In accordance with new ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) rules, starting December 1, 2016, an FOA (Form of Authorization) request will be sent in international domains (gTLD) when attempting to change the Registrant contact entirely or to make changes to registrant contact fields such as:
- name
- organization
If changes are made to phone, fax, or any address data fields of the contact, the data is updated without additional confirmation.
How contact information confirmation works:
A message will be sent to the contact email specified in the domain’s Registrant field (the subject line roughly reads: “Change of Registrant request for YOURDOMAIN.com – New Registrant. Action Required.”) requesting confirmation or rejection of the changes. This email will contain a link that must be followed within 60 days. The email specifies both the old data and the new data being requested.
Both parties must approve the changes before the changes are entered into the registry. If the email address has not changed, both emails will be sent to the same address.
Previously, changes were made instantly and a 15-day period was given for confirmation from the new registrant email, after which the domain was locked. Now, confirmation from both the old and new email will be checked first, and only after confirmation is completed will the changes be reflected in the registrant’s data in WHOIS.
Some important points:
- An email to the contact address will be sent immediately after the registrant is changed on the domain (or changes are made to one of the registrant fields: name / organization / email).
- 60 days are given to confirm or cancel the change request. The email specifies the date until which this request remains active.
- If confirmation is not received from both emails after the set period expires, the request is automatically rejected, and the previous data remains in the contact.
- If the current contact email does not work, the data cannot be changed automatically. In that case, a separate request will need to be sent to our international domains partner.
- The confirmation email is sent from our partner registrar’s address (from “do_not_reply”). This is a mandatory notification that cannot be unsubscribed from.
- After a successful registrant change (or a successful change to one of the registrant fields: name / organization / email), the domain is set by default to a 60-day transfer lock (status: TransferProhibited).
- Once a year, an additional notification email will still be sent to the registrant’s email, as before. Its purpose is to check whether emails are being delivered to this mailbox and to inform about the need to keep contact data accurate.