Enter Ivory Coast market with a .CI Domain

No. When the registry's own rules set out who may register, they name three groups side by side: Ivorian individuals, companies and organisations registered in the country, and foreign persons and foreign companies. Neither residency nor a local contact is required of you. The measurement supports this: 11 of the 34 registrars accredited by the registry are based abroad, and names opened through them appear in the register. What actually matters is supplying the details your registrar asks for in full and keeping your contact data current.

One year is the floor and annual renewal works; the registry explicitly allows multi-year registration and notes that some registrars go up to ten years. Measurement confirms it: on 15 August 2026 a.ci carried an expiry exactly three years after its creation, xy.ci exactly four and w.ci exactly six. The benefit of a longer term is directly practical: because the recovery window after expiry is limited, thinning out that calendar reduces the risk of losing the name. You can see which term options are offered at the ordering step.

A two-stage window applies. The registry first allows a grace period of roughly 30 days, during which the name can still be renewed without paying anything extra. Miss that and the name enters a redemption period of roughly 30 further days, where recovery is possible but carries an additional fee. Once the second window closes the name is released and anyone may register it. The chain shows in measurement: moov.ci, which expired on 21 May 2025, was still in the register on 15 August 2026 but in an inactive state. Automatic renewal takes this calendar off your desk entirely.

Four conditions apply. The name must be active and not blocked by a dispute or a suspension. You request the authorisation code (AuthCode) from your current registrar. The gaining registrar must be accredited by ARTCI. Finally, a transfer fee may apply. The registry also recommends keeping the registrar lock switched on against unauthorised moves; in the measurement google.ci, jumia.ci and xy.ci all carry that lock, so you will need it released before the transfer runs. Start the process from the domain transfer page.

No, not in practice. All nine single-character names sampled on 15 August 2026 — a.ci, b.ci, k.ci, q.ci, w.ci, z.ci and the numeric ones — appear under the registrar entry "ARTCI Reserved", and almost all were created between 3 and 10 March 2025. Some carry ns1.auction.ci and ns2.auction.ci as nameservers, meaning the registry moved these labels onto its own books and attached them to an auction. The registry's own availability service also returns them as unavailable. Two-character names, by contrast, are sold: zq.ci was opened through a registrar on 14 July 2026.

The registry's lookup server is whois.nic.ci and it answers on port 43. The response carries technical data only: the name itself, the registry object ID, the creation date, the last update date, the expiry date, the registrar and its e-mail, the status codes, the nameservers and the DNSSEC state. Of roughly 60 names queried on 15 August 2026, not one returned a registrant, administrative or technical contact. Your personal data is therefore never published in this register, and no separate privacy service is needed. You can run the query from the whois search page.