Registering for Domain Name – Unique Situation

  • Unknown's avatar
    dani052566 · Member ·

    I am a Canadian currently living (18+ years) in the US. I am writing my first book and at the same time am looking into setting up my website for my writing.

    The problem (perhaps) is that I will be moving back to Canada in about a year. I want to have my website up and running before then, however, I can’t seem to find any information on whether I can legally have my website be a .com and still use/manage it when I am living in Canada. I know I can register for a .ca as well but I would prefer to avoid redundancy and confusing my readers with too many websites.

    I’ve read several sites about being able to register for domain sites in other countries (usually with the help of someone who resides in those countries; although I already have a Canadian address – I just don’t yet live there full-time) but nothing about what happens if you have a website and then move to another country.

    Any help would be appreciated.

    The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)

  • kokkieh · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    For the most part, where you live has no impact on which type of domain you can have. For some country-code domains (e.g. the .ie domain for Ireland) you must be able to prove that you are from or have a business based in that country in order to register a domain with that extension. But this is the exception, and the vast majority of ccTLDs don’t have such a requirement.

    In the case of .com, that is known a a global top-level domain, meaning anyone anywhere in the world can register a domain using that extension. It is not connected to or reserved for any specific country.

    The one issue you might want to think about is whether you want to buy your domain from a Canadian registrar vs a US registrar (e.g. WordPress.com), but it’s more a matter of convenience rather than a legal issue. We have many Canadian users who bought .com domains from us without any problems.

    (Please don’t consider this as legal advice, but only an explanation regarding domain registrations. If you want to be absolutely sure it would be best to consult a lawyer who specialises in internet-related law.)

  • Unknown's avatar
    dani052566 · Member ·

    Thank you Kokkieh. That helps a lot.

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