UCC filing for general security agreement - debtor name formatting issues
Running into problems with my UCC-1 filing and need some guidance. We have a general security agreement with a commercial borrower and I'm trying to perfect our security interest properly. The debtor is an Alberta corporation but we're filing in the US where they have significant assets. I keep getting rejections from the filing office and I think it's related to how I'm formatting the debtor name on the UCC-1. Has anyone dealt with foreign entity name formatting on UCC filings? The exact legal name from their corporate documents has some specific formatting but I'm not sure if that's causing the rejections. This is a substantial equipment financing deal and I really need to get this perfected correctly. Any advice on the proper way to handle debtor names for entities incorporated outside the US would be hugely appreciated.
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Giovanni Rossi
Foreign entity names can definitely be tricky on UCC-1 filings. The key is using the exact legal name as it appears on the entity's organizational documents. For Alberta corporations, you'll want to check their certificate of incorporation or articles of incorporation. Make sure you're including any required suffixes like 'Ltd.' or 'Inc.' exactly as they appear. Also double-check which state you're filing in - some states have specific requirements for foreign entity names.
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Fatima Al-Mansour
•This is so important. I had a filing rejected three times because I abbreviated 'Limited' as 'Ltd' when the corporate docs actually spelled it out fully. The filing office is very strict about exact name matches.
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Dylan Evans
•Yeah and don't forget about punctuation too. Commas, periods, even spacing can cause rejections if it doesn't match exactly.
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Sofia Gomez
I actually just went through something similar with a Canadian entity. What helped me was using Certana.ai's document verification tool - you can upload the corporate documents and your draft UCC-1 to check if the debtor names match exactly. It caught a spacing issue I never would have noticed. Super helpful for avoiding those frustrating rejections.
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StormChaser
•That sounds really useful. How does that work exactly? Do you just upload PDFs of both documents?
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Sofia Gomez
•Exactly - upload the corporate charter or articles and your UCC-1 draft. It automatically cross-checks the debtor name formatting and flags any discrepancies. Saved me probably 2-3 weeks of back and forth with the filing office.
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Dmitry Petrov
•Wish I had known about this tool earlier. I've been manually comparing documents character by character which is mind-numbing.
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Ava Williams
One thing to watch out for - some Alberta corporations have French language elements in their legal names. Make sure you're capturing any accents or special characters correctly. The filing system might not handle those properly depending on the state.
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Miguel Castro
•Good point about special characters. I usually try to call the filing office ahead of time to ask about their system's capabilities with foreign characters.
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Zainab Ibrahim
•Most electronic filing systems will reject special characters anyway. Sometimes you have to spell out the accented letters or use the closest English equivalent.
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Connor O'Neill
Are you sure you have the right jurisdiction for filing? If it's an Alberta corporation, you might need to file in Alberta under their Personal Property Security Act rather than using UCC in the US. Unless they have a US presence or the collateral is located in the US.
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Amara Adebayo
•The collateral is definitely US-based equipment, so US filing is correct. But good point about checking jurisdiction - that's always the first thing to verify.
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LunarEclipse
•Right, if the collateral is in the US then UCC filing makes sense. Just make sure you're filing in the right US state based on where the debtor is organized or where the collateral is located.
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Yara Khalil
I've been doing UCC filings for 15 years and foreign entities are always a headache. The rejection rate is so much higher because of name formatting issues. What I do now is always request the certified corporate documents directly from the provincial registry to make sure I have the most current legal name format.
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Keisha Brown
•That's smart. I've had situations where the borrower provided old corporate docs and the legal name had actually changed slightly.
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Paolo Esposito
•15 years of this stuff - you must have seen every possible name formatting nightmare by now!
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Yara Khalil
•Pretty much! The Alberta system is actually pretty good about providing clear corporate documents. It's some of the other provinces that can be challenging.
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Amina Toure
ugh why is this so complicated?? I have a similar situation and I'm pulling my hair out. The filing office rejected my UCC-1 twice now and I can't figure out what's wrong with the debtor name. It looks right to me but apparently something is off.
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Oliver Weber
•I feel your pain. Have you tried calling the filing office to ask specifically what they're seeing as the issue?
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FireflyDreams
•Sometimes they can tell you exactly what character or spacing is causing the problem. Saves a lot of guesswork.
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Natasha Kuznetsova
Another option is to use one of those automated verification services. I tried Certana.ai after someone recommended it here and it immediately spotted that I had the wrong type of entity designation. Turned out the company was a 'Corp.' not 'Inc.' - tiny difference but enough to cause rejections.
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Javier Morales
•Those little details are so frustrating but so important. Corp vs Inc, Ltd vs Limited - the filing systems are very literal about these things.
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Emma Anderson
•I'm definitely going to look into that verification tool. This manual checking is taking forever and I keep missing things.
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Malik Thompson
For Alberta corporations specifically, they usually have a numbered company structure like '1234567 Alberta Ltd.' or they have a named company like 'ABC Holdings Ltd.' Make sure you're getting the complete legal name including any numbers at the beginning if it's a numbered company.
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Isabella Ferreira
•Yes! The numbered companies can be tricky because sometimes people forget to include the full number string.
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CosmicVoyager
•And make sure you're using the current number if the company has been continued or amalgamated. The corporate registry should show the most current legal name.
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Ravi Kapoor
Just went through this exact scenario last month. What worked for me was getting a certified corporate search from Alberta Corporate Registry showing the current legal name, then triple-checking every character against my UCC-1 before filing. Also helped to use that Certana verification service someone mentioned - caught a punctuation issue I missed.
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Freya Nielsen
•That's a solid approach. The certified search is definitely the gold standard for getting the accurate legal name.
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Omar Mahmoud
•How long did the Alberta corporate search take? I need to file this UCC-1 pretty quickly.
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Ravi Kapoor
•Usually just a few business days if you order online. Worth the wait to avoid rejection delays.
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Chloe Harris
Thanks everyone for the advice! I'm going to get a fresh corporate search from Alberta and use one of those verification tools to double-check everything before refiling. Really appreciate all the help - this forum is invaluable for these tricky filing situations.
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Diego Vargas
•Good luck with the refiling! Let us know if you run into any other issues.
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NeonNinja
•Definitely keep us posted. Always helpful to hear how these situations get resolved.
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