- Standard EPP Domain Lifecycle -
Day 1 - Domain is registered
Upon payment, your application is submitted to the appropriate registry and secured by ZoneEdit. You can check ZoneEdit Whois to confirm the registration. Be mindful that it can take a few hours for the Whois database to reload and reflect the new registration.
Day 5 - Secured registration now in place for the year
By the end of the 5th day of registration the domain name cannot be revoked or deleted from the domain registry.
Day 60 - The Domain Transfer Lock is Removed
During the first 60 days, all domain registrations are non-transferrable due to a registry lock. After 60 days have passed, you can transfer your domain name to any ICANN accredited Registrar.
60 days prior to expiry date - Renewal notices
60 days before the domain's expiry date, ZoneEdit starts to send out e-mail notices to all distinct contacts for your domain. Notices continue at 30 days and 5 days before the expiry date.
Day 365 - Domain registration ends and 40-Day Grace Period begins
One year after the domain was registered it will expire and enter into a 40 day grace period. The domain name will stop resolving and the delegated nameservers will be removed suspending ALL DNS service - this includes forwarding and e-mail service.
The 40-day grace period does allow for renewal payment to be made without any extra charges.
Day 405 [40 days after expiration date] - 40-Day Grace Period ends, Redemption Period begins
Please be advised that domain redemption may not be available for all domain names! Many ccTLDs do not support redemption periods and the domain will be made publicly available around this time.
After the 40 day grace period the domain name is deleted from ZoneEdit's registration database. The domain registry will provide an additional 30-day redemption period. During the redemption period the domain owner can have their domain name redeemed by paying a $100.00 redemption fee in addition to the cost of a one year service renewal.
During redemption, you may notice the domain's expiration date in WHOIS lookups has moved ahead one year in the registry database. This is a temporary auto renewal at the registry and does NOT reflect the true expiry date.
Day 435 [70 Days after expiration] - Redemption Period ends
70 days after expiration the redemption period ends. The domain name will be placed in a "Pending Delete" status at the registry for up to five days. During this time, it is not possible to redeem or recover the domain name.
Day 440 [75 days after expiration] - The domain name is deleted from the registry
After the five day Pending Delete period, the domain will be deleted from the registry. At this point, the domain will be available to the general public for new registration. Unfortunately, ZoneEdit are not notified about the exact time the domain will be made available. You can check ZoneEdit Whois for when it's publicly available for re-registration. ZoneEdit does not provide queued registration or drop catching services.
Your domain can be renewed at any time prior to it's expiry date.
- .CA Domain Lifecycle -
Pending Create - 7 days - The cycle begins once you register your .CA domain. You have 7 days to accept the CIRA registrant agreement. You can have this re-sent via your ZoneEdit account.
.CA Registered - 1-10 years - Once the agreement is accepted, your .CA is registered.
Transfer Lock Removed - at 60 days - For the first 60 days of a .CA domain's registration, it cannot be transferred between registrars. After this period has lapsed, then you can transfer the registration of your .CA domain to another CIRA certified registrar.
Auto-Renew Grace - 45 days - Once your .CA is auto-renewed, there is a 45 day Auto-Renew Grace Period. The DNS service will be suspended during this time. You can renew your .CA domain during this period without any additional fees. The domain's nameservers [and service] will be reinstated to active within an hour or two when the CIRA rootservers re-load.
Redemption - 30 days - Once deleted, the .CA enters a 30-day Redemption Grace Period. You can still renew your domain name and ZoneEdit does NOT charge a fee for .CA redemption domains.
To Be Released [TBR] - up to one week - Once the Redemption Grace Period has passed and your .CA is not renewed, it is then added to the TBR list [To Be Released]. CIRA posts a TBR list weekly and the domains are released on Wednesdays at 2PM Eastern. To see the weekly list, please visit http://tbr.cira.ca/
Pending Delete - Domain names not claimed during a given TBR session are transferred to the registry for deletion. Domain names transferred from TBR to the registry enter a lifecycle stage referred to as Pending Delete which lasts for 24 hours. After this 24 hour period, the domain names are deleted in the registry and become available for re-registration.
Your .CA domain can be renewed at any time prior to it's expiry date.
CIRA allows registration of .CA’s with French characters [for IDN's - Internationalised Domain Name]. .CA’s with French characters sharing the same base are considered variants of each other and form an “administrative bundle”. Example, çira.ca and cirà.ca are variants of (cira.ca) and are part of an administrative bundle. Only one variant in the administrative bundle needs to be registered, all other unregistered variants will be reserved for the Registrant. Each variant must be registered and paid for separately using the same Registrar and Registrant and has its own life cycle.
CIRA allows for many non-ASCII characters for IDN's. The following characters are permitted:
.CA Domain Deletion Procedure
.CA domains can be deleted prior to their expiration date. This would require the registrant to send an e-mail to ZoneEdit staff. As of February 2015, CIRA is now permitting domain deletions anytime during the registration period. The deletion will result in the domain being put into Redemption Period for 30 days before being set to TBR status
