Policy

A Consular officer is an official appointed by a government to operate a consulate office and represent that government’s interests in Alberta. These individuals are eligible for a Consular Corps licence plate. For vehicle first or plate exchange services that require the issuance of a Consular Corps plate, only agents with call boxes are eligible to provide this service and must apply to Motor Vehicles. Any registry agent can process all other vehicle services. Consular Corps plates may be issued to:

• Consuls;
• Vice Consuls;
• Honorary Consuls;
• Career Consuls (who have full diplomatic privileges);
• Consulates;
• Consular employees; and
• Family members of consuls and their staff.

Consul and Consular Attribute

Only Consuls and Vice Consuls receive the Consul attribute (officials from the United States are exempt from requiring this attribute), and must be registered with the Alberta Protocol Office. Motor Vehicles validates all appointments with the Alberta Protocol Office at the time of adding the client attribute and/or at the time of receiving the Consular Corps Plate inventory request.

The Consular attribute applies to vehicles registered to consulate offices, Career Consuls, Honorary Consuls, consular staff, and family members of Consuls, Vice Consuls, and consular staff. Motor Vehicles also adds this attribute.

American Consuls and Vice Consuls receive both the Consul and Consular attributes.

Consular Corps Plates

Consular Corps plates are only available through Motor Vehicles. A registry agent, who has a call box and has applied to Motor Vehicles to provide this service, must:

• Fax or email the request for the Consular Corps plate from Motor Vehicles.
• Upon receipt of the Consular Corps plate from Motor Vehicles, contact the client for issuance of the licence plate and registration.

Registration Requirements

The following conditions apply for Consular Corps registrations:

 

Designation	Client Attribute	Plate Class	Special Conditions
Consulate office (excluding USA)	CONSUL	cc	No limit to the number of plates
Consul, Vice Consul, Honorary Consul, Consular Officer (excluding USA)	CONSUL	cc	Maximum of two sets of plates
American Consuls; American Vice Consuls; Consular Employees; Consular Officers; and family members of Consuls, Vice Consuls, and consular staff.	CONSULAR	3cc	3-pass plate; no restrictions.

A client must:

• Provide proof of acceptable identification, see 2.05.02 Acceptable Identification/Enrolment.
• Provide proof of ownership, see 4.00.01 Vehicle Ownership, Creation and Registration Documents.
• Provide proof of insurance, see 4.00.02 Insurance Documents.
• Provide an Alberta address, see 2.10.01 Addresses & Acceptable Abbreviations.  

Clients may jointly register a vehicle, however the consul must remain the contact for the registration.

The vehicle’s registration address must follow the format of:

[Client name]
C/O [Country] Consulate
[Alberta consulate address]
[City], Alberta [postal code]

A registry agent must:

• Cancel previous Alberta licence plates held by an honorary consul;
• Issue the cc plates in the same payment envelope;
• Apply the refund from the previous licence plates to the payment of the cc plate.

Note:
Changing a registration from a 3-pass to a cc class is not possible.

Additional Requirements

Vehicles from out of Alberta may also require a CCMTA close out and an out of province vehicle inspection. Clients may apply to Alberta Transportation to be exempted from an inspection. See 4.10.01 Close out (CCMTA) and; 4.10.02 Vehicle Inspections / Vehicle Inspection Certificate.

Inventory

Vehicles registered under the Consular Corps plate class are issued a Vehicle Registration Certificate.

As the “Vehicle Registration Expiry Date” field shows “Continuous”, the certificate is not replaced annually. New registration certificates may be purchased by the registrant as requested, when there has been an address change, or when there has been a change to the vehicle (e.g., color, weight, etc.); see 4.55.05 Vehicle Duplicate Registration.

Fees

For registration fees; see the Registry Agent Product Catalogue (pdf).

No Charge

The following regulation codes are used to issue all Consular plates:

• Regulation no-comp to override the registry agent’s service charge.

For reimbursement information, see 1.10.17 Registry Agent Service Fee Reimbursement.

Imaging

The signed application form and all supporting documents must be sent for imaging. See the appropriate sub-section in 1.15 Microfilm for details.  

Date Originally Issued: Oct 27, 2003
Date Last Revised: May 03, 2021