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Important Reminders and Updates for 2026 Round Applicants

27 juillet 2026
Par
Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy

Theresa Swinehart is the Senior Vice President of Global Domains and Strategy. In this role, she works with the community, contracted parties, stakeholders, and policymakers to ensure broad and inclusive engagement, consensus-based policymaking through ICANN’s multistakeholder model, and effective, accountable policy implementation. Her responsibilities include policy implementation, review operation, and cross-functional strategic initiatives such as ICANN’s compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. An expert in global Internet governance, Theresa also serves as co-deputy to the President and CEO. Her extensive industry experience, including nearly 20 years as a key contributor to ICANN’s growth and development, gives her a valuable perspective on how ICANN organization can work efficiently and collaboratively to better serve the global Internet community.

Theresa rejoined ICANN after three years as Executive Director of Global Internet Policy at Verizon Communications, where she specialized in emerging issues as well as stakeholder and policy engagement. Prior to this, she served as ICANN’s Vice President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, leading a team responsible for partnership reform, global engagement and outreach, and the participation in international forums. Before ICANN, Theresa was Director of Global E-Commerce at MCI, where she was responsible for such issues as Internet service provider liability, data protection, and participation in Internet-related forums, including the formation of ICANN. 

Theresa has a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of California, Davis, a graduate degree in international studies from the University of Vienna, Austria, and a juris doctorate from American University. She served on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees and Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Committee. Theresa began her career in international human rights. She is fluent in German and is conversant in French.

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  • English

The close of the New Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLD) Program: 2026 Round application window is around the corner. Here are some important reminders and updates to be aware of before the submission period closes at 23:59 UTC on 12 August.

gTLD Evaluation Fee

Applicants are encouraged to run a test payment in the TLD Application Management System (TAMS) prior to submitting their applications. They are also reminded to submit their applications well before the deadline to avoid last-minute issues. The gTLD evaluation fee must be received by ICANN no later than 23:59 UTC on 19 August 2026 – seven days after the application window closes. Applicants can find details about the fee here.

String Replacement

To help avoid contention, which is when two or more entities have applied for the same or a confusingly similar string, applicants have the opportunity to apply for a replacement string. Please keep in mind that the replacement string application must be submitted prior to the close of application submission window; it cannot be added after. To learn more about contention and replacement strings, please see Module 5 in the Applicant Guidebook and page 12 of the TAMS User Guide.

Registry Service Providers

A critical component of successfully operating a gTLD is managing the technical aspects; some choose to outsource these services to a third party. ICANN's Registry Service Provider (RSP) Evaluation Program has published a list of back-end service providers that have successfully cleared evaluation and stand ready to support gTLD applicants.

On this same topic, I'm pleased to share the news that more than 10 of these evaluated RSPs have offered to provide discounts for applicants that receive assistance through the Applicant Support Program. The list is available to view here.

Additional Resources

New tools are continually being added to our applicant resource library. These include new FAQs and webpages, as well as information and materials related to each stage of the Applicant Journey. To take advantage of these, visit the Resources page.

Please remember to submit any questions to [email protected] while in the process of preparing an application. Unless your question affects your ability to submit your application, please do not wait until you have received an answer to submit your application. We expect the volume of questions to increase towards the end of the application window, and this may impact response times. Once an application is submitted, applicants can use the inquiry function within TAMS to ask questions related to a specific application.

Authors

Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy
Theresa Swinehart

Theresa Swinehart

SVP, Global Domains & Strategy

Theresa Swinehart is the Senior Vice President of Global Domains and Strategy. In this role, she works with the community, contracted parties, stakeholders, and policymakers to ensure broad and inclusive engagement, consensus-based policymaking through ICANN’s multistakeholder model, and effective, accountable policy implementation. Her responsibilities include policy implementation, review operation, and cross-functional strategic initiatives such as ICANN’s compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation. An expert in global Internet governance, Theresa also serves as co-deputy to the President and CEO. Her extensive industry experience, including nearly 20 years as a key contributor to ICANN’s growth and development, gives her a valuable perspective on how ICANN organization can work efficiently and collaboratively to better serve the global Internet community.

Theresa rejoined ICANN after three years as Executive Director of Global Internet Policy at Verizon Communications, where she specialized in emerging issues as well as stakeholder and policy engagement. Prior to this, she served as ICANN’s Vice President of Global and Strategic Partnerships, leading a team responsible for partnership reform, global engagement and outreach, and the participation in international forums. Before ICANN, Theresa was Director of Global E-Commerce at MCI, where she was responsible for such issues as Internet service provider liability, data protection, and participation in Internet-related forums, including the formation of ICANN. 

Theresa has a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the University of California, Davis, a graduate degree in international studies from the University of Vienna, Austria, and a juris doctorate from American University. She served on the Internet Society’s Board of Trustees and Internet Governance Forum’s Multistakeholder Advisory Committee. Theresa began her career in international human rights. She is fluent in German and is conversant in French.