.CA is the country code TLD for Canada and is regulated by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA).

Important: Domains cannot be transferred from one registrar to another during the first 60 days following the domain registration or during the 60 days following a transfer. In addition, CIRA locks the domain for 60 days following changes to the Owner name or the Canadian Presence Requirements (CPR) legal type. During that 60 day period, you cannot transfer the domain or make any contact changes.

Registration term: 1-10 years

DNS requirements: 2-13, maximum of 6 at time of registration

Whois Privacy: Enabled by default

Domain Locking: Available

Grace Period: 40 days

Redemption Period: 30 days

Authcode required for transfers: Yes

Anyone who wants to register a .CA domain name must meet certain Canadian Presence Requirements (CPR). When registering .CA domain names, registrants must complete the Legal Type field on the order form. From the drop-down list, choose the most appropriate Canadian Presence Requirement (CPR) category for the registrant.

Canadian Presence Requirements (CPR)

In order to satisfy the Canadian Presence requirement, the registrant must fall into one of the following categories:

• Aboriginal Peoples (individuals or groups) indigenous to Canada—Any Inuit, First Nation, Metis or other people indigenous to Canada, any individual belonging to any Inuit, First Nation, Metis or other people indigenous to Canada and any collectivity of such Aboriginal peoples.
• Canadian Educational Institution—Any of the following:  (i) a university or college which is located in Canada and which is authorized or recognized as a university or college under an Act of the legislature of a province or territory of Canada; (ii) a college, post-secondary school, vocational school, secondary school, pre-school or other school or educational institution which is located in Canada and which is recognized by the educational authorities of a province or territory of Canada or licensed under or maintained by an Act of Parliament of Canada or of the legislature of a province or territory of Canada.
• Canadian Hospital— A hospital which is located in Canada and which is licensed, authorized or approved to operate as a hospital under an Act of the legislature of a province or territory of Canada.
• Canadian Library, Archive or Museum— An institution, whether or not incorporated, that (i) is located in Canada and (ii) is not established or conducted for profit or does not form part of, or is not administered or directly or indirectly controlled by, a body that is established or conducted for profit, in which is held and maintained a collection of documents and other materials that is open to the public or to researchers.
• Canadian Political Party— A political party registered under a relevant electoral law of Canada or any province or territory of Canada.
• Canadian Trade Union—A trade union which is recognized by a labour board under the laws of Canada or any province or territory of Canada and which has its head office in Canada.
• Canadian Unincorporated Association—An unincorporated organization, association or club:
  At least 80% of whose members: (A) are ordinarily resident in Canada (if such members  are individuals); or (B) meet one of the conditions set out in paragraphs (a) to (f) above (if such members are not individuals); and
  At least 80% of whose directors, officers, employees, managers, administrators or other representatives are ordinarily resident in Canada
• Canadian citizen—A Canadian citizen of the age of majority under the laws of the province or territory in Canada in which he or she resides or last resided.
• Corporation (Canada or Canadian province or territory)—A corporation under the laws of Canada or any province or territory of Canada.
• Government or government entity in Canada—A province or a territory; an agent of Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada, of a province or of a territory; a federal, provincial or territorial Crown corporation, government agency or government entity; and a regional, municipal or local area government.
• Her Majesty the Queen—Her Majesty the Queen in right of Canada
• Indian Band recognized by the Indian Act of Canada—Any Indian band as defined in the Indian Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. I-5, as amended from time to time, and any group of Indian bands.
• Legal Representative of a Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident—An executor, administrator or other legal representative of a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident.
• Official mark registered in Canada—A Person which does not meet any of the foregoing conditions, but which is a Person intended to be protected by Subsection 9(1) of the Trade-Marks Act (Canada) at whose request the Registrar of Trade-marks has published notice of adoption of any badge, crest, emblem, official mark or other mark pursuant to Subsection 9(1), but in this case such permission is limited to an application to register a .ca domain name consisting of or including the exact word component of such badge, crest, emblem, official mark or other mark in respect of which such Person requested publications.
• Partnership Registered in Canada—A partnership, more than 66 2/3 % of whose partners meet one of the conditions set out in paragraphs (a) to (e) above, which is registered as a partnership under the laws of any province or territory of Canada.
• Permanent Resident of Canada—A permanent resident as defined in the Immigration Act (Canada) who is ordinarily resident in Canada (as defined below) and of the age of majority under the laws of the province or territory in Canada in which he or she resides or last resided.
• Trade-mark registered in Canada (by a non-Canadian owner)—A Person which does not meet any of the foregoing conditions, but which is the owner of a trade-mark which is the subject of a registration under the Trade-marks Act (Canada), but in this case such permission is limited to an application to register a .ca domain name consisting of or including the exact word component of that registered trade-mark
• Trust established in Canada—A trust established and subsisting under the laws of a province or territory of Canada, more than 66 2/3 % of whose trustees meet one of the conditions set out in paragraphs (a) to (d) above.

A .CA domain name can be renewed for a period of 1-10 years.

Reminder emails are sent to the registrant and the Reseller 90, 60, 30, and 0 days before the domains expire. .CA renewal management is an extension of the gTLD renewal management features. If, for example, your renewal messaging is enabled for .COM/.NET/.ORG, the same messages are used for .CA names.

We hold a .CA domain for 40 days after the expiry date (Renewal Grace Period). On the 40th day the domain enters into the Redemption Grace Period which lasts for 30 days. During the Renewal and Redemption Grace periods, the domain can be restored by completing the Redemption Request Form, which is accessed by clicking Domain Redemption in the Domain Management section of the RWI.

After the Redemption Grace Period, the registry deletes the domain and makes it available to the general public.

As of March 6, 2014 at 23:00 EST, the following information must be provided for the registrant contact (known as the Owner contact in iTMG) whenever a domain name is registered or updated.

Note: This does not affect renewals.

• First name
• Last name
• Email address
• Phone number
• Street address
• City
• Province/State (mandatory when Canada or US is selected, otherwise optional)
• Country
• Postal Code (mandatory when Canada or US is selected, otherwise optional)

Important: If you do not include all of the required information, orders and contact updates may fail.

As mentioned above, if you make any changes to the Owner name, CIRA locks the domain for 60 days, during which time, you cannot transfer the domain or make any other contact changes. Changes to the email, phone number or address will not result in the domain being locked.

We often get calls or support requests from customers unable to make changes to .CA domains.

When we investigate, it often turns out that the domain is locked by the .CA registry. This registry-mandated lock happens only if a customer updates the Registrant contact of a .CA domain and is in effect for 60 days.

Please note that CIRA (the .CA registry operator) will never bypass the 60-day lock restriction. The registrant will have to wait the full 60 days before they can make another change or transfer registrars. CIRA sends out notification of the change by email to the listed Registrant email address when they make the change.

Resellers are required to display the CIRA Registrant Agreement, accessible athttp://www.cira.ca/policies/, in full to the registrant prior to accepting an order for a .CA domain name. You must also ensure the registrant fully agrees to the Agreement prior to accepting an order for a .CA domain name. Furthermore, you must ensure the registrant scrolls through the entire agreement prior to accepting the terms of the agreement.

CIRA limits the personal information of .CA Registrants that is available to the public via the WHOIS lookup service. By default, the .CA public WHOIS does not provide personal information for individual domain name registrants.

Interested third parties can contact the registrant by using a contact form available on CIRA’s website (similar to other WHOIS privacy services).

Registrant information for domains registered to corporations continues to be provided. Corporations and organizations can request similar WHOIS protection in special circumstances, but this feature is disabled by default.

The current authoritative WHOIS server for .CA domains is http://whois.cira.ca/

Domains cannot be transferred from one registrar to another during the first 60 days following the domain registration or during the 60 days following a transfer. The .CA registry locks the domain for 60 days following changes to the owner contact or the CPR legal type. During that 60 day period, you cannot transfer the domain or make any contact changes, though you can make changes to the DNS.

The change of ownership process for .CA domains is the same as for gTLDs.