Effective June 25, 2014, BC Registry Services has a new email option for notification of certificates and certified documents under the Business Corporations Act for most transactions using Corporate Online.

The email certificate has the words ‘ELECTRONIC CERTIFICATE’ printed on the bottom left corner of the certificate and also contains the red seal for printing purposes.
Only one notification method (email or paper copies either through pick up or mail) can be selected. Once the ‘Submit’ button has been selected using Corporate Online, the method chosen cannot be changed.
The documents cannot be requested to be resent at a later date.

Corporate Online and Delay of Dissolution or Cancellation Service (May 6, 2014)

Effective May 6, 2014, companies are able to request a delay of dissolution of a B.C. company or a delay of cancellation of an extraprovincial company through a new self-serve transaction using Corporate Online. The new “Delay of Dissolution or Cancellation” service provides a delay of six months. A maximum of two requests can be made per corporation. There is no fee associated with this new transaction.

Changes in Corporate Online and Name Requests Online to Support Community Contribution Companies (July 8, 2013)

Effective July 29, 2013, you will be able to incorporate community contribution companies, a new hybrid type of company that combines socially beneficial purposes with a restricted ability to distribute profits to shareholders. These companies will be incorporated with the flexibility and certainty of regular companies, but will primarily benefit the community by investment in the social enterprise sector.

For information on community contributions companies refer to Bill 23 2012, Finance Statutes Amendment Act, 2012. In particular, refer to section 8, adding Part 2.2 Community Contribution Companies to the Business Corporations Act.

The amendments to the Business Corporations Act were passed by Order in Council 095, Approved and Ordered February 28, 2013, which provide the statutory framework for the creation of the community contribution companies and come into force on July 29, 2013.

Additionally, a new Community Contribution Company Regulation was made by Order in Council 093, Approved and Ordered February 28, 2013, which sets out the prescribed requirements for community contribution companies effective July 29, 2013.

Additional Changes in Corporate Online and Name Requests Online to Support New West Partnership Trade Agreement (July 8, 2013)

Effective July 8, 2013, BC Registry Services will be implementing changes to Corporate Online to further support streamlining of extraprovincial filings of corporations between British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan under the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA). These changes will simplify filings between the three provinces.

The NWPTA application enhancements will include:

Two new self-serve filings will be added to the Corporate Online menu:
- To change the name of a NWPTA extraprovincial company in Alberta and/or Saskatchewan after changing the name of the B.C. company; and
- To cancel a NWPTA extraprovincial registration in Alberta and/or Saskatchewan.
Paper forms previously filed for registration of amalgamation and restoration in Saskatchewan and updating of jurisdiction in Alberta and/or Saskatchewan will no longer be required. These will be facilitated through the Corporate Online filing transaction 'REGISTER A BC COMPANY WITH A NEW WEST PARTNER (NWPTA)'.
For BC OnLine deposit account holders, certificates and filed statements will be available online through the 'Search' function for Alberta and Saskatchewan companies extraprovincially registered in B.C.

Other application enhancements will include:

The Names Requests Online (NRO) 'Research your Choices’ option that can be used to help ensure your first name choice is approved for use in B.C. will be enhanced, so that more search results are returned. For example, if your desired company name contains motel, related names that contain hotel and inn will also be returned in the search results.
The button: 'Click here to file a Society Annual Report’ has been added to the BC Registry Services home page.
Resolving Internet Explorer 10 issues for BC Societies so that this browser can be used to complete online filings.
Society Annual Report access code rules will change so current year access codes can be used to file an annual report for the current or an outstanding year. An access code from a previous year cannot be used to file a current or future year annual report.

Changes to Support New West Partnership Trade Agreement for Limited Partnerships, Limited Liability Partnerships and Cooperative Associations (July 8, 2013)

Effective July 1, 2013, BC Registry Services will be implementing changes to support streamlining of extraprovincial registrations of limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships and cooperative associations between British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan under the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA). These changes will simplify, and in some cases eliminate, extraprovincial registrations and filings between the three provinces.

Information and paper forms for extraprovincial registration of limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships and cooperative associations between the partner provinces under NWPTA will be available on July 1, 2013, on the New West Partnership Trade Agreement pages on BC Registry Services’ website.

Changes in Corporate Online and Name Requests Online to Support New West Partnership Trade Agreement (June 14, 2012)

Effective July 1, 2012, BC Registry Services will be implementing changes to Name Requests Online and Corporate Online to support streamlining extraprovincial registrations of corporations from British Columbia to Saskatchewan as outlined in the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA). This agreement expands the benefits of the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) implemented in 2009 between British Columbia and Alberta, by extending the same processes to Saskatchewan. For details regarding this initiative, go to our News page.

Availability of Corporate Online and Name Requests Online (January 17, 2011)

The BC Government had planned changes to their data centre for the weekend of January 7th to 9th. Due to technical problems, the change was unsuccessful and has been rescheduled for Friday, January 21st, Saturday January 22nd, and Sunday January 23rd, 2011. As a direct result, BC OnLine will be closing early at 3:00 p.m. on Friday January 21st, 2011 and is not expected to reopen until Monday morning January 24th. BC OnLine has posted this message on their website www.bconline.gov.bc.ca.

However, Name Requests Online and Corporate Online will be available for credit card customers until 5:00 p.m., Friday, January 21st, 2011 before the systems access is closed until Monday morning, January 24th, 2011.

Corporate Online and Notice of Dissolution (July 2, 2010)

An unexpected event has resulted in the mailing of a number of notices of dissolution indicating that a company may be in default of filing annual reports or transition applications with BC Registry Services. This letter is titled Notice of Commencement Of Dissolution and will be dated in the range of June 1 to June 30, 2010. These letters were sent in error and should be disregarded. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Corporate Online Upgrade - June 28, 2010 (June 24, 2010)

BC Registry Services will implement an upgrade to the Corporate Online system on Monday, June 28, 2010. To facilitate this upgrade, Corporate Online will be unavailable for a few hours effective 4:30 p.m. on June 28, 2010.

Corporate Online and Name Requests Online Release Effective April 27, 2009 (April 27, 2009)

Effective April 27, 2009, BC Registry Services has implemented an upgrade to Corporate Online as a result of the Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA). The major change in the Corporate Online release is the enhancements to facilitate extraprovincial registration in Alberta and the changes as a result of the amendments to the Business Corporations Act regarding reinstatements of extraprovincial companies.

In addition, a new data exchange interface has been developed to facilitate the electronic exchange of information for extraprovincial registrations and updates between the two provinces.

For additional information to go TILMA.

Corporate Online Availability October 26, 2008 (October 23, 2008)

In support of the implementation of BC Registry Services' new Name Requests Online system this weekend, clients will be unable to access Corporate Online on Sunday, October 26, 2008.

Name Requests Online (June 2, 2008)

For the past several years the number one comment OneStop and the Corporate Registry have received around improvement of service is to make the reservation of a name available online. We're listening!

The Corporate Registry is re-developing a Name Requests Online system that will streamline and further automate the submission of name approval requests for BC OnLine account holders, credit card customers and over the counter customers. Although names analysts will continue to examine names, the online service has built in edits and validations that will help:

reduce the number of name rejections;
reduce the number of telephone calls;
reduce turnaround times;
reduce user frustration;
allow online submission of name approval requests for credit card customers;
simplify the process;
remove the bottleneck; and
facilitate the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA).

The targeted implementation date is early fall 2008.

Reserving a name will continue to be offered through our multi-channel service venues, phone, in person, mail and the internet. Clients can visit any of the service delivery sites or contact a registry agent to submit their name requests in addition to our new online service which will be available through BC OnLine, Corporate Online and the OneStop Business Registry. Corporate Registry staff will continue to advise clients over the telephone and on our websites of the different options available to reserve a name.

Corporate Online Now Available Every Sunday (February 18, 2008)

Starting February 24, 2008, Corporate Online filings can be submitted from 6a.m. to 10p.m. Monday to Saturday including statutory holidays and on Sunday from 1p.m. to 10p.m.

Note that due to system maintenance, the Sunday opening at 1:00 p.m. is not guaranteed, although every effort will be made to ensure the system is available at that time.

New Release in Corporate Online (January 27, 2008)

Effective January 28, 2008, the Corporate Registry has implemented an upgrade to Corporate Online. The major change in this release is the completion of the Phase Three balance of filings for unlimited liability companies.

Changes of interest in this release are:

the ability for Corporate Registry staff to file a restoration application for an unlimited liability company;
a reminder regarding the amendments to the Table 1 Articles brought into force July 1, 2007 was added to the BC Annual Report filing; and
a description of the location of the access code was added to the BC Annual Report filing.

Partially Completed Filings in "Your Work" (December 9, 2007)

For clients that are logged in, Corporate Online automatically saves partially completed filings in the following situations:

Clicking the "Save Your Work" or "Logout" button in the left sidebar while filling out a transaction
Clicking a tab - Menu, Your Work, Your Companies or Your Profile - while filling out a transaction.

As a reminder, clients who use this feature as part of their work process should be aware of the following points:

A partially completed filing will be available for use only until another form is filed for the same company. When a form is filed it changes information about the company and therefore invalidates any previously drafted filings. For example: A notice of change of address is started and saved. Then a notice of change of directors is started and saved. When either of these filings is retrieved and completed the other filing is no longer available as its information may now be out-of-date.
The Corporate Registry releases new versions of Corporate Online regularly. The Registry makes every effort to avoid impacting existing partially completed filings. Unfortunately, this cannot always be avoided. As a result, the Registry recommends keeping the partially completed filings for no more than 60 days.
On an ongoing basis the Registry removes partially completed filings that are more than 6 months old. This assists you in ensuring that your partially completed filings are not out-of-date and taking up unnecessary space.
Clients with several hundred partially completed filings may experience problems opening and restarting them depending on their Internet connection. The Corporate Registry recommends deleting unused filings if this starts to occur.

Names Online Reservation (November 9, 2007)

For the past several years the number one comment OneStop and the Corporate Registry have received around improvement of service, is to make the reservation of a name available online. We're listening!

The Corporate Registry is re-developing a Names Online system that will streamline and further automate the submission of name approval requests for BC OnLine account holders, credit card customers and over the counter customers. Although names analysts will continue to examine names, the online service has built in edits and validations that will help:

- reduce the number of name rejections;
- reduce the number of telephone calls;
- reduce turnaround times;
- reduce user frustration;
- allow online submission of name approval requests for credit card customers;
- simplify the process;
- remove the bottleneck; and
- facilitate the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA).

The targeted implementation date is late spring 2008.

Unlimited Liability Companies (October 29, 2007)

Effective October 29, 2007, the Corporate Registry has implemented an upgrade to Corporate Online to complete Phase One online filings for unlimited liability companies.

The release includes the ability for unlimited liability companies to complete the following online filings:

- Incorporation Application
- Amalgamation Application (regular)
- Amalgamation Application (vertical or horizontal)
- Continuation Application (continuation in)
- Notice of Alteration
- Notice of Alteration (From a BC Limited Company to Become a BC Unlimited Liability Company)
- Notice of Change of Address
- Notice of Change of Directors

All self-serve online filings for unlimited liability companies will be available by early 2008.

Changes to Automated Dissolution Process (July 30, 2007)

The automated dissolution process has been updated to include BC companies incorporated before March 29, 2004, if the company has not filed a transition application under the Business Corporations Act. Also included in the updated automated dissolution process are BC companies restored since March 29, 2004, if the company has failed to file the post restoration transition application required under the Act.

Before a company is dissolved, the Registry will send a notice to the registered office address with full details and the company will have one month to respond to prevent the dissolution from occurring. To file a transition application, access Corporate Online at http://www.corporateonline.gov.bc.ca. There is no fee to file a transition application.

Certificates of Good Standing Available Online (July 15, 2007)

Clients with a BC OnLine account are now able to request a certificate of good standing for BC companies and extraprovincial companies electronically over Corporate Online and receive the certificate in a PDF file. For those clients who do not have a BC OnLine account, the certificate can be ordered by mail from the Corporate Registry. For those BC OnLine clients who prefer to receive a paper certificate rather than a PDF file, the certificate can be ordered by fax from the Corporate Registry.

Companies that have not Filed a Transition Application (June 19, 2007)

If your BC company was incorporated before March 29, 2004, you were required to file a transition application by March 28, 2006. Or, if you have restored your company since March 29, 2004 you are required to file a post restoration transition application within one year of the date of restoration or conversion to a full restoration.

If you have not filed a transition application, your company is in contravention of the Business Corporations Act.

Starting this summer the Registry will begin to dissolve these companies that are in contravention. Before a company is dissolved, the Corporate Registry will send a letter to the registered office address with full details. The company will have one month to respond to prevent the dissolution from occurring. To file a transition application, access the Corporate Online Internet site at www.corporateonline.gov.bc.ca. There is no fee required to file a transition application.

Increased Security for Corporate Online (June 7, 2007)

Changes will be made over the next week to improve the security of the Corporate Online system. These changes will upgrade the standard protocol required for communicating securely with Corporate Online to SSL 3.0. To ensure that you will be able to continue accessing the application, please ensure that the SSL 3.0 feature is enabled in your browser. This is a common security setting in most Internet browsers.

After June 14th, 2007, using a browser with a security setting below SSL 3.0 will result in errors when attempting to access Corporate Online.

If you have any questions or experience any problems accessing Corporate Online, please phone the Help Desk at (250) 953-8200 or 1-800-663-6102.

Federal Business Number (March 25, 2007)

The province of British Columbia has entered into a partnership with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) to use the federal Business Number (BN) as a convenient way for businesses to identify themselves when communicating with government. The Corporate Registry, under the authority of the Business Number Act, is therefore collecting the BN from both corporations applying for registration and those currently registered in British Columbia.

When filing Corporate Online transactions, clients can now identify their company with either the company number or the business number (BN9). Your company will have a BN9 if it has been incorporated federally or in any province in Canada. It will be displayed on any documents received from Canada Revenue Agency.

Mandatory Self-Serve Filing to Register an Extraprovincial Company in British Columbia (March 25, 2007)

Starting on March 26th, 2007, the filing of a Registration Statement for an Extraprovincial Registration is a mandatory self-serve filing in Corporate Online. Instead of filling in paper Form 33 and mailing it to the Registry, you must now file the Extraprovincial Registration of a foreign company electronically using Corporate Online.

This new electronic Extraprovincial Registration transaction also includes a video demonstration and online help to assist you with filing online. You can complete your filing using a valid credit card or, for BC OnLine customers, your BC OnLine account.

The fee to file a Registration Statement using Corporate Online will be $351.59.

Once the Extraprovincial Registration has been filed using Corporate Online, the registrar will provide confirmation of the registration of the foreign company by issuing and providing a copy of the certificate of registration and the registration statement to the company's head office. All appointed attorneys will receive a copy of the registration statement. The registrar will also publish notice of the registration on the Queen's Printer website.

Mandatory Self-Serve Application for Voluntary Dissolution Starting March 26, 2007 (February 26, 2007)

The regulation under the Business Corporations Act requires the electronic version of the Application for (Voluntary) Dissolution for BC companies to be filed on the Internet. Effective March 26, 2007, unless you are instructed to do so by registry staff, you must file your voluntary dissolution electronically using Corporate Online. Refer to the Information for Voluntary Dissolution package for the steps required to file electronically. For additional information, refer to the Corporate Online help text and video demonstration.

Transition Application Filing Update (November 5, 2006)

Over 206,000 companies have filed a transition application. If you have missed the deadline of March 28, 2006 to file a transition application refer to paragraph below dated March 30, 2006.

Important Changes for Annual Report Reminders (September 5, 2006)

Beginning this fall 2006, the Corporate Registry plans to reduce the number of annual report reminders that are sent by regular mail.

BC OnLine Clients

Upon implementation of this initiative, all active BC companies with the last annual report filed by a BC OnLine client and all new BC companies incorporated, continued in or amalgamated by a BC OnLine client will no longer receive the annual report reminder by email or by mail through Canada Post. For complete details regarding this initiative, refer to the "Important Notice for BC OnLine Clients".

Credit Card Clients

Credit card clients will receive the annual report reminder by email if a company email address is on file. If the email address is not on file, or if the company has outstanding annual reports, then the annual report reminder will be mailed. For complete details, refer to the "Important Notice for Credit Card Clients".

Notice of Change of Address (June 4, 2006)

When a company files a change of address, you can now enter an email address for the company. The Corporate Registry may use this address to communicate with the company in the future. If an email address has already been provided, it will be displayed on the screen so you can correct it if necessary.

Electronically Re-send Annual Report Reminders (June 4, 2006)

Clients can now request outstanding Annual Report reminders to be emailed to the company's email address. To do so, login into Corporate Online on the Services Menu and click on "Change Company Email Address". A message will be displayed on the "Change Company Information" screen indicating that you have annual reports to file. If this message is not displayed, the company does not have any outstanding annual reports. To send the email, you MUST change the company email address and then save it. The reminder will automatically be emailed to you.

Transition Application Filing Deadline Update (March 30, 2006)

If your BC company was incorporated before March 29, 2004, you were required to file a Transition Application by March 28, 2006. If you missed this deadline your company is no longer considered to be up-to-date with its company filings. This may impact the company's ability to transact business with its financial institution or licensing and regulatory authorities.

Please file your Transition Application as soon as possible to ensure that your company remains in good standing. Find out more.

Annual Report Filing (October 3, 2005)

When a company files its Annual Report, you can now enter an email address for the company. The Corporate Registry may use this address to communicate with the company in the future. As well, over the next several months, the Registry is planning on sending the annual report reminders electronically where possible.

If an email address has already been provided, it will be displayed on the Annual Report so you can correct it if necessary.

Immediate Email Notification of Filings (October 3, 2005)

For over 3 months, clients have had the option of selecting email notification of certified documents for three different filing types. The filings are for changing a company's office addresses, changing information about a company's directors, and for the transition application. This has proved to be a very popular option. Clients have chosen email delivery for nearly 50% of these filings. The benefits of email delivery include immediate delivery - no waiting for up to 2 weeks for paper copies - and reduced postage costs for the Corporate Registry.

Please help the Registry to continue to save money by selecting EMAIL NOTIFICATION for the delivery of documents!

Delivery of Documents (June 20, 2005)

Clients now have an additional option for delivery of certified documents for three different filing types. The filings are for changing a company's office addresses, changing information about a company's directors and for the transition application. The notification methods that are now available are:

• Email with immediate delivery

• Ordinary mail with delivery in one or more weeks

• Pick up by courier or agent at the Corporate Registry

Information About the Transition Application (June 20, 2005)

The transition application filing has been improved by streamlining the "Translated Name(s)" and "Registered and Records Office Addresses" screens.

As well, the Corporate Online Main Menu has been updated with a reminder that all BC companies incorporated before March 29, 2004 must file a transition application by March 2006. The "Find out more" and "Download the Transition Guide" links provide additional information.

Accessing Corporate Online (April 2005)

With this release there are now two ways to access Corporate Online. Occasional users can access the new main menu directly while BC OnLine users will continue to access the services menu from their BC OnLine logged in session.

The intention of this release was to simplify Corporate Online so that it is easier to use, especially for infrequent users who pay by credit card. The most commonly used filings are included on the main menu and streamlined to help clients get started. All filings are still available from the services menu for BC OnLine users. A new function to allow reprinting of documents has been added to both menus. Reprints can be requested at no cost for up to 1 month after the filing was submitted.

Credit card users of Corporate Online will continue to access the system at www.corporateonline.gov.bc.ca.

BC OnLine users will continue to access Corporate Online via www.bconline.com.

Single Sign-on For BC OnLine Customers (February 2005)

BC OnLine customers who access the Corporate Online system no longer need to login a second time to access this service. BC OnLine customers must first login to the BC OnLine Home page. Then customers should choose the Corporate Registry option on the BC OnLine Main Menu to access Corporate Online.

Logging in to BC OnLine with your BC OnLine user ID and password ensures that Corporate Registry filing fees are deducted from your BC OnLine account and provides access to the Registry search option.

Corporate Online now issues Business Numbers (November 2004)

After November 29, 2004 the Corporate Registry will be assigning Business Numbers for new BC companies.

For new companies a Business Number will automatically be requested from Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and sent to the Corporate Registry. In most instances, the Business Number will then be printed on documents issued by the Corporate Registry. For certain filings, Corporate Online will request the existing Business Number and send it to CRA.

Visit the Corporate Registry site for additional information.

BC OnLine user access to partially completed filings (November 2004)

BC OnLine users with the same BC OnLine account number can now see and continue from each other's partially completed filings. When starting a filing for a company which has a draft filing initiated by another BC OnLine user with the same BC OnLine account number, users are warned and given the option to proceed with their filing or not. If they choose to proceed, the existing draft filing will be deleted.

BC and Extraprovincial Corporate Index Information (June 2004)

All corporate entities are listed in the COBRS Active Corporate Index (the BC OnLine search method) where only the company name, company type and incorporation number are displayed. The Index contains all BC and extraprovincial companies created and changed in Corporate Online.

Corporate Online updates the company information on the COBRS Index to reflect filings that have taken place. From October 2004 this update will be done on a nightly basis.

Company details for BC and extraprovincial companies continue to be accessible only through Corporate Online at www.corporateonline.gov.bc.ca.

Problem with new windows not opening (May 2004)

Some users have been experiencing problems with certain new windows not opening in Corporate Online. For example, the View Draft Filing or Help windows may not open when their links are clicked.

If this is happening to you it may be caused by pop-up blocker software that has been installed on your computer. Pop-up blockers prevent ads from automatically opening when certain websites are visited.

If you are experiencing this problem please check the set-up features for your pop-up blocker software. Most blockers allow you to override an individual pop-up or to identify certain sites as safe. However, if you continue to experience this problem please contact the BC OnLine Help Desk.

Directors are not displayed on the BC Annual Report (May 2004)

The Business Corporations Act no longer requires information about directors to be included on the Annual Report filing. Only the company's officer information is required and only if the company has appointed officers.

The filed Annual Report, available in PDF format once the transaction is complete, will only show information about the company's officers and not the company's directors.

Annual Report Reminder (April 2004)

As of March 29, 2004, the Corporate Registry no longer provides an annual report form with the list of officers and directors. The annual report mailed to you is just a reminder to companies that they must file an annual report with the Registry.

When using the annual report transaction online, information about the company's directors is displayed for information purposes only. Officer information is displayed as well during the transaction and can be updated. Once the annual report is filed it is available in PDF format and will display the officer information that has been updated when it was filed.

The signature portion on the annual report reminder is designed for customers to authorize the preferred service provider to file on their behalf.

Last Updated: April 27, 2009