.US

.US is the official country code Top-Level-Domain (ccTLD) of the United States. A .US domain can be used and registered by anyone or any corporations who comply with the registration guidelines (see Restrictions).

Introduced	1985
Country	United States
Registry	Neustar
IDN Capable	No
Webpage	Register .US

Registry

TLD	-
Registry	nic.us
Dispute Policy	Rules
Registrar	1api GmbH
WHOIS-Server	whois.nic.us
WHOIS-Update	Real-Time
Min. Characters	3
Max. Characters	63
Character Set	Letters and numbers Hyphens ("-"), however not at the beginning or directly in front of the TLD IDN: not allowed
Limitations	Registrant Contacts: Required: 1 / Maximum: 1 Admin Contacts: Required: 1 / Maximum: 1 Tech Contacts: Required: 1 / Maximum: 1 Billing Contacts: Required: 1 / Maximum: 1
{{{Possible Extensions}}}
IDN capable	No
Restore capable	Real-Time
Handle Updates	Supported
Registration System	Real-Time
Allowed number of NS	0 to 13
Registry Nameservercheck	No
Host IP-Addresses Type	IPv4
Hosts managed as	Object
Root Nameserver Update	Real-Time
SEC DNS Interface	DS data interface
Transferclass	Pull
Transfer Periods	1Y
Transfer Authcode required	Yes
Transfer Real-Time	No
Transfer Pending Period	5 days
Transfer Expire Action	ACK
Transfer ACK by	Registrar
Transfer NACK by	Registrar
Transfer Lock	Yes
Owner Change by	Update

Periods

{{{Possible Extensions}}}
Registration Periods	1-10 years
Add Grace Period	0 days
Accounting Period	-5 days
Finalization Period	1 day
Failure Period	44 days
Payment Period	-61 days
Deletion Restorable Period	30 days
Deletion Hold Period	5 days
Explicit Renewals	Yes
Renewal Periods	1-9 years

API

Domain Registration

Domains can be registered in Real-Time with the API AddDomain command.

command = AddDomain
domain  = (DOMAIN)

REQUIRED

ownercontact0 = (CONTACT)
admincontact0 = (CONTACT)
techcontact0 = (CONTACT)
billingcontact0 = (CONTACT)
nameserver0 = (NAMESERVER)
nameserver1 = (NAMESERVER)

x-us-nexus-apppurpose = <TEXT>
x-us-nexus-category = <TEXT>
x-us-nexus-validator = <TEXT>

OPTIONAL

auth = <TEXT> | <NULL>
transferlock = 0 | 1 | <NULL>
subuser = <TEXT> | <NULL>

Domain Transfer

The transfer has to be initiated by the gaining registrar and can be requested with the API TransferDomain command.
A valid Authorization Code must be provided to initiate a transfer successfully. You may obtain the authorization code from the losing registrar.
As soon as a domain transfer has been initiated it can either be approved ("ACK") by Registrar or denied ("NACK") by Registrar. If the registry receives neither a denial ("NACK") nor an approval ("ACK") the transfer will be ACKed after 5 days.

Please note that HEXONET is acting in compliance with ICANN Transfer Guidelines. The respective policies can be viewed under http://www.icann.org/transfers/ :

As soon as you have submitted a transfer request, the HEXONET system start the transfer through the official registry and the losing registrar will receive the transfer request. The losing registrar will then send an email to the domain registrant/administrative contact, allowing them to deny the pending transfer. If there is no response received within 5 days, the transfer will automatically be processed.

command = TransferDomain
domain = (DOMAIN)

REQUIRED

action = REQUEST | APPROVE | DENY | CANCEL | USERTRANSFER
auth = <TEXT>

OPTIONAL

order = CREATE | REPLACE | UPDATE

subuser = <TEXT> | <NULL>
period = <PERIOD>
transferlock = 0 | 1 | <NULL>

Delete Domain

Domains can be deleted with the API DeleteDomain command.
There is a Deletion Restorable Period of 30 days and a following Deletion Hold Period of 5 days.

command = DeleteDomain
domain = (DOMAIN)

REQUIRED

n/a

Restore Domain

Restores can be processed in realtime. A restore is possible within 30 days upon deletion. Please use the command RestoreDomain.

command = RestoreDomain
domain = (DOMAIN)

REQUIRED

n/a

OPTIONAL

renewalmode = <NULL> | <TEXT>
subuser = <TEXT>

Ownerchange

An Ownerchange is free of charge and can be done with the API ModifyDomain command.

command = modifydomain
domain = <TEXT>

REQUIRED

ownercontact0 = (CONTACT)

x-us-nexus-apppurpose = <TEXT>
x-us-nexus-category = <TEXT>
x-us-nexus-validator = <TEXT>

OPTIONAL

auth = <TEXT> | <NULL>
transferlock = 0 | 1 | <NULL>
subuser = <TEXT> | <NULL>

TLD specific

Restrictions

A .US Domain can only be registered by any U.S. citizen or resident, as well as any business or organization, including federal, state, and local government with a bona fide presence in the United States.

One of the following eligibility requirements should be:

• A natural person
  • who is a citizen or permanent resident of the United States of America or any of its possessions or territories or
  • whose primary place of domicile is in the United States of America or any of its possessions, or

• Any entity or organization that is
  • incorporated within one of the fifty (50) U.S. states, the District of Columbia, or any of the United States possessions or territories or
  • organized or otherwise constituted under the laws of a state of the United States of America, the District of Columbia, or any of its possessions or territories, or

• An entity or organization (including federal, state, or local government of the United States, or a political subdivision thereof) that has a bona fide presence in the United States. See Section B.3.1 of the Neustar proposal to the Department of Commerce for details concerning what constitutes a "bona fide presence".

Special parameters

x-us-nexus-apppurpose

Choose/enter one of the following categories .

P1 - Business use for profit

P2 - Non-profit business, club, association, religious organization, etc.

P3 - Personal use

P4 - Education purposes

P5 - Government purposes

x-us-nexus-category

A natural person,

C11 - Who is a United States citizen.

C12 - Who is a permanent resident of the United States of America or any of its posessions or territories.

A U.S. Organization incorporated within one of the fifty (50) U.S. States, the District of Columbia, or any of the U.S. Possessions or territories or organized or otherwise constituted under the laws of a state of the United States of America, the District of Columbia or any of its possessions or territories or a U.S. Federal, state, or local government entity or a political subdivision thereof.

C21 - U.S. Organization incorporated within one of the 50 states or a U.S. Territory An entity or organization that has a bona fide presence in the United States of America or any of its possessions or territories.

C31 - Regularly engages in lawful activities (sales of goods or services or other business, commercial or non-commercial, including not-for-profit relations in the United States).

C32 - Entity has an office or other facility in the US.

x-us-nexus-validator
Specify the two-letter country-code of the registrant (if Nexus Category is either C31 or C32). For further information see the .US Nexus Requirements.

For more information see .US Legal Policies posted here.

Transfer

• A .US Domain Transfer must be initiated with a so-called "Authorisation Code", which can be obtained from the current registrar through the owner or Admin-C of the domain.
• Please ensure, that you have a correct "Authorisation Code" associated with the domain, before initiating the transfer, otherwise it will fail.
• Ensure that your respective domain does not have a lock-status (REGISTRAR-LOCK or HOLD). This can be seen in the WHOIS. If the domain is locked, then the owner can demand that this be unlocked.
• Initiate the transfer on time and not just shortly before the domain expires.
• Please ensure that the domain is older than 60 days otherwise the transfer will be denied.
• Please note that you need a signed request from the registrant before you initiate the transfer.

The transfer of a .US domain will usually take 5-10 days.

Addons

The following overview shows you all available Domain Addons which can be used for this special kind of TLD. It also shows the respective API parameters which are required to activate the Domain Addons:

Addon Class	Parameter to (de)activate *1)	Renewal term *2)	Affected Parameters *3)
Proxy (SHIELDWHOIS_ARI_NAMEISP)	X-PROXY = 0 | SHIELDWHOIS	1 month	All Contacts

*1) Parameter to (de)activate: When accessing our backend through the API, you can either activate the addon with X-PROXY=SHIELDWHOIS or deactivate it with
      X-PROXY=0

*2) Renewal Term: Is the minimum renewal term of the "Addon Class"

*3) If you are using a "Proxy" Domain Addon normally all contact handles are affected (registrant, admin, tech, and billing contact).
      

RegistrarOC

ICANN Whois Data Reminder Policy (WDRP)

At least annually, a registrar must present to the registrant the current Whois information, and remind the registrant that provision of false Whois information can be grounds for cancellation of his domain name registration. Registrants must review their Whois data, and make any corrections.

ICANN Registrar Data Escrow Program (RDE)

Under the data escrow provision of the Registrar Accreditation Agreement (RAA), all ICANN-accredited registrars must regularly deposit a backup copy of their gTLD registration data with ICANN through ICANN's arrangement with Iron Mountain or they may elect to use a Third Party Provider of RDE services that has been approved by ICANN.

Restore Process

To restore a domain as a RegistrarOC customer, you simply have to execute the RestoreDomain command. HEXONET directly forwards the restore request to the registry, which performs the restore in real-time. As soon as the restore is complete, the domain will get assigned to your account with the original domain data.

Please do not initiate a restore directly at the registry (e.g. using the registrar webinterface). All restore operations must be performed through our system.