Canada (British Columbia)

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This guide contains public integration notes for CA-BC, the British Columbia register. Use it for identifier formats, search behavior, and register-specific caveats. The live source of truth for coverage, pricing, data sources, legal forms, roles, and status values is the pricing page.

Canada (British Columbia) coverage, pricing, and sources

Open the current catalog for supported datapoints, sources, identifiers, and availability.

Canada (British Columbia) is in beta. Check the live pricing page or contact support before relying on it in production.

CA-BC covers entities registered with BC Registries. In Canada a company is incorporated either federally or in one province or territory, and each keeps its own register. A federal corporation that registers in British Columbia to do business there keeps a BC registration (prefix A), which CA-BC returns flagged as such, but the company itself is a Canada (Federal) company: use countryCode: "CA-FED" and its corporation number for its directors and beneficial owners. CA on its own is not a jurisdiction.

Data Sources
Company Identifiers
Search Capabilities
Supported Entity Types
Federal and other extraprovincial companies
Quirks & Gotchas
Mappings
Data Availability

Data Sources

Source	Role	What it provides
BC Registries and Online Services, as published on OrgBook BC	Primary source for search and company data	Every BC registration, active and historical: name and former names, entity type, status and the filing or event behind it, registration date, Business Number, home jurisdiction of an extraprovincial registration, names the entity does business as
GLEIF	Supplementary	Legal Entity Identifier (LEI), when one matches

Search and company data are read live from the register’s public directory, which BC Registries updates within about 30 minutes of a filing. The directory carries no address and no people: BC law keeps them off this publication. Directors and officers are not offered yet: the register lists them only on a report.

Company Identifiers

Query Identifiers

Identifier Type	Format	Example	Notes
BC incorporation or registration number	A letter prefix of 1 to 3 letters followed by 7 digits, no space	`BC0922942`	Assigned by BC Registries. Keep the prefix: it is part of the number. `/v2/company` accepts lower case and spaces and returns the canonical form

Prefixes observed on the register, with the entity type it records for them:

Prefix	Entity types
`BC`	BC company, BC unlimited liability company, community contribution company, benefit company
`C`	Company continued into British Columbia (also as an unlimited liability company)
`FM`	Sole proprietorship, general partnership
`S`, `CS`	Society, society continued into British Columbia
`CP`	Cooperative association
`LP`, `LL`	Limited partnership, limited liability partnership
`A`	Extraprovincial company (formed outside British Columbia, federal corporations included)
`XP`, `XL`, `XS`, `XCP`, `LLC`	Extraprovincial limited partnership, limited liability partnership, society, cooperative, limited liability company
`QA` to `QE`, `PA`, `FI`, `LIB`, `B`, `EPR`, `FOR`, `REG`, `LIC`	Older registers and special entities (companies under the acts before 1897, private acts, financial institutions, library associations, former extraprovincial registers)

The Business Number (BN) is not accepted by /v2/company: several registrations can share one (an amalgamated company keeps it, and a company shares it with the sole proprietorships it registers as trade names). Search by BN first and use the registration number it returns.

Identifiers in API Response

Identifier	Format	Example	Found In
`incorporationNumber`	Letter prefix + 7 digits	`BC0922942`	Every registration. Same value as `company.id`
`businessNumber`	9 digits (the BN root)	`844222687`	Most registrations. Issued by the Canada Revenue Agency; it links a federal corporation’s BC registration to its `CA-FED` record
`lei`	20 letters and digits		When GLEIF has a unique match

Search Capabilities

Search Type	Example	Match Type	Notes
By name	`TELUS CORPORATION`	Name	Ranked by the register’s relevance. Active and historical registrations
By registration number	`BC0922942`, `bc 0922942`	`id`	Exact match
By Business Number	`844222687` or `844222687BC0001`	`partialId`	Returns every registration carrying the BN

Search is free. Only company data retrieval is charged.

Active companies only

Search returns historical registrations too (dissolved, amalgamated, cancelled). activeOnly=true is passed to the register, which leaves them out.

Supported Entity Types

Entity type	Company data
BC companies (limited, unlimited liability, community contribution, benefit)	Yes
Cooperatives and societies	Yes
Sole proprietorships and partnerships	Yes, under the name the firm is registered with
Extraprovincial registrations	Yes, flagged with the home jurisdiction; for a federal corporation, use `CA-FED`
Historical registrations	Yes, reported as closed with the filing or event that ended them

Federal and other extraprovincial companies

A company formed outside British Columbia registers here as an extraprovincial entity (prefix A, XP, XL, XS, XCP or LLC). CA-BC returns that registration as it is, never as a BC incorporation:

legalForm.localName is the register’s extraprovincial type (for example Extraprovincial Company);
status.statusDetails.additionalInfo names the home jurisdiction. For a corporation formed under federal law it reads “Extraprovincial registration in British Columbia of a corporation formed under federal law (home jurisdiction: Canada, federal). Its own record is Canada (Federal), CA-FED, with Business Number …”;
identifiers.businessNumber is the link to the CA-FED record, where the corporation’s directors and beneficial owners are.

When an extraprovincial registration is historical, the BC registration has ended (cancelled or withdrawn). The entity may still exist in its home jurisdiction, so the closure reason is never stronger than what the register recorded.

Quirks & Gotchas

Quirk	Details
No address	The register’s public directory carries no address. `legalAddress` is absent.
No people	Directors and officers, and the proprietor or partners of a firm, are not offered yet: the register lists them only on a report.
Firms are registered under their trade name	A sole proprietorship or partnership (`FM` numbers) is registered under the name it trades under; that is its `legalName`.
Trade names of a company	Firms a company registered and does business as are returned in `commercialNames`.
Former names	Earlier registered names are returned in `legacyLegalNames`.
Registration date	`registrationDate` is when the entity was registered in British Columbia: incorporation, continuation in, amalgamation, or extraprovincial registration. `incorporationDate` is not returned.
Dissolution process	An active company the register has moved into the administrative dissolution process stays `active: true`, with the standardized status `PENDING_DISSOLUTION` and the event in `additionalInfo`.
No shareholders	BC Registries does not publish shareholders.
No beneficial owners	BC companies keep their transparency register of individuals with significant control privately; the public register the province has legislated is not open yet.
No activity codes	The register records no industry classification.

Mappings

Company Status

Local Status	`active`	Standardized Status
Active	`true`	`ACTIVE`, or `PENDING_DISSOLUTION` while the register is dissolving it
Historical	`false`	`CLOSED`, with the closure reason read from the filing or event that ended the registration (voluntary or administrative dissolution, amalgamation, liquidation, court order, continuation out) and its label in `additionalInfo`

Data Availability

Datapoint	Available	Notes
Company data	Yes	Legal name, former names, entity type, status, registration date and Business Number, live from the register
Legal representatives	Not yet	Not offered yet: the register lists directors and officers only on a report.
Shareholders	No	Not published by the register
Ultimate beneficial owners	No	Not public in British Columbia; for a federal corporation, see `CA-FED`
Documents	No	No document is offered yet

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