How to present UIAlertController when not in a view controller?

Question

Scenario: The user taps on a button on a view controller. The view controller is the topmost (obviously) in the navigation stack. The tap invokes a utility class method call

Answer 1

In addition to great answers given (agilityvision, adib, malhal). To reach queueing behaviour like in good old UIAlertViews (avoid alert windows overlap), use this block to observe window level availability:

@interface UIWindow (WLWindowLevel)

+ (void)notifyWindowLevelIsAvailable:(UIWindowLevel)level withBlock:(void (^)())block;

@end

@implementation UIWindow (WLWindowLevel)

+ (void)notifyWindowLevelIsAvailable:(UIWindowLevel)level withBlock:(void (^)())block {
    UIWindow *keyWindow = [UIApplication sharedApplication].keyWindow;
    if (keyWindow.windowLevel == level) {
        // window level is occupied, listen for windows to hide
        id observer;
        observer = [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] addObserverForName:UIWindowDidBecomeHiddenNotification object:keyWindow queue:nil usingBlock:^(NSNotification *note) {
            [[NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter] removeObserver:observer];
            [self notifyWindowLevelIsAvailable:level withBlock:block]; // recursive retry
        }];

    } else {
        block(); // window level is available
    }
}

@end

Complete example:

[UIWindow notifyWindowLevelIsAvailable:UIWindowLevelAlert withBlock:^{
    UIWindow *alertWindow = [[UIWindow alloc] initWithFrame:[UIScreen mainScreen].bounds];
    alertWindow.windowLevel = UIWindowLevelAlert;
    alertWindow.rootViewController = [UIViewController new];
    [alertWindow makeKeyAndVisible];

    UIAlertController *alertController = [UIAlertController alertControllerWithTitle:@"Alert" message:nil preferredStyle:UIAlertControllerStyleAlert];
    [alertController addAction:[UIAlertAction actionWithTitle:@"OK" style:UIAlertActionStyleCancel handler:^(UIAlertAction *action) {
        alertWindow.hidden = YES;
    }]];

    [alertWindow.rootViewController presentViewController:alertController animated:YES completion:nil];
}];

This will allow you to avoid alert windows overlap. Same method can be used to separate and put in queue view controllers for any number of window layers.