Skip to main content
Resources

Annual Registrar Compliance Certificate

All registrars that are party to the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) are required to complete and return to ICANN an annual certificate certifying compliance with the terms and conditions of the registrar's RAA within twenty (20) days following the end of each calendar year. This form, known as the Annual Registrar Compliance Certificate, must be executed by the President, Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer or Chief Operating Officer (or their equivalents) of the Registrar.

Registrars party to the 2013 Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA) will be sent an Annual Certification document and requested to complete and return by an electronic signing software. This request will be sent by ICANN for the previous certification year during the first week of January each year.

If you prefer not to utilize the electronic signature software, please follow the instructions below to determine which certificate you should complete.

Option A: Recommended for Single / Unaffiliated Registrars

If your registrar is NOT part of a family or group of ICANN accredited registrars:

  1. Download the PDF "RAA Annual Certification" [PDF, 89 KB]
  2. Insert at the top the calendar year only for which you are certifying compliance
  3. Enter the Registrar Name in the first paragraph
  4. Enter the registrar's GURID/IANA ID (if known)
  5. Complete the signatory information and sign
  6. Return the completed document to registrar@icann.org

Option B: Recommended for Affiliated Registrars / Registrar Families

If your registrar is part of a family or group of ICANN accredited registrars:

  1. Download the PDF "RAA Annual Certification Affiliated" [PDF, 97 KB]
  2. Insert at the top the calendar year only for which you are certifying compliance
  3. Enter the Parent or Affiliation Name
  4. Complete Appendix A by listing all affiliated registrars and their IANA IDs or attach a separate document with registrar names and IANA IDs
  5. Complete the signatory information and sign
  6. Return the completed document, including Appendix A, to registrar@icann.org

If your registrar prefers to sign and mail a hard copy of the Annual Registrar Compliance Certificate, please download and complete the certificate and mail it to:

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
Attention: GDD Operations/Registrar Services
12025 Waterfront Drive, Suite 300
Los Angeles, CA 90094-2536
USA

Phone: +1 310 301 5800

The document should be sent by courier and postmarked no later than 20 January in order to be considered timely.

If you have any questions regarding the Annual Registrar Compliance Certificate, please refer to your copy of the 2013 RAA or send an email to registrar@icann.org.

Domain Name System
Internationalized Domain Name ,IDN,"IDNs are domain names that include characters used in the local representation of languages that are not written with the twenty-six letters of the basic Latin alphabet ""a-z"". An IDN can contain Latin letters with diacritical marks, as required by many European languages, or may consist of characters from non-Latin scripts such as Arabic or Chinese. Many languages also use other types of digits than the European ""0-9"". The basic Latin alphabet together with the European-Arabic digits are, for the purpose of domain names, termed ""ASCII characters"" (ASCII = American Standard Code for Information Interchange). These are also included in the broader range of ""Unicode characters"" that provides the basis for IDNs. The ""hostname rule"" requires that all domain names of the type under consideration here are stored in the DNS using only the ASCII characters listed above, with the one further addition of the hyphen ""-"". The Unicode form of an IDN therefore requires special encoding before it is entered into the DNS. The following terminology is used when distinguishing between these forms: A domain name consists of a series of ""labels"" (separated by ""dots""). The ASCII form of an IDN label is termed an ""A-label"". All operations defined in the DNS protocol use A-labels exclusively. The Unicode form, which a user expects to be displayed, is termed a ""U-label"". The difference may be illustrated with the Hindi word for ""test"" — परीका — appearing here as a U-label would (in the Devanagari script). A special form of ""ASCII compatible encoding"" (abbreviated ACE) is applied to this to produce the corresponding A-label: xn--11b5bs1di. A domain name that only includes ASCII letters, digits, and hyphens is termed an ""LDH label"". Although the definitions of A-labels and LDH-labels overlap, a name consisting exclusively of LDH labels, such as""icann.org"" is not an IDN."