The official country-code TLD for Canada is represented by .CA. The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) regulates .CA domains. To be sure that .CA sites are 100% Canadian, anyone registering for a .CA domain must meet certain Canadian Presence Requirements (CPR).
Canadian citizens living outside of Canada can register a .CA domain providing their current address, wherever that may be. Registrants with addresses outside of Canada must provide an up-to-date email address in case the .CA registry needs to get in touch with you.
CIRA enforces a Canadian Presence Requirement or CPR. CPR requires that every registrant must select one of eighteen categories to show their connection to Canada. For more information, please refer to
What is Registrant Information Validation (RIV)?
When purchasing your.CA domain name, you’ll need to specify the right contact information (including the extended attributes) to complete the domain registration. Certain country codes, like .CA, require extra information. For more information, login to your Namecheap Account and view:
Domain Contacts Presets.
According to
CIRA, you can register a .CA domain name in two ways. Select
Individual when you’re using the domain name for purposes like blogging or creating a web store. Select
Organization you’re a company that is legally registered within Canadian law.
Registering
a .CA domain name as an Individual
For all domain registrations, you can either use the contact details from your Namecheap account, or specify new contact details.
The User default account contact option should be selected if you wish to apply your Account Contact information to all the categories: Registrant, Administrative, Technical, and Billing:
If you want to enter new contact details, choose Add new contact and follow these tips for smooth registration of your .CA domain as an Individual:
- Enter factual, true terms for First and Last Names.
- Leave Organization and Job Title fields empty/blank.
- Administrative contact details must be a natural person. Their First and Last Names cannot contain digits or generic words like ‘Domain Administrator’.
- Use an abbreviation for the Province name e.g. ON, BC, etc.
- Use the Canadian Postal Code format XNX NXN, where X is a letter, and N is a number. The space separating the blocks of characters is optional.
After you’ve set the contact information, you will need to specify Extended Attributes for each .CA domain registration. These include Preferred Language and choosing one of the following Registrant’s Legal Types:
- Canadian citizen
- Permanent resident
- Legal representative of a Canadian
- Aboriginal Peoples (individuals and groups) indigenous to Canada.
Note: choose Hide registrant data in CIRA Whois if you don’t want your .CA domain information to be publicly viewable.
Registering
a .CA domain name as an Organization
You will need to comply with official rules on how your contact information is specified. Follow these tips for smooth registration of your .CA domain as an Organization:
- Organization name should meet CIRA's requirements.
- Enter your valid organization name into the corresponding Organization field. The Organization field can be found in the following ways:
1) Select'Add new contact' during the registration and check the 'I’m registering on behalf of a company' box, fill in the details:
2) If you selected 'User default account contact', please make sure that the Organization name is added to your profile
details (if not added, they may select either 'Add new contact' as described above or go to
Profile to update contacts as in). - Charities must add NFP to the Registrant Name. The registration number for non-profit organizations can be omitted, e.g. Canadian Internet Registration Authority (NFP)).
- Administrative contact details must be a natural person. Their First and Last Names cannot contain digits or generic words like ‘Domain Administrator’.
- Use an abbreviation for the Province name e.g. ON, BC, etc.
- Use the Canadian Postal Code format XNX NXN where X is a letter and N is a number. The space separating the blocks of characters is optional.
- Non-individuals must show their full Registrant information in public Whois.
Once you add the above details, select your Preferred Language. You can then click Continue to proceed with Checkout:
Next you’ll provide your payment information. You will be able to double-check your order details on the Order review page:
The final step to complete your domain name registration is to read and tick the .CA Terms and Conditions. Then click the Pay Now button:
If your registration was successfully completed, you will see the following message:
That's it!
If you have any questions, feel free to contact our Support Team.
