Trade register extract: getting the extract and certified copies

In Algeria, when people talk about a business's "registre du commerce", they in practice mean its extract: the document that confirms the registration and shows its entries. The 2004 law on commercial activities states that the extract contains the registration of the main establishment, and that any secondary establishment is registered by reference to that main registration.

The extract is evidence of what is registered on its date. If the registered office, manager, activity or name changes, an amendment is needed to obtain an up-to-date extract. An outdated extract is still genuine. It describes the business as it was, and the bank or public buyer will reject it.

What you are asked for, and what to provide

The extract is given to the holder of the registration: the sole trader, or the company represented by its manager or chair. To have copies certified or obtain a certificate, the holder goes to the office, or sends a representative with a power of attorney.

• Sole trader: in person, with an identity document.
• Company: the legal representative, with the company stamp.
• Accountant, employee, firm: with a signed power of attorney.

1. 1

   Check that the extract is up to date

   Registered office, manager, activities, name, capital: if an entry has changed, amend the register first.

2. 2

   Ask what the organisation accepts

   Plain copy, copy certified by the CNRC, or recent extract: every bank or buyer has its own requirements.

3. 3

   Prepare the original and the copies

   Clear, complete copies, as many as the files you need to prepare.

4. 4

   Write the request

   Register number, type of request, number of copies, signature, stamp for a company. Add a power of attorney if someone else goes.

5. 5

   Pay and file at the office

   Pay the fees under the schedule and hand the file in at the counter.

6. 6

   Check and file away

   Check the stamp on each copy and keep one certified copy in reserve for urgent requests.

Certification of copies and certificates are requested from the local CNRC office that holds your register entry. The CNRC's Sidjilcom portal offers online services (name search, beneficial owner declaration, filing of annual accounts). On the verification date, we found no official service for ordering a certified copy of the extract online: plan a visit to the counter.

If you have lost the original extract, tell the office: it will tell you which documents to provide to obtain a new one.

Neuron only fills in business setup forms and does not do bookkeeping or routine returns: this guide is free and all you need to do it yourself.

There is no deadline for requesting a copy or a certificate: you ask for one when it is required. The extract, however, must reflect reality: a change of registered office, manager, activity or name requires an amendment of the register.

We found no official validity period for a certified copy. Each organisation sets how recent it must be: read the tender documents or ask the bank before having copies certified.

• Certifying copies of an extract that is no longer up to date.
• Handing out copies of the old extract after an amendment.
• Confusing the trade register extract with the tax roll extract (tax position).
• Going to the office without the original extract.
• Sending an employee without a power of attorney.
• Certifying too few copies and having to come back.
• Not checking which type of copy the organisation accepts.