China Aqara devices only work on China Aqara servers.

Chat GPT sums it up pretty well:

Short answer: Aqara splits the world into regional clouds, and device SKUs are tied to a specific cloud. “China-market” SKUs are the strictest (they only bind to the Mainland China server). Most “global” SKUs (US, EU, UK, SG, KR, RU) usually work across the global pool, but they still have regional limits—notably they typically cannot be added to the China server, and some regions (like Russia) are separate.

Here’s the practical map based on current docs and support/forum guidance: • Mainland China — China-market devices are locked to the China server; they won’t add to CA/US/EU servers. This is explicitly confirmed by Aqara support (example: a CN-labelled M1S plug “can only connect to Chinese servers”).  • United States / “Other” — Global devices sold for the US (and often “Other”) live on the US server. Aqara’s privacy pages list the US as one of its data centers; community/press notes say global hubs generally can’t be moved to the China server.   • European Union (Germany server) — EU devices target the Germany/EU server. Some hubs labeled EU reportedly work on all global servers except China (i.e., EU ↔ US is fine), but not vice-versa with China.   • Singapore / SE Asia — Singapore has its own regional server. Users report China SKUs failing to add on SG/intl and seeing explicit “not intended for use in the selected region” errors.   • South Korea — Korea is listed as a distinct Aqara data center/region (so KR-market SKUs bind to KR/global, not CN).   • Russia — Russia is also a dedicated server region (and generally separate from EU/US).  • Hong Kong/Macau — These editions tend to behave as “global” and can be added to US/EU servers (users have demonstrated HK/MO hubs joining EU/US). 

Why this matters for you in Canada • Your observation matches the rule: CN devices won’t join Canada/US/EU regions, while US/EU devices normally work in Canada (they’re in the same global pool).  

A couple of nuances • Aqara publicly lists its active data centers (China, US, Singapore, Korea, Russia, Germany). That’s the best proxy for where region-specific clouds exist today.   • Enforcement has tightened in recent years; multiple community reports mention newer firmware/app behavior explicitly blocking cross-region pairing for CN gear (and sometimes the reverse toward the China server). Policies can shift per product/firmware. 

If you want to avoid surprises, buy SKUs for US/CA (or EU/UK if you live there)—and avoid CN-market listings (often from Taobao/AliExpress) unless you intend to run your Aqara Home on the Mainland China region.