Buy .is Domain Name

Yes. The registry poses the question itself and answers it plainly: a foreigner can register a .is name. There is no residency, branch office, local agent or Icelandic identity number (kennitala) requirement, and a company based in Türkiye, a sole trader and a private individual all register on the same terms. This is not just what the rules say but what the counter shows: in July 2026, 31,507 of the 102,451 active .is names were held from outside Iceland. Foreign applicants once had to prove a trademark registered in Iceland; that requirement was lifted on 19 September 2007. Keep your registration data accurate, because the registry may later ask for identity evidence and can close a name if the request goes unanswered.

One character. The rules define length only from above — a name may run to 66 characters including the .is suffix — and nowhere in the text is a minimum number of characters set. Measurement confirms it: all thirty-six single-character .is names, every letter from a to z and every digit from 0 to 9, are registered. They are unavailable today not because of a prohibition but because the space is completely taken. The two-character space is still live and free names remain in it; one two-letter name was newly registered on 12 February 2025. For names containing Icelandic letters the ceiling drops from 66 to 59 characters.

On an annual basis. The rules state that the right to a name is generally granted annually, that the end date of the annual fee is the registration date of the name each year, and that the first annual fee is paid up front with the registration. What you acquire is not ownership but a right of personal use, and that right is indefinite: as long as the fee is paid and the rules are observed, you may hold the name for as many years as you like, with no ceiling. The registry also accepts renewals paid in advance; names measured with expiry dates in 2028 and even 2031 show that several years can be prepaid.

You get thirty days, and nothing after that. If the name is unpaid on its expiry date, it is deactivated and removed from the .is zone at around 13:00 UTC on the first business day afterwards, so your site and email stop working at that moment. A thirty-day grace period then begins: the name stays registered but inactive, and the registry sends no further warnings at all during it. At the end of the thirty days the name is deleted on the following business day and becomes available to anyone. The long redemption period of generic extensions does not exist in this zone. One more detail: a holder who explicitly deletes the name during the grace period releases it immediately.

Yes, since 1 July 2004. The rules add ten Icelandic letters to the permitted character set: á, é, ý, ú, í, ó, þ, æ, ö and ð. The registry's announcement on the day set the scope too: names are restricted to the official Icelandic alphabet, and a priority window ran until 1 January 2005 at launch. This is no dormant provision — by the registry's own counter, 5,656 Icelandic-script names are active today and the yearly figure has been rising. The system pairs every such name with a plain-script counterpart, mapping þ to th, æ to ae, ð to d and so on, and these names sit in a separate annual fee item.

There is no provider-to-provider transfer of the kind you know from generic extensions, because .is has no registrar model at all; the registry states this outright and holders deal with it directly. No authorisation code is issued or required. What does exist is a change of holder: the current holder selects the transfer step in the registry's interface, enters the new holder's already activated user handle, then confirms by following a link emailed to them while logged in. The new holder must meet every requirement as though this were a fresh registration. A name under a dispute lock cannot change holder. You can start the process on the domain transfer page.

For individuals no, for companies yes. The registry puts it plainly: most personal information about individuals is withheld from publication by default, while the country is always published; an individual who wants to can switch publication on in their settings, but that choice applies to natural persons only. Measurement confirms it: individual records returned only a handle, a country and a creation date, with no name, address, telephone or email. Legal persons, by contrast, are published in full — organisation name, street address, postcode, telephone and email. If you register in a company's name, plan for those details to be public. You can inspect records on the whois search page.

There are two layers and both are real. The first is timing: the nameservers you intend to use must be registered with the registry by their operator before the name itself is registered. If your servers are not ready the way out costs nothing — the name goes onto the registry's parking service and you move it to real servers whenever you like, though while parked it neither receives email nor serves a website. The second layer is continuous: the servers must answer queries, work over TCP as well, and hold a minimum time-to-live on their nameserver records; a timeout is not acceptable. The registry tests this setup monthly and takes the name out of the zone if non-compliance persists.

Not through UDRP, but before the registry's independent Board of Appeals. The board sits with a single member per case who must meet the qualifications of a district court judge, and can be expanded to three, one versed in intellectual property and one in technology. The fee is paid up front and is non-refundable; the board will not convene until it is settled. The procedure is written, and the other party gets no less than two weeks to reply. Transfer of the name requires all three conditions together: the name resembles a trademark you registered in Iceland before the domain was registered, the holder has no legitimate interest, and the holder acted in bad faith.