Enter Afghanistan market with a .COM.AF Domain

In practice, no. The registry divides its third-level spaces by purpose and states that the com branch is assigned to commercial entities; its application form asks for the organisation's name, any trademark and an office address. That capacity, however, is not verified against documents at registration: the registry's own records show .com.af names held by companies in Kabul alongside private individuals based abroad, and foreign registrars can register in this space. No local address, representative or trustee service is required. Even so, keep your declaration truthful — the registry's rules treat inaccurate statements as grounds for terminating the licence.

From one year up to five. The registry's own price list enumerates the term columns one by one and shows all five options for the com branch, from a single year through to five years; there is no sixth column. A ten-year registration is therefore not possible in this space. Renewal extends the term without a break, and the new period starts from the end of the previous one rather than from the filing date, so renewing early costs you nothing. A practical tip: since this zone publishes no written recovery window after expiry, choosing a longer term instead of a single year directly reduces the risk of forgetting.

One character. This is the most concrete commercial difference between this space and the second level: most single-letter and single-digit .com.af names are still free in the registry, and the handful that are taken were registered very recently — two of the three during 2025. So if you genuinely want a very short name, starting at one character is still possible here. The upper limit is sixty-three characters, and the com.af suffix does not count towards it. The name must consist of letters, digits and hyphens, and may not begin or end with a hyphen.

Both sit with the same registry, AFGNIC under Afghanistan's Ministry of Communications; the difference is the level and the intended use. .af is registered directly at the second level and asks the applicant for no particular capacity. .com.af is the shared third-level space the registry sets aside for commercial entities, and it reads as corporate. One detail matters: the two are independent registrations, so the holder of foo.af cannot stop foo.com.af going to someone else. There is a further commercial point: single-character names are entirely exhausted on the .af side, while on the .com.af side they remain largely available.

There is no written recovery guarantee. The warning on the registry's registration form states it plainly: if you do not renew in time, after the expiry date the name is deactivated and its right of use may be given to another person, with the consequences resting on you. No number of days is given and no grace or redemption period is defined. Measurement shows loose practice in the other direction: .com.af names whose terms ran out months ago remain in the register and keep resolving, and none sits in a pending-deletion state. That is not a right and can end at any moment, so put the renewal date in your calendar.

Yes — publication is the default. The registry's lookup service shows the holder's name, street and city, country, email address and telephone number without masking, and in many records the administrative, technical and billing contacts appear separately as well. The registry's rules require this from the outset: by registering, the holder is taken to have authorised those details to be made accessible for transparency. The same rule grants one limited right — the holder may, without giving reasons, require that the data not be passed to third parties. If publishing a company address is fine, this space is corporate anyway; if not, ask your registrar about a proxy. Check yours on the whois search page.

Do not confuse the two operations. A change of registrar is possible and happens regularly in the registry's records; it does not affect the length of your registration, so no days are lost. The one practical obstacle is locks: a substantial share of names in this space sit behind a transfer lock, so the first step is having your current provider lift it. A change of holder is a separate and narrower procedure; the registry's rules state that the right of use is not freely transferable and may change hands only together with the business assets. If you are planning a sale or a company transfer, speak to your registrar first. Start on the domain transfer page.

Technically yes, but uptake is close to nil. The parent zone .af is signed and a trust link is published in the root; .com.af names sit under that same chain, and their signature records are published directly in the .af zone. Because the registry does hold names that publish a signature record, your registrar can add a DS record on your behalf. In the measurement carried out, however, not one of the .com.af names queried was signed. The practical consequence is simple: if you want DNSSEC you must ask your provider for it, because it is not enabled by itself.