Registrar Accreditation: Process

The Process

The process of becoming an ICANN-accredited registrar for the .com, .net, and .org top-level domains includes several steps. The following summary of these steps is intended to guide you through this process and enable you to make informed business decisions along the way. For a short list of the documents you must submit and/or review as part of this process, please visit Documents You Must Submit or Review.

1. Apply for Registrar Accreditation. You must complete an ICANN Registrar Accreditation Application and send it to ICANN along with a non-refundable US $1,000 application fee. You must submit the Application and review the Instructions for Completing the Application and the current Registrar Accreditation Agreement in order to apply.

The application review process usually takes between four and six weeks. Applications with very specific, thorough answers and all necessary supporting documents may be processed more quickly. The main reasonfor delay is typically missing supporting documents, supporting documents which require translation into English (which ICANN requests you have done before submitting your application), and incomplete or vague answers to application questions.

Questions you may have concerning your application should be addressed to accredit@icann.org or to the ICANN Registrar Application Helpline at +1-310-823-9358, extension 30, where you can leave a voice message.

2. Receive Notification That You Qualify for Registrar Accreditation. After completing its review of your application and conducting any necessary follow-up inquiries, ICANN will inform you by e-mail of its decision to accredit your business or not. ICANN will announce your accreditation, along with contact information for your company on its web site, unless you specify that you would prefer, for business reasons, to postpone the announcement of your accreditation.

3. Sign an Accreditation Agreement with ICANN. The last step in the ICANN Registrar Accreditation process is for you to execute a Registrar Accreditation Agreement with ICANN. The current version of the agreement was approved November 4, 1999 by the ICANN Board of DIrectors. This is a standard document that all registrars sign with ICANN.

ICANN will send you two copies of the Agreement. Once you have signed both and returned them to ICANN, we will have them signed on ICANN's behalf. ICANN will then notify Network Solutions, Inc. ("NSI") of your accreditation so that NSI can contact you within three to five days in order for you to start signing agreements with it and get your SRS software.

4. Receive Fully Executed Agreement from ICANN and Pay Accreditation Fee. Two or three weeks after you return your signed copies of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement to ICANN, you will recieve one of the originals back, fully executed, for your records. You will also receive an invoice for the annual fixed portion of the accreditation fee, which is US$5,000.

5. Sign Confidentiality Agreement with NSI. NSI requires that you sign a Confidentiality Agreement before you are given access to certain SRS software and documentation. This agreement is contained in the NSI Registrar License and Agreement, which NSI will send to you after it has been notified of your accreditation by ICANN (see Step 3, above).

Before you sign your confidentiality agreement, you may get a head start on designing your system by reviewing a description of the SRS system published in December 1999 as an IETF Internet Draft entitled "Registry Registrar Protocol (RRP) Version 1.1.0".

6. Obtain Assurance of Performance. The version of the NSI Registrar License and Agreement currently approved for use by NSI requires registrars to have in place a US $100,000 performance assurance (such as a bond or insurance). Questions about obtaining this performance assurance should be addressed to NSI. More information from NSI about this requirement and others is available at NSI Technical Requirements for Registrars.

7. Arrange to Obtain an Appropriate SSL License. Your system's communications with the SRS will employ a secure socket layer interface. This may require you to obtain a software license from a third-party vendor.

8. Prepare to Sign a Registrar License and Agreement with NSI. NSI will send you the Registrar License and Agreement referenced above in Step 5. This must be signed and returned to NSI.

9. Prepare to Pay NSI's License Fee. NSI's SRS software license fee is a US$10,000 one-time fee. You must pay the fee before you can connect with the SRS system.

10. Obtain the SRS Software and Documentation from NSI. You will receive the SRS software (including the APIs, a reference implementation for Java, and documentation) from NSI after you have (i) signed the Registrar License and Agreement with NSI; (ii) signed the Confidentiality Agreement; and (iii) paid the NSI license fee.

11. Prepare Your Systems to Interface with the Registry. The C and Java languages are supported by the APIs. In addition to the direct registration functions to be implemented through the SRS, your system must also provide Whois (or similar) service for the names you will register for customers and also must support the ICANN data escrow program. See the ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement for detailed operational requirements.

12. Test Your Software. NSI has established a test platform for your use in testing your system's interoperability with the SRS. You will be given a userid and password for this system.

13. Verify Your System's Functionality. NSI will verify that your system properly interfaces to the SRS.

14. Make Arrangements with NSI for Prepayment of Registration Fees. NSI will require that before you may actually register domain names through the SRS, you must make arrangements to pay the registry fees through a letter of credit, deposit account, or other terms acceptable to NSI.

15. Complete Preparation of Your Agreement with Customers and Uniform Domain-Name Dispute Policy. The ICANN Registrar Accreditation Agreement provides some guidance on these requirements. ICANN adopted a Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy which all accredited registrars are required to follow. You may also wish to implement a Privacy Policy to comply with the requirements of your accreditation agreement.

16. Inaugurate Your Service. After the above steps have been completed, you should be in a position to begin offering services to the public.

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