Buy .qa Domain Name

Not without restrictions since 22 October 2026. According to the notices CRA sent to accredited registrars, the applicant must fall into an approved category; a Qatari commercial registration or trade licence, relevant trademark rights, or a Qatar ID (QID) or residence permit are the most common. Applicants outside Qatar may qualify through trademark or commercial rights, but it has not yet been clarified which trademark registrations count, for example whether the mark must be registered in Qatar. Article 17.1 of the previous policy asked for no documents at all.

Articles 5 and 24.1 offer five options: one, two, three, four or five years, and renewals use the same five. Article 24.3 allows early renewal as long as the resulting total licence period does not exceed five years plus ninety days. The window after a registration or renewal is five calendar days under the new rules (previously three); if the documents are insufficient the name can be deleted within it, so payment alone is not final approval.

Article 14.2 lists six rules: each label must be 1 - 63 characters; only the English ASCII set is allowed, meaning letters a-z, digits 0-9 and the hyphen; the name must begin and end with a letter or digit; it may neither begin nor end with a hyphen; it may not contain hyphens in the third and fourth positions; and it may not include a space. The third-and-fourth rule keeps names clear of the «xn--» prefix used for international names.

On the new platform an expiring name is auto-renewed for one year at registry level and a 45-day grace period begins; if the renewal is not paid, the registrar can delete the name within it. A deleted name enters a 30-day redemption period and can be restored by the sponsoring registrar, but it may be removed from the DNS meanwhile. A 1-day pending delete follows and the name becomes available again; because new registrations are subject to eligibility, a former holder who does not qualify may not get it back. Registry auto-renewal does not make the renewal free.

According to what CRA has communicated to registrars, the automatic approval window for inter-registrar transfers rises from 2 days to 5 calendar days under the new rules. As a general rule a name cannot move within 60 days of its initial registration or last transfer. Every transfer now includes a mandatory 1-year renewal; a separate transfer fee is not allowed, but the renewal fee can be charged. Transfers are also expected to trigger eligibility verification, so if you have no link to Qatar, wait until this is clarified. You can start the process on the domain transfer page.

The zone is not signed at present. The root zone holds no DS record for .qa, and the registry describes no DNSSEC operation available to registrants. That does not leave you without options: registrar-side locks, a strong domain password and up-to-date contact details cover much of the same ground in practice.

Since 22 October 2026 both zones carry an eligibility requirement, but its scope differs. Second-level .qa is open to several approved categories: commercial entities, trademark holders, individuals with a QID or residence permit and eligible organisations. com.qa was already restricted and requires a trade licence or a trademark. The previous policy explicitly required com.qa names to be hosted in Qatar; the new registration policy does not repeat that clause, but it is safer to assume it still applies until the official text is published.

No, it is not deleted automatically: CRA has confirmed that existing registrations continue under the new platform's auto-renewal process, and living outside Qatar is not on its own a reason for cancellation. However, when a change is requested, such as the registrant, contact details, nameservers or DNS updates within CRA's scope, eligibility is verified before it is processed. A registration that fails verification has to be deleted and enters the 30-day redemption period. CRA has also advised registrars to review existing registrants, so documents may be requested even if you never ask for a change.

No. According to the information shared with registrars, section 5.17.5 of the revised registration policy explicitly prohibits selling, renting or leasing second-level .qa names to another party. In legitimate changes of registrant, such as a merger or restructuring, the new registrant must also meet the eligibility requirements. Registering a name under a contact's QID or a Qatari company's name while actually using it yourself is no workaround either: that person or company becomes the legal registrant, and the arrangement may breach the leasing ban.