How to Transfer Your Domain to a Canadian Registrar

Transferring a domain to a new registrar is one of the more anxiety-inducing routine tasks in web infrastructure management, mostly because people are not sure what happens to their website and email during the process. The short answer is: nothing, if you do it correctly. Your DNS records continue resolving throughout a domain transfer as long as you do not change nameservers until after the transfer completes.

Why Canadian businesses transfer domains to Canadian registrars

The most practical reason is consolidation. Managing your domain at one registrar, your hosting at a different company, and your DNS at a third service creates complexity and additional points of failure. Moving your domain to the same Canadian company that hosts your website simplifies billing, reduces the number of logins you maintain, and means a single support contact handles both hosting and domain issues. The data sovereignty argument also applies: a domain registered with a Canadian registrar under Canadian law is less exposed to US legal process than one registered with a US company, though domain registrations are governed by ICANN policies that have their own cross-border implications regardless of registrar location.

What actually transfers and what does not

A domain transfer moves the registration authority from one registrar to another. The domain continues resolving to the same nameservers and the same DNS records throughout the transfer. Your website and email do not change during a transfer unless you intentionally change nameservers or DNS records. What you are moving is the management relationship, not the technical DNS infrastructure. This is the key point that makes domain transfers far less disruptive than people expect.

The transfer process for .com and generic TLD domains

Generic TLD transfers follow the ICANN transfer policy. The standard process is: unlock the domain at the current registrar, get the authorization code (also called an EPP code or transfer key), initiate the transfer at the new registrar using the authorization code, approve the transfer when you receive an email confirmation request, and wait for the transfer to complete. Transfer completion typically takes five to seven days for .com and other generic TLDs, though some registrars complete transfers faster. During this window, your domain continues resolving normally.

Before initiating a transfer, verify that the domain is not in the 60-day lock period that ICANN imposes after a registration or previous transfer. A domain transferred within the past 60 days cannot be transferred again until the lock expires. Also confirm that the WHOIS contact email address for the domain is one you have access to, because the transfer confirmation email goes there. If the contact email is outdated and you cannot receive it, update it at the current registrar before initiating the transfer.

Transferring a .CA domain

The .CA transfer process is managed by CIRA and differs slightly from generic TLD transfers. At your current registrar, unlock the domain and obtain the authorization code. Initiate the transfer at the new CIRA-accredited registrar. CIRA requires that both the losing and gaining registrar be CIRA-accredited. The transfer process for .CA domains typically completes within two to five business days. CIRA does not use the standard ICANN 60-day transfer lock, but newly registered .CA domains do have a short initial period during which transfers are not possible.

What to do before initiating the transfer

Export or document your current DNS records before transferring. If your current registrar also provides DNS for your domain, you need to either continue using them for DNS after the transfer (which requires delegating to their nameservers) or set up DNS at the new registrar or a third-party service before switching. The safest approach is to set up identical DNS records at the new registrar, verify they are correct, switch the nameservers to point at the new registrar's DNS, wait for propagation, and only then initiate the domain transfer. This way, by the time the transfer completes, your DNS is already functioning at the new registrar and there is no gap in service.