.tl Domain: The Official Country Extension of Timor-Leste
.tl is the country code top-level domain of Timor-Leste, the small nation at the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago, and it entered the root zone on 23 March 2005. The extension is managed by the country's national communications authority, ANC — Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações — based in the capital, Dili. The registry software and the DNS infrastructure behind it are run by CoCCA Registry Services of New Zealand. The published rule set dates from November 2011 and consists of three documents: a registrant agreement, an acceptable use policy and a whois and privacy policy. The registry accepts no direct applications; you register through an accredited registrar.
On eligibility, .tl is close to a blank page. The only condition the agreement sets is that the applicant be an identifiable individual over eighteen or a properly constituted legal entity; there is no residency test, no local company, no trustee and no paperwork. The third-level space preferred for commercial identity is .com.tl, which falls under exactly the same agreement, asks for no separate capacity, and can be held alongside the matching second-level name.
Two practical details are worth settling before you order. The first is disclosure: the published whois policy treats the registrant's name, postal address, email address and telephone number as data the public lookup shall provide, so your personal details can surface in a query. The second is currency of the rules; you can confirm current practice with your registrar. Give your registrar a business address and a role mailbox, then see whether the name you want is free on the domain name search page.
.TL Domain at a Glance
- Assigning authority ANC — Autoridade Nacional de Comunicações, Dili
- Registry operator CoCCA Registry Services (NZ) Limited, Auckland
- Entered the root zone 23 March 2005
- Predecessor extension .tp — removed from the root zone on 26 January 2015
- Names registered 2,907 (registry annual report, 31 December 2014)
- Rule set in force Three .TL policy documents dated November 2011
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .tl domain
- Country Timor-Leste
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 5 years
- Name Server Count 1 - 13 servers
Popular Domain Extensions for Timor-Leste
Registering the same name on more than one extension keeps someone else from taking your brand.
- .tl
- .com.tl
.tl Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
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New Registration
$98.99 /year -
Transfer
$98.99 /year -
Renewal
$108.99 /year -
Restore
$86.10 -
Late Renewal Surcharge
+$21.78 on top of the renewal fee
Included With Every .tl Domain
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Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
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Domain lock
While the lock is on, nobody can move your domain to another registrar without your approval.
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Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
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Free WHOIS privacy
Your name, address and phone stay out of public WHOIS records, which cuts down spam and scam calls.
.tl Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.tl Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .tl domain
- Country Timor-Leste
- Character Length 1 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 5 years
- Name Server Count 1 - 13 servers
.tl Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .tl Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
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No. The published registrant agreement sets a single condition about who you are: the applicant must be an identifiable individual over eighteen, or a properly described and legally recognised entity. There is no residency test, no local company, no local address, no trustee and no paperwork anywhere in the text. A company based in Türkiye, a sole trader and a private individual all register on the same terms. The registry takes no applications directly, so you go through an accredited registrar. The one real obligation is accuracy: the agreement treats false or incomplete contact data as grounds for suspension without notice.
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1 - 63 characters. The registry's published documents contain no length provision. That does not make every short name available: some short strings sit on the registry's reserved list and come back «cannot be registered» when queried. This is a restriction on specific names, not a length ban. If you are aiming for a short name, keep your candidate list wide and check availability on the domain name search page.
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1 - 5 years. The registrant agreement sets no range; it says only «the period specified in the accepted application» and reserves the registry's right to suspend or terminate a name. Because the registry publishes no maximum-term schedule, the options you see on the order screen are limited to what the registrar offers. Track the expiry yourself: no grace period or redemption tariff is published for this extension.
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They can be. The registry's published whois and privacy policy lists, clause by clause, what the free public lookup shall provide: the registrant's first and last name, physical address, email address, telephone number and country. The only protection the policy offers is not concealment but substitution — your registrar may create an alternative contact record for display in the public whois, while the true details stay with the registry. The safest route is to give your registrar a business address and a role mailbox rather than a home address and a personal inbox. Check your own record on the whois search page.
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Both sit with the same registry under the same rule set; the difference is level and perception. .tl is registered directly at the second level and attracts anyone after a short name, especially two-letter wordplay. .com.tl sits one level lower and is the familiar shape for commercial identity inside the country, yet it asks for no separate trading capacity, company certificate or declaration, because the published policies apply themselves recursively to every name ending in .TL and to sub-level names. Taking both levels is the direct way to close your name in the Timorese market.
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A change of registrar runs on the standard authorisation code: you ask your current registrar for the code attached to the name, hand it to the new provider, and the transfer completes. The point to watch in this zone is the lock — if a registrar-applied transfer lock is set, it has to be released before the code is of any use. The top-level placeholders the registry holds for itself cannot be transferred at all. No separate procedure or document list has been published for a change of holder, so that operation also runs through your registrar. Start on the domain transfer page.
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.tp was the country's earlier extension, delegated when the territory was known as Portuguese Timor. After independence the country received .tl in 2005, and the two zones ran side by side for roughly a decade. The older extension was removed from the root zone on 26 January 2015 and no longer resolves anywhere on the internet; the IANA record states plainly that .tp is not present in the root zone. The practical consequence is simple: an old .tp address, or any link pointing at one, is dead, and .tl is the country's only valid country extension. Build any new identity directly on .tl.
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