Companies Incorporated Or Registered In British Columbia

The Business Corporations Act provides for the incorporation of companies within British Columbia and for the registration, as extraprovincial companies, of foreign entities that are incorporated elsewhere but wish to carry on business in the province.

Where a company is incorporated or registered in British Columbia and an applicant applies to register an instrument to which the company is a party, the registrar checks the company’s incorporation and continued existence by verifying the following information in the computer records of the Corporate Registry:

1. name;
2. incorporation number or registration number;
3. date of incorporation; and
4. whether the company has been struck, or struck and restored more than two years after being struck. See chapter 39 (Escheat Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, c. 120).

If the registrar cannot verify the company’s incorporation or registration and continued existence in the Corporate Registry records, the registrar requires the applicant to provide proof of the company’s incorporation or registration within British Columbia.