Changes related to Whois data for international domains came into effect in 2014. Now the organization ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) requires registrants to confirm the contact information, which is specified in the Registrant data of the domain.
Checking the registrant’s contact information
The contact information of the Registrant field for each gTLD (international second-level domain) must be confirmed within 15 days after:
(a) The domain is registered from a contact that has not yet been verified;
b) a domain transfer is performed;
c) the registrant’s contact information has changed.
How contact information is confirmed
As of January 1, 2014, the contact email listed in the Registrant of the domain will receive a notification (approximately the subject of the email is “RAA verification mail”) about the need to verify the email address. This email will contain a link to be clicked within 15 days.
If the registrant does not confirm their email within 15 days, the domain will be blocked (the domain’s NS-servers will lead to a white block page). The blocking page will indicate that the domain has been disabled because the registrant’s contact information has not been confirmed and ask the domain owner to contact their registrar to activate the domain.
Some important points
A letter to the contact email will be sent as soon as the email address is associated with the domain. Additional reminders will be sent on Days 7 and 14 if the address has not yet been confirmed by then. A confirmation letter is sent from the registrar’s address. This is a mandatory notice that you cannot unsubscribe from. Until the 15-day confirmation period expires, the domain can be used as usual.
Once a year, an additional email will be sent to the registrant’s email address. Its purpose is to check if emails are being delivered to this email account.
Domains that were registered before 2014 are not subject to verification if the registrant’s contact information has not changed since the beginning of 2014.
The purpose of such innovations from ICANN is primarily to keep domain contact information current and accurate. We hope that the new rules will not cause you any inconvenience in working with international domains.
