Agent for Service – Appoint or Change Your Alberta Agent for Service

The price covers one year of acting as your agent. For a new corporation, the Notice of Agent for Service is filed with the incorporation package. For an existing corporation, the change is a separate registry filing; it is priced as its own line, government fee included, and shown before you pay.

Alberta agent for service requirement: the rules

• Every Alberta corporation must have one. The requirement became mandatory for all corporations with the 2021 amendments to the Business Corporations Act (the Red Tape Reduction Implementation Act changes). Existing corporations had until March 29, 2022 to comply.
• Who can act. An individual located in Alberta with an Alberta address. Not a company, and not a person outside the province. The agent does not need to be a lawyer.
• What the role is. The agent accepts legal documents and notices served on the corporation. An owner or director who lives in Alberta can hold the role.
• Directors can live anywhere. Since March 29, 2021, Alberta has no Canadian-residency requirement for directors, which is exactly why the province requires one individual in Alberta to receive documents.
• Extra-provincial corporations too. A corporation formed outside Alberta, including a federal (CBCA) corporation, names an Alberta agent for service on the Notice of Agent for Service (REG3037) when it registers here. See extra-provincial registration in Alberta.
• Changing the agent. A change is filed with Corporate Registry on its own notice. If the registered office is moving at the same time, both go through our change of address service in one order.

Who this is for

• The out-of-province, federal or foreign corporation registering extra-provincially in Alberta. The package needs a Notice of Agent for Service (REG3037) naming an individual in Alberta, and most companies have nobody here.
• The non-resident founder. Alberta has had no Canadian-residency requirement for directors since March 29, 2021, so you can incorporate from anywhere. Your corporation still needs one individual in Alberta: the agent for service.
• The Alberta owner who does not want legal documents arriving at home, or a home address sitting on the corporate record.
• The CPA or law clerk whose client's agent was a director who has since moved out of Alberta, or a lawyer who has retired, and who needs the change filed today with a PDF for the file.

If you have been searching for a registered agent in Alberta, this is the same role. Alberta's term is agent for service.

How it works

1. You fill in the short online form — about 5 minutes. Choose "appoint ACS" or "change to a person I name".
2. A CORES-trained agent reviews the notice within one business hour: an individual rather than a company, an Alberta street address, and details that match the corporation's current registry record.
3. We submit the notice through a licensed Alberta registry agent into CORES, with your incorporation or as a change filing. ACS is a private company; we are not a government office or a registry agent.
4. You receive the confirmation and the filed notice by email the same business day for orders received before 3:00 pm MT.
5. From then on, anything served on the corporation reaches you as a scan within one business day, and we remind you before the annual renewal.

If a notice cannot be filed, our refund policy explains what happens.

Common mistakes we catch before filing

• A company named as agent. The agent must be an individual; a corporation or a law firm's name alone is rejected.
• A P.O. box for the agent's address. Someone has to be able to hand documents to a person at that address.
• A director who has moved away. The former Calgary director now living in Vancouver is still on the record as agent, and nobody would receive a claim.
• The owner's home address used without thinking it through.
• An extra-provincial package with no agent. The Statement of Registration goes nowhere without the Notice of Agent for Service beside it.

What you need before you start

• The corporation's exact legal name and its Alberta corporate access number for an existing corporation, or your incorporation order for a new one.
• The name and address of the current agent for service, if there is one, so the change replaces the right record.
• The registered office address, which must be a physical Alberta address rather than a P.O. box alone, so we can confirm it is still current.
• The email address and phone number where you want forwarded documents to reach you, wherever you are.
• Valid government-issued photo ID of the person authorizing the appointment.
• A credit card. You need no registry login: business owners cannot file in CORES, Alberta's Corporate Registry System, and every filing goes through a licensed registry agent.

• A named ACS individual located in Alberta, at [Street address], Calgary, AB [Postal code], appointed as your corporation's agent for service.
• The Notice of Agent for Service prepared and checked by a CORES-trained agent, then filed with your incorporation or as a change of agent for an existing corporation.
• Confirmation of filing and the filed notice in PDF for your minute book, the same business day for orders received before 3:00 pm MT.
• Receipt of legal documents and Corporate Registry notices addressed to the corporation, scanned and emailed to you within one business day of arrival, with the original forwarded on request.
• A renewal reminder before the year ends, and the change of agent filed for you if you later move the appointment to someone else.