Find the official corporation record and read its registered office field. A registered office serves a legal and administrative purpose; it may differ from the place customers visit or the address on a business website.
Use the registry of incorporation
Search the exact corporation identifier where possible, then verify the legal name and jurisdiction. Read the address field’s label: registered office, mailing address and address for service are not automatically equivalent.
For a federal business corporation, the official form instructions require a street address within the province or territory specified in the articles and do not accept a post office box as the registered office.
Choose a next step suited to your purpose
If you need a customer-service location, verify it directly with the business. If you need to serve legal documents, obtain advice on the applicable service rules; a copied directory address is not a complete service procedure.
When records disagree, retain both source dates and check the most recent official filing. A company’s use of a professional office address does not by itself establish fraud or prove that it trades from that location.
Resolve differences by checking the field and date
Before comparing two addresses, identify what each source calls the field and which entity it describes. A federal registered-office address is the corporation’s official communications address. Form 2 separately allows an additional mailing address for reminders and general correspondence. Two different entries can therefore serve different purposes without contradicting one another.
Build a short comparison using the legal name, corporation number, field label, source and consultation date. Where a document is historical, also note its filing or effective date if the source actually provides it. Avoid treating the date on which you downloaded a file as the date the corporation moved.
Keep address research tied to its purpose
Federal guidance warns that a registered office can also be a residential address and that historical filings remain public. For an ordinary business check, cite the official record and record only the location detail needed to distinguish the entity. Do not republish a home address merely to make a verification note look more complete.
If the task is visiting a shop, confirm the public customer-facing location with the business. If the task is a filing correction, use the registry’s authorized update route. Neither task calls for approaching a private residence found in an old filing.
Example
Illustrative example: the store moved, the registry differs
A retailer announces a new storefront while its registry record shows another address. First confirm that the website and record concern the same corporation. Then distinguish the shop location from the registered office and ask the business about any unresolved difference. A storefront announcement alone does not demonstrate that the registered-office record should have changed.
Sources and review
Content updated October 30, 2026. Source checked October 30, 2026. Examples illustrate the process; they do not describe a real corporation.