About .ca Domains
Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) is the sponsor and our backend provider for the country-code top-level domain name (ccTLD) .ca extension that represents Canada.
Who can register .ca domains?
Only the individuals and entities that meet the requirements in the Canadian Presence Requirements can apply to CIRA to register .ca domain names.
| Registration Restrictions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Must Use |
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| Can Use |
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| Cannot Use |
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| Features | Availability |
|---|---|
| Registration Length | 1-10 years |
| Renewal Length | 1-10 years1 |
| Bulk Registration | Supported |
| Backorders | Not Supported |
| Transfers To | Supported2 |
| Transfers Away | Supported |
| Account change | Supported |
| Protected Registration | Not Supported |
| Private Registration (CIRA) | Supported3 |
| Cashparking | Not Supported |
| Contact Updates | Supported4 |
| IDN | Supported, é, ë, ê, è, â, à, æ, ô, œ, ù, û, ü, ç, î, ï and ÿ5 |
| Refunds | For details on refunds, please visit GoDaddy's Refund Policy page. Most domains will follow the Standard Terms, but certain domains will have exceptions or may not be refundable at all. Look under BOTH of the following categories:
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| Custom Nameserver Requirements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Must Use |
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| Can Use |
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| Cannot Use |
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Before a .CA-based nameserver can be placed on a .CA domain, the nameserver must be registered with CIRA by the registrar of the nameserver domain. Please contact support for assistance with having your .CA domain nameserver created.
Once your .CA nameservers have been registered, you can add them to your .CA domain name. To add custom nameservers to your domain name, you will need to set the host name and IP addresses for each nameserver. Then you can assign the nameservers to your domain name.
1Renewals
CIRA automatically renews .ca domain names on their expiration dates. If you do not pay for the renewal within 30 days of the expiration date, you can attempt to recover your .ca domain name, and there might be a fee to do so. See Renew my expired domain for instructions.
2Transfer Exceptions
- CIRA restricts domains from transferring for the first 65 days of registration.
- When a domain transfer takes place, it must be initiated for every variant (IDN) of that .ca domain name. If all variants are not transferred, the transfer will fail.
- On the Pending Transfers page in the Domain Manager, your administrative contact's email address displays as nocontactsfound@secureserver.net because we cannot access your Whois contact information.
- Transfers normally take five to seven days from the time you authorize them. However, a .ca transfer goes through immediately after you enter the authorization code and click Finish.
If the domain name expired, you have 30 days from the expiration date to transfer it to us. To transfer a .ca domain name to us within that 30-day expiration grace period, contact our Support department for assistance.
3Private Registration
CIRA automatically applies its own private registration to new .ca domain names. Specifically, CIRA limits the personal information that displays in the Whois database for the following legal types:
- Canadian citizens
- Permanent residents
- Legal representatives
- Aboriginal persons
If you registered a .ca domain name as an individual registrant, you can contact our support department to cancel or re-add private registration.
4Contact Update Exceptions
All contact updates can be submitted through your account, including the Canadian Legal Type.
To update the Canadian Legal Type, you will need to complete the following steps:
- Go to the Domain Settings page
- Under Additional Settings at the bottom of the page, click Edit next to .ca CIRA Agreement.
- Select the new Legal Type from the dropdown.
- Check the box to agree to the terms and click Save.
Note: Review the section above for details on Private Registration3 and how that might be applied based on the Canadian Legal Type selected.
IDN requirements 5
Registrants who own an existing .CA have their IDN variant reserved, but they must be independently registered. The registrant, and registrar must match the existing domain, contact our Support department for assistance..
Tax Information
All .ca registrants must pay the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and might need to pay Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), which is GST and the Provincial Sales Tax (PST).
For disputes with .CA domains, please see Dispute resolution process for .CA domains.
More Info
- Want to register a .ca domain? Search for your domain today.
