Certificate and Articles – Certified Copies of Your Alberta Incorporation Documents

Plain or certified copy of articles of incorporation in Alberta: what the record holds

On the record, available as copies. Everything filed with Corporate Registry: Articles of Incorporation; Articles of Amendment; the Certificate of Incorporation; Notice of Address; Notice of Directors; Notice of Agent for Service; annual returns; and Articles of Revival if the corporation was revived.

Not on the record. The bylaws, share certificates, the registers of directors, shareholders and officers, and the annual resolutions. These live only in the minute book. Alberta corporations must keep these records, but they are never filed with the registry, so the registry cannot supply them.

Plain or certified. A certified copy carries Corporate Registry's certification that it matches the document on file; a plain copy is the same document without it. Banks, lawyers on a sale and other registries usually ask for certified copies. For your accountant or your own file, plain is normally enough.

Lost certificate of incorporation in Alberta: rebuilding the minute book

The certificate of incorporation is on the registry record, so a certified copy replaces it. Once you have the filed documents, the rest of a lost minute book is rebuilt rather than replaced: bylaws adopted, registers reconstructed from the annual returns (which name the top five shareholders) and the shareholders' own records, and resolutions passed to ratify what happened in between. Our minute book service does this using the copies you order here. If shares changed hands along the way and were never recorded, ask your lawyer before the registers are rebuilt.

Who this is for

• The owner whose bank asked for "your articles" to open an account or approve a loan, and cannot find the folder from the day of incorporation.
• The owner selling the business, whose lawyer needs certified copies of the articles and every amendment for the closing.
• The buyer who has taken over a corporation and received no minute book at all.
• The accountant, lawyer or paralegal assembling a client file, who wants the registry's copy rather than a scan of uncertain origin, with partner pricing.

How it works

1. Tell us the corporation and the documents in a two-minute form.
2. A CORES-trained agent checks the record within one business hour and confirms which documents exist, so you order the right amendment rather than a guess.
3. We order the copies through a licensed Alberta registry agent. ACS is a private company; we are not a government office or a registry agent.
4. You receive the certified copies by email, usually the same business day for orders received before 3:00 pm MT. Paper copies follow by mail if you asked for them.

If a document is not on the record, we tell you before you pay, and our refund policy covers the rest.

Common mistakes we catch before ordering

• Ordering under the trade name. The record is under the legal name; we find the corporation behind the trade name first.
• The wrong amendment. A corporation that changed its name and later its share structure has two sets of Articles of Amendment, and the bank usually wants both.
• A plain copy when certified was required. Re-ordering means a second government fee, so we ask who the copy is for.
• Assuming the registry has the bylaws. It does not; they were never filed. That part is a minute book job.
• Copies when a certificate was needed. If the request is for proof of good standing, the certificate of status is the document, not the articles.

What you need before you start

• The corporation's legal name or corporate access number. Not the trade name: the record is kept under the legal name.
• Which document: Articles of Incorporation, Articles of Amendment (and roughly when it was filed), Certificate of Incorporation, Notice of Directors, Notice of Address or Notice of Agent for Service. If you do not know what is on file, order the profile report first; it lists the filed documents.
• Certified or plain. See below; when in doubt, certified.
• An email address, a mailing address if you want paper, and a credit card. You do not need a registry login, because copies, like other transactions in CORES (Alberta's Corporate Registry System), go through a licensed registry agent.

• A certified copy of the document you choose, issued by Alberta Corporate Registry (the government office that keeps the record of every Alberta corporation) and carrying its certification that it is a true copy of the document on file.
• A CORES-trained agent confirms the corporation and the document, including the right year and the right amendment, before ordering.
• The copy as a PDF by email, usually the same business day for orders received before 3:00 pm MT; a paper certified copy by mail on request.
• The government fee, paid on your behalf and included in the price. Each additional document is priced per copy and shown before you pay.
• Documents formatted for your minute book (the corporation's record book).