Nevada Process Server Service of Process in All 16 Counties and Carson City, Under NRCP 4.2

Who may serve

The sheriff or a deputy sheriff of the county where the defendant is found, or any person at least 18 years old who is not a party to the action. Sheriffs and constables execute process delivered to them for that purpose. The clerk issues a signed, sealed summons for each defendant, and the plaintiff gives the server the summons together with a copy of the complaint.

NRCP 4(b), 4(c)⁠(2)–⁠(3); NRS 248.100(3), 258.070(1)⁠(b)

Process server license

Chapter 648 defines a process server as anyone, other than a Nevada peace officer, in the business of serving legal process in the state, and bars engaging in or advertising that business without a license from the Private Investigator’s Licensing Board. Anyone a license holder employs must be registered with the Board. An applicant for the license must be 21 or older with two years of process-serving experience or its equivalent; a registered employee must be at least 18. The license covers every county and city in Nevada. The chapter does not reach, among others, law enforcement and special police officers on duty, an employer’s own regular employee serving for that employer if a bona fide employer-employee relationship exists, except as otherwise provided in NRS 648.060, 648.140 and 648.203, or an attorney performing legal duties.

NRS 648.014, 648.018(1), (2), (4), (8), 648.020(1), 648.060, 648.110(1)⁠(a), (2)⁠(d), 648.1493(3), 648.140(1)

The 120-day clock

An action begins when the complaint is filed, and each defendant must be served within 120 days of that filing. If service is not made in time, the court must dismiss the action without prejudice as to that defendant, on motion or on its own order to show cause. A motion filed before the period runs out, with good cause, requires the court to extend it; a motion filed afterward must also show good cause for filing late.

NRCP 3, 4(e)⁠(1)–⁠(4)

Serving a person

Hand the summons and complaint to the defendant; or leave them at the defendant’s dwelling or usual place of abode with someone of suitable age and discretion who currently lives there and is not an adverse party; or deliver them to an agent authorized by appointment or by law. The Rule 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4 methods are cumulative.

NRCP 4(c)⁠(4), 4.2(a)

Gated residences

When a guard at the gate denies the server access to the home, leaving a copy with the guard makes service effective. With no guard posted and no reasonable way through the gate, the court, satisfied by affidavit, may allow service by certified or registered mail to the residence.

NRS 14.090(1)

Minors and incapacitated persons

A minor 14 or older receives a copy personally, and a copy also goes to a guardian or similar fiduciary; with none, to a parent; and if neither can be found with reasonable diligence, to an adult with care or control of the minor or a person of suitable age and discretion the minor lives with. An incapacitated person receives a copy, and so does a fiduciary or, with none, a person of suitable age and discretion they live with, the facility where they live, or another person the court orders.

NRCP 4.2(b)

Companies and associations

An entity formed or registered in Nevada, or with a Nevada registered agent, is served through its registered agent, a corporate officer or director, a partner or general partner, an LLC member (member-managed) or manager (manager-managed), a business-trust trustee, an officer or director of an NRS chapter 81 organization, a managing or general agent, or any other agent authorized by appointment or by law (with a mailing to the entity’s last-known address where that agent’s statute requires one). Under NRS 14.020 the agent named in Secretary of State records may be served personally or through a person of suitable age and discretion at its most recent street address on file, an address that, unless it is the agent’s home, must be staffed during normal business hours; that service stands even if the entity is in default or revoked, if it is made within 3 years after the entity’s date of default. Any other foreign entity is served through one of those listed people found in Nevada.

NRCP 4.2(c)⁠(1)–⁠(2); NRS 14.020(2)–⁠(3)

Serving the Secretary of State

Two routes. Under Rule 4.2(c)(3), when an entity required to appoint a Nevada registered agent or to register here cannot be served under Rule 4.2(c)(1) or (2), the court may grant leave on an affidavit of good-faith attempts to locate and serve it, the reasons service cannot be made, and any last-known address of the entity or its listed people; unless the court orders otherwise, it does not replace serving a listed person whose out-of-state address is known. Service is then delivery to the Secretary of State or a deputy plus posting in the clerk’s office, with registered or certified mail to each listed person at a known last address, and a response is due 21 days after the later step. Under NRS 14.030, when an entity has failed to appoint a registered agent (shown by a Secretary of State certificate made part of the return) or its agent’s street address is not staffed (a fact also stated in the return), the plaintiff files an affidavit of due diligence in seeking the entity’s officers and delivers the papers, citing NRS 14.030 and with the statutory fee, to the Secretary of State or a deputy. If a last-known address of the entity or an officer appears, the plaintiff then mails the summons and complaint there by registered or certified mail. The defendant has 40 days after service, or 40 days after that mailing.

NRCP 4.2(c)⁠(3)⁠(A)–⁠(E); NRS 14.030(1)–⁠(4)

The State, counties and cities

The State and its public entities: the Attorney General or a designee at the Office of the Attorney General in Carson City, and also the administrative head of the named entity. A county, city, town or other political subdivision: the presiding officer of its governing body or that officer’s designated agent. A State officer or employee sued over public duties: the Attorney General plus the officer or employee; a local officer or employee: that person or a designated agent. The court must allow reasonable time to cure a missed half of a two-part State delivery.

NRCP 4.2(d)⁠(1)–⁠(4), (6); NRS 41.031(2)

Outside Nevada

Elsewhere in the United States, a defendant may be served as Rule 4.2(a) provides or under the law of the place of service, by someone that place authorizes to serve process. Personal service outside Nevada in the manner Nevada provides for a like defendant within the state is sufficient for jurisdiction under NRS 14.065(2), which reaches any basis consistent with the state and federal constitutions (14.065(1)). Abroad, service follows the Hague Service Convention or another internationally agreed means; if there is no internationally agreed means, or if an international agreement allows but does not specify other means, service may follow the foreign country’s own law, a letter rogatory, or personal delivery or clerk-sent signed-receipt mail unless the foreign law prohibits it (not personal delivery to an entity). The court may also order a method no international agreement prohibits. Minors and incapacitated persons abroad are served only under Rule 4.3(b)(2).

NRCP 4.3(a)⁠(1), (6), 4.3(b)⁠(1)–⁠(3); NRS 14.065(1)–⁠(2)

Proof of service

Unless the defendant appears or waives or admits service, the plaintiff files proof stating the date, place and manner of service by the time the defendant must respond; for service in the United States it is the server’s affidavit (abroad and by publication, Rule 4(d)(2)–(3) apply). NRS 14.025 adds the server’s name, address and phone; the date and time; the manner; where practicable, the name or a physical description of the person served; and the server’s license or registration number, or the reason no license was required. A proof missing those items may be held legally insufficient, and one filed by a person without the chapter 648 license who kept serving after being served with a Board cease-and-desist citation (NRS 648.1655) must be treated as legally insufficient, with any judgment resting on it void (NRS 14.027(1)). A signed, dated declaration under penalty of perjury may stand in for the affidavit. Proof may be amended, and a failure to file it does not undo valid service.

NRCP 4(d)⁠(1)–⁠(5); NRS 14.025, 14.027(1), 53.045, 648.1655

Waiver, court order and publication

A plaintiff may mail a written request that the defendant waive service, giving at least 30 days (60 if sent outside the United States) to return it; a defendant in the United States who refuses a US plaintiff without good cause bears the later cost of service, and a filed waiver replaces proof of service. Where a statute provides its own method, Rule 4.4(a) allows service under it: under NRS 14.070, for example, a driver sued over a Nevada crash who is outside Nevada or cannot be found in it may be served by leaving a copy of the process, with the statutory fee, with the DMV Director, with the plaintiff mailing notice and a copy by registered or certified mail and filing the receipt or postal return with an affidavit of compliance. When Rules 4.2, 4.3 and 4.4(a) are impracticable, the court may order another method on a motion showing due diligence and the defendant’s known contacts (address, phone, email, social media), with a mailed copy of the papers and order to the last-known address. Publication, ordered when court-ordered methods are also impracticable and the defendant cannot be found, is concealing himself, or is an absent or unknown party in a Nevada property action, runs at least once a week for four weeks, with a mailing to any last-known address the plaintiff knows, and is complete four weeks after the later of first publication or mailing. The court may also order extra notice by certified mail, phone, email or social media.

NRCP 4.1(a)–⁠(b), (d); 4.4(a)–⁠(d); NRS 14.070(1)–⁠(2), (5)–⁠(6)

Sundays and legal holidays

On Sundays and NRS 236.015 holidays, no court other than a justice or municipal court opens or transacts judicial business, outside the purposes NRS 1.130 lists; the same section says nothing in it affects private transactions of any nature. Courts and state, county and city offices close on those holidays. In counting a period, the trigger day is excluded, and a last day on a Saturday, Sunday or legal holiday runs to the next day that is none of those.

NRS 1.130(1)–⁠(2), 236.015(2); NRCP 6(a)⁠(1), (6)

Subpoenas from other states

Nevada adopted the Uniform Interstate Depositions and Discovery Act in NRS 53.100 to 53.200. A party submits the foreign subpoena to the clerk of a court in the county where discovery is to take place, which is not an appearance in Nevada courts; the clerk promptly issues a Nevada subpoena that incorporates its terms and lists every counsel of record and unrepresented party with addresses and phone numbers. It is served under NRCP 45 (or JCRCP 45) by any non-party aged 18 or older, in a Rule 4.2 manner anywhere in the state (on timely motion, a command to travel more than 100 miles, other than to a Nevada trial, must be quashed or modified: Rule 45(c)(3)(A)(ii)), with one day’s witness fee and mileage tendered when attendance is required. The server certifies a statement of the date and manner of service and the persons served. Motions to quash or enforce go to the court in the discovery county.

NRS 53.100, 53.150, 53.170, 53.180, 53.190, 50.225(1); NRCP 45(b)⁠(1)–⁠(2), (5)–⁠(6), 45(c)⁠(3)⁠(A)⁠(ii)

Rules current as of October 2026, from the official texts listed below. Nevada Rules of Civil Procedure 3, 4, 4.1 to 4.4, 6, 12 and 45 and the Appendix of Forms (amendments through October 31, 2025); NRS 1.130, 14.020 to 14.090, 41.031, 50.225, 53.045, 53.100 to 53.200, 236.015, 248.100, 258.070 and chapter 648, as published by the Nevada Legislature’s Legislative Counsel Bureau. General information, not legal advice. The official text controls.