60-Day Lock After Change of Registrant
What is a registrant?
A domain name registrant is an individual or entity who registers a domain name. Upon registration of a domain name, a registrant provides their contact details which are used to manage the ownership and control of that domain.
Why the 60-day lock exists
For all domains under registries contracted with ICANN which includes all gTLDs (eg: .com, .net, .app etc), an ICANN policy went into effect on December 1st, 2016 requiring a 60-day transfer lock whenever registrant details were changed.
The 60-day transfer lock after a registrant (owner) change is an ICANN security measure designed to prevent domain hijacking. When registrant information changes, there is a risk that the change could be unauthorized or fraudulent. The lock period gives the previous registrant time to detect and report any unauthorized changes before a domain can be transferred away. This protection is especially important because once a domain is transferred to another registrar, recovery becomes significantly more difficult.
The lock applies specifically to transfers between registrars. It does not prevent other operations like DNS changes, contact updates (other than registrant), or renewals. The lock only affects the ability to initiate a transfer to another registrar.
After 1 December 2016, registrars must impose a lock that will prevent any transfer to another registrar for sixty (60) days following a change to a registrant’s information. Registrars may (but are not required to) allow registrants to opt out of the 60-day lock prior to the change of registrant request.
To transfer a domain name to another registrar and change the registrant’s information, registrants may:
- Request the transfer to another registrar before changing the registrant’s information (to avoid the 60-day lock); or
- Have the prior registrant opt-out the 60-day lock (if this option is offered by the registrar) before making any change to registrant information.
Because policies may vary by registrar, please review a registrar’s policy before making a change to registrant information or transferring to another registrar.
We highly recommend that if you plan to transfer your domain, you wait to update the contact information until after it’s transferred or read the registrant change approval email carefully and opt-out of the 60-day lock.
The 60-day lock cannot be bypassed or shortened once it is in effect. If you need to transfer a domain urgently, you must complete the transfer before making any registrant changes. Changing the registrant contact information after a transfer does not trigger a new lock period, so you can safely update contact details after the transfer is complete.
