🇨🇦 .ca — Canada

The .ca is a country-code top-level domain (ccTLD) operated by Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA). This article documents the technical, operational, and contractual requirements for the TLD, along with special considerations for registry, registrar, and domain management.

General Information

Property	Value
TLD Type	ccTLD
Registry	Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA)
Registry Country	Canada
Registry Website	www.cira.ca
Provisioning Protocol	EPP
Second-Level Registration	❌ No
Accreditation Required	✅ Yes

Domain Lifecycle

Property	Value
Registration Period	1–10 years
Renewal Period	1–10 years
Transfer Renewal Period	1 year
Deletion Policy	Immediate, At expiration
Auto-Renew Enabled	✅ Yes
Auto-Renewal Before Expiry	On expiration
Sync After Operations	registration, renewal, transfer

Grace periods

Period	Duration
Add Grace Period	5 days
Standard Grace Period	45 days
Redemption Period	30 days
Pending Restore	0 days
Pending Delete	5 days

Launch Phases & Availability

Property	Value
General Availability	✅ TLD is live
TMCH / Trademark Claims	❌ No

Domain Characteristics

Property	Value
Domain Length	2–63 characters
IDN Support	✅ Yes
Premium Domains	❌ No
Reserved Domains	✅ Yes
Registry Lock	❌ No

Contacts & Roles

Property	Value
Required Contacts	Domain Owner, Administrator
Supported Roles	Domain Owner, Administrator, Technical Contact, Billing Contact
Thick WHOIS	✅ Yes
Privacy Proxy Allowed	✅ Yes
Contacts Transferable	❌ No
Allowed Postal Types	Local
AuthInfo Required	✅ Yes (6–16 characters)

Nameservers & DNS

Property	Value
Nameserver Count	0–13
Host Objects Allowed	✅ Yes
Registry Nameserver Check	❌ No
DNSSEC Allowed	✅ Yes
DNSSEC Required	❌ No
DNSSEC Mode	DS
CZDS (Zone Download)	❌ No

Transfer Policy

Property	Value
Transfer Lock Enabled	✅ Yes (60 days after registration; 60 days after transfer)
Transfer Duration	0 days
Transfer Extends Domain	✅ Yes (+1 year)
Transfer via AuthInfo	✅ Yes
Confirmation Required	❌ No

WHOIS & RDAP

Property	Value
WHOIS Server	`whois.cira.ca`
RDAP Server	rdap.ca.fury.ca

Dispute Resolution

Property	Value
Dispute Resolution Available	✅ Yes
Procedure	CDRP
Reference	www.cira.ca/en/resources/documents/domains/cira-domain-name-dispute-resolution-rules-16
UDRP Support	❌ No
URS Support	❌ No

Local Presence

Property	Value
Local Presence Required	✅ Yes
Applies To Roles	Domain Owner
Requirements	Physical Address, Business Entity
Eligible Countries	CA

Contact Attributes

.ca registrations carry a registry-specific contact attribute beyond the standard EPP fields:

Attribute	Type	Required	Applies to	Allowed values
`CIRA_CPR`	Enum	✅ Required	Domain Owner	Any code in the table below
`CIRA_CPR`	Enum	➖ Optional	Administrator	`CCT`, `RES`, `LGR`, `ABO`

CIRA requires the administrator contact to be an individual, so its optional CIRA_CPR value is limited to the four individual categories (CCT, RES, LGR, ABO). The domain owner may use any category.

⚠️ Reusing one contact for every role? Do not copy the domain owner's CIRA_CPR onto the administrator contact. A non-individual value such as EDU or GOV is valid for the domain owner but rejected for the administrator:
{
  "type": "policy-validation-error",
  "title": "Policy Validation Error",
  "status": 422,
  "code": "ERROR_POLICY_VALIDATION",
  "errors": [
    {
      "detail": "Invalid value 'EDU' for attribute 'CIRA_CPR'. Allowed values: CCT, RES, LGR, ABO",
      "pointer": "contacts.admin[0].attributes.CIRA_CPR"
    }
  ],
  "detail": "Policy validation failed"
}
Since the administrator's CIRA_CPR is optional, the simplest approach is to omit it for non-registrant roles.

These per-role constraints are machine-readable: each possible_attributes entry returned by GET /v1/tlds/ca carries its own values, required, and contact_roles fields. Integrations that build forms from the TLD specification should filter the allowed values by contact role rather than offering the domain owner's list for every contact.

Canadian Presence Requirement (CIRA_CPR)

Every .ca domain must satisfy CIRA's Canadian Presence Requirements. The registrant declares which legal type establishes their Canadian presence through the CIRA_CPR attribute.

Code	Legal type	Individual
`ABO`	Aboriginal Peoples (individuals or groups) indigenous to Canada	✅
`ASS`	Canadian unincorporated association	❌
`CCO`	Canadian corporation, or Canadian province or territory	❌
`CCT`	Canadian citizen	✅
`EDU`	Canadian educational institution	❌
`GOV`	Government or government entity in Canada	❌
`HOP`	Canadian hospital	❌
`INB`	Indian Band recognized by the Indian Act of Canada	❌
`LAM`	Canadian library, archive, or museum	❌
`LGR`	Legal Representative of a Canadian Citizen or Permanent Resident	✅
`MAJ`	Her/His Majesty the Queen/King	❌
`OMK`	Official mark registered in Canada	❌
`PLT`	Canadian political party	❌
`PRT`	Partnership registered in Canada	❌
`RES`	Permanent resident of Canada	✅
`TDM`	Trade-mark registered in Canada (by a non-Canadian owner)	❌
`TRD`	Canadian trade union	❌
`TRS`	Trust established in Canada	❌

Registrants whose legal type is TDM or OMK are exempt from the Canadian local-presence requirement: a Canadian-registered trade-mark or official mark satisfies the Canadian Presence Requirement on its own, so the registrant need not be located in Canada.

Organization requirement for non-individual categories

A contact using a non-individual category must have its org field set. If it is missing, the request is rejected:

{
  "detail": "Organization is required for non-individual CIRA CPR category 'GOV'",
  "pointer": "contact.org"
}

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