About .ca Domains

About .ca Domains

.ca is the country code top-level domain (ccTLD) representing Canada. It is operated by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA).

Eligibility Requirements

To be eligible to register a .ca domain, you must meet one of the following:

• A Canadian citizen or permanent resident
• A legal entity registered in Canada
• A trade-mark registered in Canada

Registration Rules and Restrictions

Keep these rules in mind when registering a .ca domain:

• Domains must be between 1 to 63 characters in length
• Allowed characters are letters (a-z), numbers (0-9), and hyphen (-)
• Leading/trailing hyphens or numbers are prohibited
• Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs) containing accented characters are supported

Registration and Renewal Timeline

• Initial registration term is 1-10 years
• Subsequently, domains can be renewed for 1-10 year periods
• A 30-day grace period after expiration is given before deleting a domain

Managing and Transferring Domains

• Registrar transfers are allowed anytime
• An auth code from the current registrar must be provided
• Contacts and nameservers can be modified post-transfer

Nameserver Requirements

Between 2-13 nameservers can be configured per domain with these rules:

• Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are allowed
• Must be using an authoritative nameserver
• DNSSEC support varies by registrar