Registered Office Address – A Calgary Address for Your Corporation, With Mail Scanning

Every Alberta corporation must have a registered office at a physical Alberta address; a P.O. box alone is not accepted. It is the address Corporate Registry writes to, including the annual return reminder it mails one month before your anniversary month. For a new corporation the address simply goes on the incorporation package. For an existing corporation we file a Notice of Change of Address, which is a separate address change filing quoted on its own page.

Who this is for

• The non-resident owner incorporating in Alberta. Directors have not needed to be Canadian residents since March 29, 2021, but the corporation still needs an Alberta registered office and an agent for service located in Alberta.
• The company from another province or country that is registering extra-provincially and has no office in Alberta yet.
• The home-based founder who would rather not have a home address on the corporate record.
• The owner who moves often, or whose accountant's or lawyer's address is no longer available, and wants a registered address in Calgary that stays put.

How it works

1. Choose the plan in the online form and tell us the corporation's name, or that you are incorporating with us now. About 10 minutes.
2. A trained agent confirms the details for your Notice of Address: the registered office and, if different, the records address.
3. We put the address on file: on the incorporation package for a new corporation, or by filing a Notice of Change of Address for an existing one, the same business day for orders received before 3:00 pm MT.
4. Mail arrives and we scan it to your email within one business day of arrival, with a one-line note on what the letter is and what to do by when. Originals are forwarded on request.
5. Before the plan year ends, we email you about renewal.

Virtual registered office in Alberta: what you are actually getting

A virtual registered office is a real street address staffed during business hours (Mon–Fri 8:00–6:00 MT), where registry letters are signed for and opened by a person who knows what an annual return reminder looks like and what happens if it is ignored. That is the difference from a rented mailbox: the letter does not sit in a box until someone remembers to check it. Corporate Registry sends notices when an annual return is missed, and after repeated misses the corporation is struck (dissolved), so the registered office is the address that keeps your corporation alive.

Records address for an Alberta corporation

Alberta's Notice of Address asks for the registered office and, where it is different, a records address where the corporation's records are kept. Under this plan both can be our address, or the records address can stay with your lawyer or accountant. Your minute book does not have to sit in our office.

Common mistakes we catch before filing

• A P.O. box, or a mailbox-store suite number, given as the registered office.
• Listing the registered office and assuming the agent for service is covered; it is a separate appointment of an individual located in Alberta.
• An old address left on file, so the annual return reminder went to a previous accountant and the return was missed.
• A move that was updated with CRA and the bank but never filed with Corporate Registry.
• An extra-provincial corporation's home-jurisdiction address entered as its Alberta registered office.

What you need before you start

• The corporation's exact legal name and corporate access number, or your incorporation order number if you are incorporating now.
• The email address, or two, that should receive the scans.
• The name and Alberta address of your agent for service, or add our agent for service to the order.
• For an existing corporation: the registered office currently on file, so the Notice of Change of Address can be prepared.
• A forwarding address for originals, if you want them.

Requirements in Alberta

• Registered office: a physical Alberta address; a P.O. box alone is not accepted.
• Corporate Registry mails the annual return reminder to the registered office one month before the anniversary month, and the annual return is due every year in that month.
• Agent for service: every Alberta corporation must appoint an individual located in Alberta with an Alberta address. The agent need not be a lawyer, and the appointment has been mandatory for all corporations since the 2021 amendments.
• A corporation formed outside Alberta must register here if it carries on business in Alberta, including soliciting business here or having a resident agent, representative, warehouse, office or place of business in Alberta, and it names an agent for service in Alberta as part of that registration.
• A change of registered office is filed with Corporate Registry; the new address is not on the record until it is filed.