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Registrar Accreditation: Application

This page was archived as of 5 October 2011. The current application can be found here.

HOW TO APPLY:


For your application to be considered, you must send hard copies of the following items to ICANN:

  • Completed application. A completed application consists of your responses to the questions set forth in this document, typed or printed out on separate paper and attached to a signed copy of this application form.
  • All supporting documents as indicated below and in the Application Instructions. These will generally include an insurance certificate and an independently verified financial statement, along with any other supporting documents needed to provide complete answers to the questions below.
  • Application Fee. US $3,500 (non-refundable). See Instructions for Payments to ICANN at http://www.icann.org/en/financials/payments.htm.

Completed applications should be sent by mail or courier directly to ICANN at the following address:

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
Registrar Accreditation
4676 Admiralty Way, Suite 330
Marina Del Rey, CA 90292 USA
Phone: (310) 823-9358

ICANN accepts applications for registrar accreditation on a rolling basis. There is no deadline for receipt of applications for registrar accreditation.

Please provide the following information on separate paper, answering each request in a numbered paragraph corresponding to the number of the question. If there is no answer available for a particular question, please indicate that fact next to the number corresponding to the question. Please give the most complete answer possible, explaining all capabilities in detail, and attaching, labeling, and referencing all necessary supporting documents at the back of the application.

Note: For any legal name, street, electronic or mailing address which is not in Latin characters, please specify and also provide a transliteration in Latin characters

For more detailed instructions on the application instructions, please click here: http://www.icann.org/en/registrars/instructions.htm


GENERAL INFORMATION
1) Full legal name of the Applicant, being the established entity that will be entering into a Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) with ICANN, subject to ICANN’s approval of this application
2) Legal form of the Applicant (e.g., LLC, Corporation, Government Body, IO).
3) The jurisdiction in which the Applicant’s business is registered for legal and financial purposes.
4) The Applicant’s business registration number and the name of the authority that has issued this number.
5) Every business name and/or trade name used by the applicant or that the applicant intends to use in connection with its registrar business at the time of approval.
6) Attach documentation demonstrating that the Applicant entity is legally established and in good standing. For proof of establishment, provide articles of association or other equivalent document (e.g., statutes, membership agreement) of the entity. If the Applicant is a government body or organization, provide a certified copy of the relevant statute or governmental decision under which the government body or organization has been established. Where no such certificates or documents are available in the Applicant's jurisdiction, an affidavit drafted and signed by a notary public or a legal practitioner duly qualified in the courts of the Applicant's jurisdiction, declaring that the organization is established and in good standing, must be submitted.
7) Correspondence address for the Applicant. This address will be used for contractual purposes, and the Applicant must be able to accept notices and service of legal process at this address. No Post Office boxes are allowed.
8) Primary phone number where the Applicant can be reached for contractual purposes.
9) Primary Fax number where the Applicant can be reached for contractual purposes.
10) Primary Email address where the Applicant can be reached for contractual purposes.
11) If the location or address of Applicant’s principal place of business is different from the address provided in Question #7 please provide details including address, phone number, fax number and email address.
12) Any other addresses where the Applicant's proposed Registrar will be operated or managed, if different from either its principal business or correspondence address provided above. (Please explain.)
13) Primary contact name (this contact will be listed as contact party for the applicant on the Registrar Accreditation Agreement, should this application be approved).
Title
Address
Phone number
Fax number
Email address
14) Application contact name (if different) (this person will be ICANN’s main point of contact for all matters concerning this application).
Title
Address
Phone number
Fax number
Email address
15) Enter the full name, contact information, and position of any persons or entities owning at least 5% of the applicant’s current or proposed business entity. For each person listed, please specify whether they own over 15% of the applicant’s current or proposed business entity.
16) Enter the full name, contact information, and position of all directors of the Applicant.
17) Enter the full name, contact information, and position of all officers of the Applicant.
18) Enter the full name, contact information, and position of all relevant managers of the Applicant.
19) For every person or entity mentioned in the answers to questions 15 to 18, indicate if that person or entity:
a) within the past ten years, has been convicted of a felony or of a misdemeanor related to financial activities, or has been judged by a court to have committed fraud or breach of fiduciary duty, or has been the subject of a judicial determination that is similar or related to any of these;
b) within the past ten years, has been disciplined by any government or industry regulatory body for conduct involving dishonesty or misuse of funds of others;
c) is currently involved in any judicial or regulatory proceeding that could result in a conviction, judgment, determination, or discipline of the type specified in questions #19(a) or 19(b); or
d) is the subject of a disqualification imposed by ICANN and in effect at the time of this application.
If any of the above events in (a)-(d) have occurred, please provide details.
20) Does the Applicant or do any of the people or entities mentioned in this application have a common controlling interest in one or more ICANN accredited registrars? If yes, please list the concerned entities or persons, the registrar(s) in which they have a common controlling interest and describe the connections between them.
21) Has the Applicant and/or any of the persons or entities mentioned in the answers to questions 15 to 18 submitted to ICANN within the past year an accreditation application or material accompanying an accreditation application that ICANN has found to contain a material misrepresentation, material inaccuracy, or materially misleading statement? If yes, then please explain the circumstances.
22) Please list all URL and/or domain names the Applicant uses or intends to use for conducting its services at the time of approval.
BUSINESS OVERVIEW / BUSINESS PLAN
23) Give an overview of the Applicant's current business or business plan.
24) What volume of domain name registrations does the Applicant reasonably project to be able to handle per month? If the Applicant is already providing domain name registration services, how many domain names is it currently managing (including the proportion of gTLD domain names) and how many registrations does it currently handle per month? If applicable, please also specify which ccTLD registries have accredited the Applicant.
25) How many employees (full time and part time, stated separately) will the Applicant have dedicated to the registrar business? Please indicate the number of employees (full-time equivalents) in each area (e.g. customer service, programming, etc.).
26) Please explain how the Applicant will handle customer service and claims of domain name abuse, including planned hours of service and type of support (e.g., phone, email, web chat, etc.)
OPERATIONAL AND TECHNICAL CAPABILITIES
27) Please provide a technical overview of the Applicant’s proposed registrar, including details concerning the type of registrar that will be operated and the interfaces that will be provided for registration transactions.
28) Please provide details of the system and network architecture that supports or will support the Applicant's operations. Answers should include information such as: architecture and network diagrams, details of hardware and software platforms, network bandwidth provision, IPv6 connectivity, firewalls, the intended physical location of systems, operations centers, and other infrastructure, a description of backup power systems (with multi-day powered source), and security and physical safeguards against intrusion, including a description of remote alternate sites for this purpose.
29) What method(s) does the Applicant use or propose to use to accept and process orders for new registration?
30 Please explain how the Applicant plans to comply with ICANN’s Inter-Registrar Transfer Policy – specifically, please describe the procedures the Applicant will implement to accept and process orders for transfer requests both as a gaining registrar and as a losing registrar.
31) Please explain how the Applicant plans to implement and comply with the obligations for the Applicant’s registration agreement for Registered Name Holders as detailed in Section 3.7.7 of the RAA. If available, please provide a copy of the Applicant’s registration agreement.
32) Please describe the steps the Applicant takes or will take to verify reasonable assurance of payment of the registration fee before activating domain registrations. In the response, please describe the form(s) of payment that will be accepted. Please refer to Section 3.7.4 of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement in preparing the response.
33) What method(s) does the Applicant use or propose to use to allow its customers to manage, update, renew or delete their domain names?
34) On average, how long will it take the Applicant to complete customer requests for changes to the contact and billing information?
35) How will the Applicant allow the Registered Name Holder to unlock their domain names and how will the Applicant give them access to the AuthInfo codes of their domain names, should they wish to transfer their domain names to another registrar (including the registrants that have registered domain names via resellers of the Applicant, if any)?
36) How will the Applicant implement any UDRP decisions concerning any domain name registered via its accreditation?
37) In the event that a domain name registered via the Applicant that is the subject of a UDRP dispute expires during the course of the dispute, how will the Applicant give to the complainant the option to renew the disputed domain name?
38) If the Applicant intends to offer services through a reseller, please explain how your agreement with the reseller will comply with Section 3.12 of the RAA. If the Applicant has already entered into agreements with a reseller of registrar services, please describe the nature of the reseller's arrangement with the Applicant or, provide a copy of the Applicant’s agreement with the reseller.
39) Please explain the procedures the Applicant will apply to be compliant with Section 3.12.6 of the RAA if the Applicant becomes aware of any breach of any of the provisions of Section 3.12 of the RAA by any of its resellers.
40) Security Policy: provide an outline of the security policy and procedures for the proposed registrar, including: (1) system and network access control, ensuring systems are maintained in a secure fashion, including details of how they are monitored, logged and backed up; (2) provisioning and other measures that mitigate risks posed by denial of service attacks; (3) computer and network incident response policies, plans, and processes; (4) plans to minimize the risk of unauthorized access to its systems or tampering with registration and customer data, and how the registrar proposes to mitigate denial of service attacks; (5) intrusion detection mechanisms, and (6) a threat analysis for the proposed registrar and the defenses that will be deployed against those threats.
41) How will the Applicant ensure that the WHOIS data of the domain names under the Applicant's management will be available to the public and be updated at least daily, pursuant to Section 3.3.1 of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement?
42) Please fully describe the Applicant‘s procedures for complying with Section 3.7.8 of the RAA upon receiving notification by any person of an inaccuracy in the contact information associated with any registered domain name the Applicant will manage as a registrar; as well as how the Applicant will comply with the Whois Data Reminder Policy.
43) Which steps will the Applicant take in order to escrow its registration data pursuant to Section 3.6 of the RAA? Which Data Escrow Service Provider does the registrar intend to utilize?
44) Does or will the Applicant offer WHOIS privacy or proxy registration service? If so, please explain in detail how the Applicant will comply with Section 3.7.7.3 of the RAA, and answer part (a) and (b) below:
a) If the Applicant offers or intends to offer WHOIS privacy or proxy registration service, will the Applicant escrow the data related to the customer of the provided privacy service or licensee of any proxy registration?
b) If the Applicant doesn't escrow or doesn't intend to escrow the data, how does the Applicant intend to notify its customers or potential customers that their data are not or will not be escrowed in compliance with Section 3.4.1 of the RAA?
45) Backup: provide details of frequency and procedures for backup of data, hardware, and systems used for backup, data format, escrow, or other data backup features, and procedures for retrieval of data/rebuild of database.
46) Which method(s) does the Applicant use or propose to use for retention of records relating to its registrar business, including a description of all records to be retained, the location at which they will be retained, the form in which they will be retained and the length of their retention? Please refer to Section 3.4 of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement in preparing this response.
47) How does the Applicant propose to provide domain name holders with continued use of their domain names while ensuring that the operation of the Internet will not be adversely affected in the event the Applicant goes out of business or otherwise cease to operate as an ICANN-accredited Registrar?
48) Registrar Transition: provide a plan that could be followed in the event that it becomes necessary to transition the Applicant's domain portfolio to another Registrar, including a transition process, should the Applicant go out of business or, for any other reason, cease to be an ICANN accredited Registrar. If the Applicant’s plan includes specifying a particular Registrar in case such a transition becomes necessary, please provide that Registrar’s business name.
49) Failover Testing: provide a description of the Applicant's failover testing plan. Examples may include a description of plans to test failover of data centers or operations to alternate sites, from a hot to a cold facility, or continuity testing with other registrars, registries or ICANN.
50) Monitoring and Fault Escalation Processes: provide a description of the proposed (or actual) arrangements for monitoring critical registrar systems (including SRS, database systems, DNS servers, publicly available registration data (Whois) policy network connectivity, routers and firewall). This description should explain how these systems are monitored and the mechanisms that will be used for fault escalation and reporting, and should provide details of the proposed support arrangements for these registry systems.
FINANCIAL AND INSURANCE OBLIGATIONS
51) Please provide an externally verified document demonstrating the Applicant’s ability to procure liquid working capital immediately available in the Applicant's name in an amount of at least US$70,000 or equivalent in the Applicant’s local currency. If the Applicant already owns a registrar business or wishes to convert a reseller business into a registrar business, an independently verified financial statement (for example, an external accountant's audit report) showing the working capital devoted to the business should be enclosed.
52) Please provide a certificate of insurance in the name of the Applicant for a Commercial General Liability policy with coverage of at least US $500,000 or equivalent in the applicant’s local currency, or a document evidencing the ability to obtain such an insurance policy. If the proposed insurance is not in force at the time this application is submitted, it will have to be in place prior to completion of the accreditation process.
OTHER
53) Can the Applicant meet all of a registrar's obligations under the Registrar Accreditation Agreement? If there are any provisions of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement the Applicant may not be able to fulfill, please explain the circumstances that prevent the Applicant from doing so.
54) If the Applicant is seeking the transfer of an existing registrar’s accreditation, please describe the circumstances under which the transfer of accreditation is applied for.
NOTE: By submitting this application, you are granting ICANN permission to use your company's name and/or logo in its public announcements (including informational web pages) relating to registrar accreditation.


ATTESTATION OF TRUTHFUL DISCLOSURE:

By signing this application, the undersigned Applicant attests that the information contained in this application, and all supporting documents included with this application, are true and accurate to the best of Applicant's knowledge. By signing this application, the undersigned Applicant gives ICANN permission to contact third parties, investigate, request and obtain additional information and documentation, and otherwise verify the information contained in this application. Applicant waives liability on the part of ICANN for its actions in verifying the information provided in this application. Applicant further waives liability on the part of any third parties who provide truthful, material, relevant information about Applicant as requested in this application.

UNDERTAKING:

Where the Applicant is seeking the transfer of an existing registrar’s accreditation, on the execution of an approved Registrar Accreditation Agreement with ICANN, the Applicant agrees to assume and be responsible for all obligations and liabilities (including unpaid fees) of the transferring registrar under the existing Registrar Accreditation Agreement between the transferring registrar and ICANN.

_______________________________
Signature

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Name (please print)

_______________________________
Title

_______________________________
Name of Applicant Entity

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Date

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