A US LLC importing into Canada with no office here is treated as a non-resident importer, and the CBSA’s records rules turn on where its books and records physically sit. The state you formed in, and the passport of whoever owns the company, don’t change that answer. If you set up a Wyoming or Delaware LLC from overseas and the books are kept back home, your records are in a country the CBSA won’t authorize under its current policy. For a new importer, that has to be sorted out first, because the CBSA won’t issue the import account until the records agreement (the BSF900) is approved.
Where the LLC was formed isn’t the test
CBSA Memorandum D17-1-21, Maintenance of Records in Canada by Importers, starts from a simple default. An importer keeps its records at its place of business in Canada, meaning premises used to carry on the business. It doesn’t matter if the space is owned, rented or inside another firm’s offices.
Most non-residents have no place of business here, so the memo gives them two other routes. They can designate a customs broker, accountant or other agent to keep the records in Canada. Or they can ask the CBSA for authorization to keep them outside Canada, “specifically in the United States of America or in Mexico.” Both routes go through the same agreement, the BSF900, and the only locations the form offers are Canada, the United States and Mexico.
The form does ask a non-resident for a copy of its corporate registry. That’s there to confirm the company exists and is in good standing. The location question is answered by the street address where the records are kept and by who keeps them there, and a Delaware certificate of formation doesn’t supply either one.
A registered agent’s address doesn’t hold your records
For a lot of offshore-owned LLCs, the only US address is the registered agent’s. Its job is to receive legal papers for the company. Nobody there files your supplier invoices or matches payments to customs entries. And if the address is really a mail-forwarding service, D17-1-21 rules it out directly: post office boxes and mail-forwarding services won’t be accepted as a business address.
Virtual offices and US mailbox services usually land in the same place. The memo deals with electronic records directly: records kept in the United States or Mexico and accessed electronically aren’t considered records in Canada, and a copy held on a US or Mexican server may be accepted if it’s made available to the CBSA in Canada, or wherever the CBSA designates, in a readable and usable electronic format. The BSF900 also asks where the server physically sits, and for the hosting company’s name when the space is rented, so “it’s in the cloud” won’t fill in the box.
The trap is that an LLC can be in good standing with a US bank account and still have nowhere in the US that the CBSA would recognize as the place its records are kept.
The question that sorts it: where does your bookkeeper sit?
In practice, one question sorts most cases. Where does the person who keeps your books actually work, and are the records kept there?
If your bookkeeper or finance team works from a real office or warehouse in the United States, and the import records are kept there, you have a US location the CBSA can consider. Authorization comes through the BSF900 and is the CBSA’s call. The agreement also comes with an undertaking: make the records available in Canada on request, or pay the costs of CBSA officers travelling to your facility.
If the books are kept in Shenzhen, London, Dubai or Bangkok, the LLC doesn’t change anything. You’re an importer whose records sit outside Canada, the United States and Mexico, and the BSF900 doesn’t cover that.
Founders often find this out late. Since May 13, 2024, the CBSA’s policy is that an importer who needs a BSF900 doesn’t get a new import-export account until that agreement is approved. A BSF900 that points at a mail drop or at an office overseas can leave a new importer with no import account and no way to bring in commercial shipments under its own name.
How an offshore-run LLC fixes it
There are two fixes. The first is a genuine US records location. That means a place in the United States where the records really are kept and where someone can produce them, plus the BSF900 authorization and the undertaking that comes with it. If your team is in the US, this can work well. If it would mean mailing boxes of paper to a registered agent, it won’t.
The second is a Canadian records custodian. D17-1-21 lets a non-resident designate an accountant, customs broker or other agent to keep its records in Canada, and that’s the service we run for importers. We prepare the BSF900 and the custodian letter, you upload them in your CARM portal, and we hold your records on Canadian servers. Once the CBSA approves the BSF900, your books and records address is our office in Canada, where the records are actually kept. That’s a route the memo provides for, and it works wherever you or your bookkeeper live.
Two cautions apply either way. The importer stays responsible for the record-keeping requirements even when an agent holds the records, so the custodian has to hold complete records that you keep sending. One that only forwards mail won’t cover you. And the CBSA treats permission to keep records somewhere other than your place of business as a privilege. Non-compliance gets the agreement cancelled, and administrative penalties may follow.
Frequently asked questions
Can a US company import into Canada?
Yes. A US company, an LLC included, can register as a non-resident importer and import into Canada in its own name. If it has no place of business in Canada, its records have to be kept in Canada by a designated agent, or at a CBSA-authorized location in the United States or Mexico where they’re actually kept. Either way, the CBSA has to approve a BSF900.
Does a Wyoming or Delaware LLC let me keep my CBSA records in the US?
Only if the records are physically kept at a US location the CBSA has authorized. The state of formation and a registered agent’s address don’t qualify on their own.
Can import records be kept somewhere other than Canada, the US or Mexico?
Not under the CBSA’s current policy. The BSF900 only covers records kept in Canada, the United States or Mexico. If your books are kept anywhere else, you need a records location in one of those countries, and for most overseas owners that ends up being a Canadian custodian.
How long do the records have to be kept?
At least six years following the importation of the goods, so each shipment starts its own clock. D17-1-21 covers records relating to the origin, marking, purchase, importation, costs, value, payment and disposal of what you import, so the file is a lot bigger than the customs entry.
Related guides
- Non-resident importer to Canada: the complete setup guide
- Books and records kept in Canada? How to answer CBSA’s CARM question
- Canadian records custodian for importers: who needs one and how it works
- The BSF900 form: custodian rules and the CARM upload
- CBSA records custodian service
Is your LLC’s records address going to hold up?
If your LLC is run from outside Canada, the US and Mexico, or you aren’t sure your US address would satisfy the CBSA, our CBSA records custodian service gives you a books and records address in Canada. We prepare the BSF900 and the custodian letter, you upload them through your CARM portal, and we keep the records on Canadian servers. Tell us where your bookkeeper sits and we’ll tell you which side of the line you’re on.
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