Certificado de Incorporación de una Corporación Profesional (form 5-CORPREG05, at https://docs.pr.gov/files/Estado/Corporaciones/Formularios/5-CORPREG05.pdf) and no professional LLC form. The statute agrees. Capítulo XIX, the LLC chapter, runs to roughly 1,800 lines and never mentions professional services, and the LLC name rule in Artículo 19.02 (14 L.P.R.A. § 3952) offers only "Compañía de Responsabilidad Limitada" or "Limited Liability Company", the abbreviation "C.R.L." or "L.L.C.", or the designations "CRL" or "LLC", with the social purpose variants. Two further features of the Puerto Rico form are worth knowing. A professional corporation may be organised for one and only one professional service: Artículo 18.03 allows incorporation "con el propósito único y específico de rendir los mismos servicios profesionales", and clause TERCERO of the form asks for that single service. And Artículo 18.14's ban means a Puerto Rico professional corporation cannot simply append "Inc." the way an ordinary corporation can. The commonly seen designation in practice is P.S.C.