Buy .bi Domain Name

No. The registry's published procedure invites organisations, public and non-governmental bodies, schools and all interested individuals and entities to register, and sets no separate barrier for foreign applicants. The text says so plainly: foreign entities are not obliged to keep a name server or an administrative contact in the country. A company based abroad, a sole trader and a private individual all apply on the same terms, with no agent, trustee or local address required. Nor is there a cap on how many names one holder may take. The only real condition attaches to the name: it must reflect the truth and match the business name or one of its marks.

Three characters. The registry's rules state it in a single sentence and make one- or two-character names subject to a prior special arrangement with the registry. Measurement shows the same boundary: in a whois lookup, single- and double-letter strings come back neither as registered nor as free, but with a note that they sit on a restricted list and would require approval if registered, while a three-letter string comes back free without that note. So a two-letter .bi name is not impossible — one is registered in the zone — but it cannot be bought through the ordinary ordering flow. In practice, three characters or more is the fastest route.

In one-year periods. The registry bills annually: the invoice goes out on the anniversary of the name and, as each payment lands, the registration runs on for another year. Measurement supports this. Newly registered names in the zone expire exactly one year after their creation date, while long-established names move forward through consecutive renewals. An older fee table still on the registry's site mentions a two-year period for new registrations, but the same site's operative policy text and the records measured both point to an annual cycle. You will see the terms available to you on the Atak Domain order screen.

You get a two-week window and nothing after it. The registry sends the yearly invoice on the anniversary of the name and, in the policy's own words, sends no reminder afterwards; a name left unpaid is deleted two weeks later and made available for registration again. The thirty-day grace period, the redemption window that follows it and the pending-delete state you know from generic extensions do not exist here. The practical consequence is blunt: a delay of more than a fortnight loses the name irretrievably and it may go to someone else. Keep the billing email address on the record working and monitored at all times.

Both sit with the same registry under the same set of policy texts; the difference is the level. .bi is registered directly at the second level. .com.bi is the third level beneath com.bi, a zone the registry holds itself, and it is traditionally the space for commercial names. One detail matters: nothing in the registry's published texts requires a capacity, a document or a declaration of commercial activity to register under .com.bi, so the eligibility rules of the two spaces are identical. Holding a name at .bi does not close the .com.bi side; to cover your brand across the Burundian market you need both.

Yes — publication is the default on the registry side. The service agreement asks the registrant to grant the registry the right to disclose their registration data to third parties through a publicly accessible lookup database, and that grant covers the name, the postal address and the names, addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers of the administrative and technical contacts. Measurement confirms it: in the records looked up, all four blocks — registrant, admin, technical and billing — appear in full. The registry sells no privacy product, so whether your details are masked depends entirely on your registrar. See what your own record shows on the whois search page.

A change of registrar is a working operation in this zone: the registry applies the standard transfer lock, so if your name is locked you have to get it unlocked first. The registry publishes a list of accredited registrars that mixes Burundian firms with international ones. What it does not publish is a procedure for obtaining the authorisation code; in practice the code and its timing run through your current registrar. A change of holder is a separate route and can only be started by the contacts already on the record. Begin on the domain transfer page, or write to us via contact if anything is unclear.

There are two routes. The first is international: the registry's service agreement adopts ICANN's uniform dispute resolution policy by reference, and the text says openly that the registry has no separate dispute resolution policy of its own. Once a complaint reaches a judicial or administrative body, the registrant may not change the record without the registry's approval. The second is an administrative shortcut: the policy text treats a third party's mark registered without the owner's consent as an undesirable name and states that such a name will be deleted immediately at the owner's request. The registry also reserves the right to delete an improperly run name without compensation.