Non-Canadian Business – Register or Incorporate in Alberta From Abroad

ACS is a private company. Our CORES-trained agents prepare your filing and submit it through a licensed Alberta registry agent. We are not a government office or a registry agent. We do not give tax, legal or immigration advice; your advisors choose the structure, and we file it.

Register a foreign corporation in Alberta, or form an Alberta subsidiary

Route 1: extra-provincial registration. A corporation formed outside Alberta must register in Alberta if it carries on business here, including soliciting business in Alberta or having a resident agent, representative, warehouse, office or place of business in Alberta. Registration keeps your existing corporation as the only legal entity. Alberta Corporate Registry receives a Statement of Registration, a Notice of Agent for Service, certified charter documents, proof of current status from your home registry, an Alberta NUANS report less than 91 days old and valid ID.

Route 2: a new Alberta corporation. An Alberta corporation is a separate entity under the Business Corporations Act that your foreign company, or you personally, can own. It needs at least one adult director, with no Canadian-residency requirement, a physical Alberta registered office and an agent for service who is an individual located in Alberta. With us it costs $498 + GST, government fee included.

A note for U.S. owners. Alberta also offers the unlimited liability corporation (ULC), used mainly by U.S. investors as a hybrid entity. Its shareholders have unlimited, joint and several liability for the corporation's obligations, so it is chosen for tax reasons that only your advisors can assess. If they recommend it, see Alberta ULC incorporation.

Who this is for

• A US company doing business in Alberta for the first time, with a contract, a customer or a representative here and no one on the ground to handle filings.
• Owners in the UK, Europe, the Gulf, India or elsewhere who want to incorporate an Alberta corporation from abroad and need the Alberta address and agent that the Act requires.
• Foreign parent companies setting up an Alberta subsidiary on their lawyer's or accountant's instructions, who want the mechanics handled precisely and the documents returned for the group's records.
• Advisors outside Canada filing on a client's behalf who need a clear list of what Alberta will accept.

How it works

1. Choose the route with your advisors, or call us and we will explain the mechanics of each. The total price for each is shown before you pay.
2. Order online (about 15 minutes) and send us the items from the checklist below by email. We tell you which documents must be certified and by whom.
3. We review everything before drafting: names match across documents, the status document is current, and the Alberta address and agent for service are in place.
4. We prepare and file through our licensed registry agent partner, [Partner registry agent name], the same business day for complete packages received before 3:00 pm MT.
5. We email the filed documents as PDFs as soon as Corporate Registry issues them, with a plain-language note on what comes next.

Common mistakes we catch before filing

• Charter documents that are plain copies rather than certified copies from the home registry, or in a language Alberta will not accept without translation.
• A certificate of status that is out of date by the time the package reaches us.
• A NUANS report ordered too early, so it is more than 90 days old on the filing date.
• Naming a foreign officer or a corporation as agent for service, when the agent must be an individual located in Alberta.
• Assuming the registry filing opens a bank account or registers the business with CRA. Those are separate steps with separate requirements.

What you need before you start

For extra-provincial registration of your existing corporation, send us:

1. Certified copies of the charter documents from your home registry: the incorporation document, articles or equivalent, and every amendment.
2. Proof of current status from your home registry (a certificate of status or good standing), as recent as the home registry can issue.
3. The exact legal name, including the legal element, and the home registration number.
4. Directors and the home registered office, with full names and addresses.
5. An Alberta address for records and notices, and an agent for service who is an individual located in Alberta. We provide both if you have neither.
6. Valid ID for the person who signs as our contact, which our registry agent partner requires.

For a new Alberta corporation, send us:

1. The proposed name, or instructions to use a numbered name, which needs no NUANS report. We order the Alberta NUANS report for a named corporation.
2. At least one director, an adult of any nationality or residence, with full name and address.
3. Shareholders, including your foreign company if it will own the shares, and the share structure your advisors want.
4. A physical Alberta registered office address; we provide one if needed.
5. An agent for service who is an individual located in Alberta; we provide one if needed.
6. Valid ID for the incorporator and our signing contact.

Requirements in Alberta

• Extra-provincial registration: required before carrying on business in Alberta. Package: Statement of Registration (REG3055), Notice of Agent for Service (REG3037), certified charter documents, proof of current status from the home registry, Alberta NUANS report less than 91 days old, valid ID. Government fee.
• Alberta corporation: Articles of Incorporation, Notice of Address, Notice of Directors, Notice of Agent for Service, NUANS report for a named corporation and valid ID of the incorporator. At least one director aged 18 or over; no Canadian-residency requirement since March 29, 2021. Government fee included in our price.
• Agent for service (both routes): an individual located in Alberta with an Alberta address; the agent does not need to be a lawyer.
• After filing: Alberta corporations file an annual return in the anniversary month of incorporation; extra-provincial corporations are also expected to file one. A business number and program accounts are registered with CRA, not Alberta Corporate Registry.

A new Alberta corporation is usually the faster route, because it does not wait on certified documents from abroad.