Transferring registration for a domain to Amazon Route 53
Important
During the transfer of any country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) to Route 53, except for .cc and .tv, updates to the owner contact are ignored and the owner contact data from the registry is used. You can update the owner contact after the transfer is complete. For more information, see Updating contact information and ownership for a domain.
To transfer the registration for a domain to Amazon Route 53, follow the procedures in this topic.
Important
If you skip a step, your domain might become unavailable on the internet.
Note the following:
- Contacting AWS Support
If you encounter issues while transferring a domain, you can contact AWS Support for free. For more information, see Contacting AWS Support about domain registration issues.
- Expiration date
For information about how transferring your domain affects the current expiration date, see How transferring a domain to Amazon Route 53 affects the expiration date for your domain registration.
- Transfer fee
When you transfer a domain to Route 53, the transfer fee that we apply to your AWS account depends on the top-level domain, such as .com or .org. For more information, see Route 53 Pricing
. You can't use AWS credits to pay the fee, if any, for transferring a domain to Route 53.
Note
Route 53 charges the fee for transferring your domain before we start the transfer process. If a transfer fails for some reason, we immediately credit your account for the cost of the transfer.
- Special and premium domain names
TLD registries have assigned special or premium prices to some domain names. You can't transfer a domain to Route 53 if the domain has a special or premium price.
- Domain quotas
The default maximum number of domains per AWS account is 20. You can request a higher quota
. For more information, see Quotas on domains. - Name servers limit
The maximum number of name servers per domain in Route 53 is 6.
Topics
- Transfer requirements for top-level domains
- Step 1: Confirm that Amazon Route 53 supports the top-level domain
- Step 2 (Optional): Transfer your DNS service to Amazon Route 53 or another DNS service provider
- Step 3: Change settings with the current registrar
- Step 4: Get the names of your name servers
- Step 5: Request the transfer
- Step 6: Click the link in the confirmation and authorization emails
- Step 7: Update the domain configuration
Transfer requirements for top-level domains
Most domain registrars enforce requirements on transferring a domain to another registrar. The primary purpose of these requirements is to prevent the owners of fraudulent domains from repeatedly transferring the domains to different registrars. Requirements vary, but the following requirements are typical:
You must have either registered the domain with the current registrar or transferred registration for the domain to the current registrar at least 60 days ago.
If the registration for a domain name expired and had to be restored, it must have been restored at least 60 days ago.
The domain cannot have any of the following domain name status codes:
clientTransferProhibited
pendingDelete
pendingTransfer
redemptionPeriod
serverTransferProhibited
The registries for some top-level domains don't allow transfers until changes are complete, such as changes to the domain owner.
For a current list of domain name status codes and an explanation of what each code means,
go to the website for ICANN
Note
ICANN is the organization that establishes policies governing registration and transfer of domain names.
You can also search for your domain name in website for Whois
Step 1: Confirm that Amazon Route 53 supports the top-level domain
See Domains that you can register with Amazon Route 53. If the top-level domain for the domain that you want to transfer is on the list, you can transfer the domain to Amazon Route 53.
If a TLD is not on the list, you can't currently transfer the domain registration to Route 53. We occasionally add more TLDs to the list, so check back to see if we've added support for your domain.
Step 2 (Optional): Transfer your DNS service to Amazon Route 53 or another DNS service provider
Why transfer DNS first?
Some registrars provide free DNS service that might be disabled as soon as they receive a request from Route 53 to transfer the domain's registration. If you'd like Route 53 to provide DNS service for your domain, see Making Amazon Route 53 the DNS service for an existing domain.
Step 3: Change settings with the current registrar
Using the method provided by your current registrar, do each of the following for each domain that you want to transfer.
- Confirm that the email for the registrant contact for your domain is up to date
We'll send email to that email address to request authorization for the transfer. You need to click a link in the email to authorize the transfer. If you don't click the link, we must cancel the transfer.
- Unlock the domain so it can be transferred
ICANN, the governing body for domain registrations requires that you unlock your domain before you transfer it.
- Confirm that the domain status allows you to transfer the domain
For more information, see Transfer requirements for top-level domains.
- Disable DNSSEC for the domain
If you use DNSSEC with a domain and you transfer the domain registration to Route 53, you must disable DNSSEC at the former registrar first. Then, after you transfer the domain registration, take steps to set up DNSSEC for the domain in Route 53. Route 53 supports DNSSEC for domain registration and for DNSSEC signing. For more information, see Configuring DNSSEC signing in Amazon Route 53.
Important
If you transfer a domain registration to Route 53 while DNSSEC is configured, the DNSSEC public keys are transferred, too. If you transfer DNS service to a provider that doesn't support DNSSEC, DNS resolution fails intermittently until you delete the DNSSEC keys from the domain. For more information, see Deleting public keys for a domain.
- Get an authorization code
An authorization code from the current registrar authorizes us to request that registration for the domain be transferred to Route 53. You'll enter this code in the Route 53 console later in the process.
Some top-level domains have additional requirements:
- .co.za domains
You don't need to get an authorization code to transfer a .co.za domain to Route 53.
- .es domains
If you're transferring a .es domain to Route 53, you don't need to get an authorization code.
- .uk, .co.uk, .me.uk, and .org.uk domains
If you're transferring a .uk, .co.uk, .me.uk, or .org.uk domain to Route 53, you don't need to get an authorization code. Instead, use the method provided by your current domain registrar to update the value of the IPS tag for the domain to GANDI, all uppercase. (An IPS tag is required by Nominet, the registry for .uk domain names.) If your registrar doesn't provide a way to change the value of the IPS tag, contact Nominet
. Note the following about changing the IPS tag:
- You must request the transfer within five days
If you don't request the transfer within five days after you change the IPS tag, the tag changes back to the previous value. You must change the value of the IPS tag again, or the transfer request will fail.
- Viewing the IPS tag in WHOIS queries
The change to the IPS tag doesn't appear in WHOIS queries until after the transfer to Route 53 has completed.
- Email from Gandi
You might receive an email from our registrar associate, Gandi, about the transfer process. If you receive an email from Gandi (transfer-auth@gandi.net) about transferring your domain, ignore the instructions in the email because they aren't relevant to Route 53. Follow the instructions in this topic instead.
- Renew your domain registration before you transfer the domain (selected geographic TLDs)
For most TLDs, when you transfer a domain, the registration is automatically extended by one year. However, for some geographic TLDs, registration is not extended when you transfer the domain. If you're transferring a domain to Route 53 that has one of these TLDs, we recommend that you renew the domain registration before you transfer the domain, especially if the expiration date is approaching.
Important
If you don't renew the domain before you transfer it, the registration could expire before the transfer is complete. If this happens, the domain becomes unavailable on the internet, and the domain name could become available for others to purchase.
Registration is not automatically extended when you transfer the following domains to another registrar:
.ch (Switzerland)
.cl (Chile)
.co.uk (United Kingdom)
.co.za (South Africa)
.com.au (Australia)
.cz (Czech Republic)
.es (Spain)
.fi (Finland)
.im (Isle of Man)
.jp (Japan)
.me.uk (United Kingdom)
.net.au (Australia)
.org.uk (United Kingdom)
.se (Sweden)
.uk (United Kingdom)
Step 4: Get the names of your name servers
If you're using Amazon Route 53 as your DNS service or you're continuing to use the existing DNS service, we'll get the names of the name servers for you automatically later in the process. Skip to Step 5: Request the transfer.
If you want to change the DNS service to a provider other than Route 53 at the same time that you're transferring the domain to Route 53, use the procedure provided by the DNS service provider to get the names of the name servers for each domain that you want to transfer.
Important
If the registrar for your domain is also the DNS service provider for the domain, transfer your DNS service to Route 53 or another DNS service provider before you continue with the process to transfer the domain registration.
If you transfer DNS service at the same time that you transfer domain registration, your website, email, and the web applications associated with the domain might become unavailable. For more information, see Step 2 (Optional): Transfer your DNS service to Amazon Route 53 or another DNS service provider.
Step 5: Request the transfer
To transfer domain registration from the current registrar to Amazon Route 53, use the Route 53 console to request the transfer. Route 53 handles the communication with the current registrar for the domain.
You can use the console to transfer up to five domains.
The procedure that you use depends on whether you want to transfer a single domain or up to five domains:
Use the Transfer domain to your account process to transfer a single domain to your account.
To transfer domain registration of a single domain to Route 53
Open the Route 53 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53/
. In the navigation pane, choose Registered domains.
On the Registered Domains page, choose Single domain from the Transfer in dropdown.
On the Transfer domain to your account page, in the Check domain transferability section, enter the name of the domain for which you want to transfer registration to Route 53, and choose Check.
If the domain registration is available for transfer, verify that you have completed the transfer requirements for top-level domains, and choose Next.
If the domain registration is not available for transfer, the Route 53 console lists the reasons. Contact your registrar for information about how to resolve the issues that prevent you from transferring the registration.
On the DNS service page, review the information about name servers, and choose Next.
If prompted, enter the authorization code or IPS tag that you got from your current registrar in Step 3: Change settings with the current registrar.
Note
You don't need to enter an authorization code to transfer a .co.za, .es, .uk, .co.uk, .me.uk, or .org.uk domain to Route 53.
Choose Next.
On the Domain pricing options page, choose the number of years that you want to register the domain you are transferring for and whether you want us to automatically renew your domain registration before the expiration date.
Note
Domain name registrations and renewals are not refundable. If you enable automatic domain renewal and you decide that you don't want the domain name after we renew the registration, you can't get a refund for the cost of the renewal.
Choose Next.
On the Contact information page, enter contact information for the domain registrant, admin, technical, and billing contacts. The values that you enter here are applied to all of the domains that you're registering. For more information, see Values that you specify when you register or transfer a domain.
Note the following considerations:
- First Name and Last Name
For First Name and Last Name, we recommend that you specify the name on your official ID. For some changes to domain settings, some domain registries require that you provide proof of identity. The name on your ID must match the name of the registrant contact for the domain.
- Different contacts
By default, we use the same information for all three contacts. If you want to enter different information for one or more contacts, change the value of Same as registrant contact toggle switch to off position.
Note
For .it domains, the registrant and admin contacts must be the same.
- Additional required information
-
For some top-level domains (TLDs), we're required to collect additional information. For these TLDs, enter the applicable values after the Postal/Zip Code field.
- Privacy protection
Choose whether you want to hide your contact information from WHOIS queries.
Note
You must specify the same privacy setting for the admin, registrant, and technical contacts.
For more information, see the following topics:
Note
To enable privacy protection for .uk, .co.uk, .me.uk, and .org.uk domains, you must open a support case and request privacy protection.
Choose Next.
On the Review page, review the information that you entered, and optionally correct it. Read the terms of service, and select the check box to confirm that you've read the terms of service.
Choose Submit request.
In the navigation pane, choose Domains and then Requests.
On this page, you can view the status of domain and also if you need to respond to registrant contact verification email. You can also choose to resend the verification email.
If you specified an email address for the registrant contact that has never been used to register a domain with Route 53, some TLD registries require you to verify that the address is valid.
We send a verification email from one of the following email addresses:
noreply@registrar.amazon – for TLDs registered by Amazon Registrar.
noreply@domainnameverification.net – for TLDs registered by our registrar associate, Gandi. To determine who the registrar is for your TLD, see Finding your registrar.
Important
The registrant contact must follow the instructions in the email to verify that the email was received, or we must suspend the domain as required by ICANN. When a domain is suspended, it's not accessible on the internet.
When you receive the verification email, choose the link in the email that verifies that the email address is valid. If you don't receive the email immediately, check your junk email folder.
Return to the Requests page. If the status doesn't automatically update to say email-address is verified, choose Refresh status.
When domain transfer is complete, your next step depends on whether you want to use Route 53 or another DNS service as the DNS service for the domain:
Route 53 – In the hosted zone that Route 53 created when you registered the domain, create records to tell Route 53 how you want to route traffic for the domain and subdomains.
For example, when someone enters your domain name in a browser and that query is forwarded to Route 53, do you want Route 53 to respond to the query with the IP address of a web server in your data center or with the name of an Elastic Load Balancing load balancer?
For more information, see Working with records.
Important
If you create records in a hosted zone other than the one that Route 53 creates automatically, you must update the name servers for the domain to use the name servers for the new hosted zone.
Another DNS service – Configure your new domain to route DNS queries to the other DNS service. Perform the procedure Updating name servers to use another registrar.
Use the following procedure to transfer up to five domains to your account.
To transfer domain registration to Route 53 for up to five domains
Open the Route 53 console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/route53/
. In the navigation pane, choose Registered domains.
On the Registered domains page, choose Multiple domains from the Transfer in dropdown.
On the Transfer multiple domains to your account page, enter up to five domains you want to transfer, and their authorization code, if required, per line, and choose Check.
If the domain registration is available for transfer, it is listed in the Domain availability list as available. Select the check-box next to each domain for which you want to transfer the registration, verify that you have completed the transfer requirements for top-level domains, and choose Next.
If the domain registration is not available for transfer, the Route 53 console lists the reasons. Contact your registrar for information about how to resolve the issues that prevent you from transferring the registration.
On the DNS service page, review the information about name servers, and choose Next.
On the Domain pricing options page, choose the number of years that you want to register the domain you are transferring for and whether you want us to automatically renew your domain registration before the expiration date.
Note
Domain name registrations and renewals are nonrefundable. If you enable automatic domain renewal and you decide that you don't want the domain name after we renew the registration, you can't get a refund for the cost of the renewal.
Choose Next.
On the Contact information page, enter contact information for the domain registrant, admin, and tech contacts. The values that you enter here are applied to all the domains that you're transferring.
Important
We recommend that you specify the following values for the registrant contact (the domain owner):
First and last name: We recommend that you specify the name that appears on your official ID. For some changes to domain settings, some domain registries require that you provide proof of identity. The name on your ID must match the name of the registrant contact for the domain.
Contact details: During the domain transfer, we recommend that you specify the same values as are specified with the current registrar. When you change contact details for the registrant contact, you change the domain owner, and some TLD registries don't allow you to change the domain owner during a domain transfer. If you change contact details for the registrant contact, the transfer might fail. You can change contact details for the registrant contact after you transfer the domain.
By default, we use the same information for all three contacts. If you want to enter different information for one or more contacts, set the value of Same as the registrant contact to off position.
Note
For .it domains, the registrant and admin contacts must be the same.
For more information, see Values that you specify when you register or transfer a domain.
For some TLDs, we're required to collect additional information. For these TLDs, enter the applicable values after the Postal/Zip Code field.
If the value of Contact Type is Person, choose whether you want to hide your contact information from WHOIS queries. For more information, see Enabling or disabling privacy protection for contact information for a domain.
Choose Submit.
Review the information you entered, read the terms of service, and select the check box to confirm that you've read the terms of service.
Choose Submit request.
We confirm that the domains are eligible for transfer, and we send an email to the registrant contacts for the domain to request authorization to transfer the domain.
In the navigation pane, choose Domains and then Requests.
On this page you can view the status of domain and also if you need to respond to registrant contact verification email. You can also choose to resend the verification email.
If you specified an email address for the registrant contact that has never been used to register a domain with Route 53, some TLD registries require you to verify that the address is valid.
We send a verification email from one of the following email addresses:
noreply@registrar.amazon – for TLDs registered by Amazon Registrar.
noreply@domainnameverification.net – for TLDs registered by our registrar associate, Gandi. To determine who the registrar is for your TLD, see Finding your registrar.
Important
The registrant contact must follow the instructions in the email to verify that the email was received, or we must suspend the domain as required by ICANN. When a domain is suspended, it's not accessible on the internet.
When you receive the verification email, choose the link in the email that verifies that the email address is valid. If you don't receive the email immediately, check your junk email folder.
Return to the Requests page. If the status doesn't automatically update to say email-address is verified, choose Refresh status.
When domain transfer is complete, your next step depends on whether you want to use Route 53 or another DNS service as the DNS service for the domain:
Route 53 – In the hosted zone that Route 53 created when you registered the domain, create records to tell Route 53 how you want to route traffic for the domain and subdomains.
For example, when someone enters your domain name in a browser and that query is forwarded to Route 53, do you want Route 53 to respond to the query with the IP address of a web server in your data center or with the name of an ELB load balancer?
For more information, see Working with records.
Important
If you create records in a hosted zone other than the one that Route 53 creates automatically, you must update the name servers for the domain to use the name servers for the new hosted zone.
Another DNS service – Configure your new domain to route DNS queries to the other DNS service. Perform the procedure Updating name servers to use another registrar.
Step 6: Click the link in the confirmation and authorization emails
Soon after you request the transfer, we might send one or more emails to the registrant contact for the domain:
- Email to confirm that the registrant contact is reachable
If you've never registered a domain with Route 53 or transferred a domain to Route 53, we send you an email that asks you to confirm that the email address is valid. We retain this information so we don't have to send this confirmation email again.
- Email to get authorization to transfer the domain
For some TLDs, you need to respond to an email to authorize transfer of the domain.
- Generic TLDs such as .com, .net, and .org
Authorization isn't required for domains that have a generic TLD, such as .com, .net, or .org.
- Geographic TLDs such as .co.uk and .jp
For domains that have a geographic TLD, we're required to get your authorization to transfer the domain. If you transfer 10 domains, we have to send you 10 emails, and you have to click the authorization link in each one.
The emails all go to the registrant contact for the domain:
If you're the registrant contact for the domain, follow the instructions in the email to authorize the transfer.
If someone else is the registrant contact, ask that person to follow the instructions in the email to authorize the transfer.
Important
If you're transferring a domain that has a geographic TLD, we wait up to five days for the registrant contact to authorize the transfer. If the registrant contact doesn't respond within five days, we cancel the transfer operation and send an email to the registrant contact about the cancellation.
Topics
Authorization email for a new owner or email address
If you changed the following values, we send you a separate email that asks for your authorization:
- Domain owner
If you change the owner of the domain, as described in Who is the owner of a domain?, we send email to the registrant contact for the domain.
- Email address for the registrant contact (only for some TLDs)
For some TLDs, if you change the email address for the registrant contact, we send an email to the old and the new email address for the registrant contact. Someone at both email addresses must follow the instructions in the email to authorize the change.
For changes to the domain owner or the email address for the registrant contact, if we don't receive authorization for the change within 3-15 days, depending on the top-level domain, we must cancel the request as required by ICANN.
Email addresses that authorization emails come from
All email comes from one of the following email addresses.
| TLDs | Email address that authorization email comes from |
|---|---|
.com.au and .net.au |
no-reply@ispapi.net The email contains a link to http://transfers.ispapi.net. |
.fr |
nic@nic.fr, if you're changing the registrant contact for a .fr domain name at the same time that you're transferring the domain. (The email is sent both to the current registrant contact and the new registrant contact.) |
All others |
One of the following email addresses:
|
To determine who the registrar is for your TLD, see Domains that you can register with Amazon Route 53.
Approval from the current registrar
If the registrant contact authorizes the transfer, we start to work with your current registrar to transfer your domain. This step might take up to ten days, depending on the TLD for your domain:
Generic top-level domains – take up to seven days
Geographic top-level domains (also known as country code top-level domains) – take up to ten days
If your current registrar doesn't reply to our transfer request, which is common among registrars, the transfer happens automatically. If your current registrar rejects the transfer request, we send an email notification to the current registrant contact. The registrant needs to contact the current registrar and resolve the issues with the transfer.
What happens next
When your domain transfer has been approved, we send another email to the registrant contact. For more information about the process, see Viewing the status of a domain transfer.
We charge your AWS account for the domain transfer as soon as the transfer is complete. For a list of charges by TLD, see
Amazon Route 53 Pricing for Domain Registration
Note
This is a one-time charge, so the charge doesn't appear in your CloudWatch billing metrics. For more information about CloudWatch metrics, see Using Amazon CloudWatch metrics in the Amazon CloudWatch User Guide.
Step 7: Update the domain configuration
After the transfer is complete, you can optionally change the following settings:
- Transfer lock
To transfer the domain to Route 53, you had to disable the transfer lock. If you want to re-enable the lock to prevent unauthorized transfers, see Locking a domain to prevent unauthorized transfer to another registrar.
- Automatic renewal
We configure the transferred domain to automatically renew as the expiration date approaches. For information about how to change this setting, see Enabling or disabling automatic renewal for a domain.
- Extended registration period
By default, Route 53 renews the domain annually. If you want to register the domain for a longer period, see Extending the registration period for a domain.
- DNSSEC
For information about configuring DNSSEC for the domain, see Configuring DNSSEC for a domain.
