The registrar will have agreements with the registrants and will collect registration data about the registrants. Registrars will also insert and renew domain names on behalf of the registrants in the registry database.

Currently, SGNIC will accredit registrars for a period of 3 years. SGNIC will review renewal requests submitted by registrars on a case-by-case basis.

The process and criteria for becoming a SGNIC accredited registrar is outlined in detail in the document Information to apply for accreditation.

The minimum criteria are:

• Local applicants (who are non-ICANN accredited) will need to have a minimum working capital of S$50,000. Foreign-based applicants will need to be ICANN-accredited.
• Technical capability such as the ability to accommodate all the archival databse including the creation and maintenance of Whois-type public access database service and the provision of daily back-up and archives of them.
• Ability to provide prompt service to registrants for their registration needs.
• At least six months (continuous) prior experience in domain name registration business.
• Ability to maintain a minimum of 100 new domain name registrations per year to remain accredited.

The following financial considerations apply:

• S$1,000 non-refundable application fee, to be submitted together with application.
• A minimum working capital of S$50,000 for local applicants who are not ICANN-accredited.
• S$30,000 performance bond in the form of a banker’s guarantee for companies which are not able to produce two years' worth of audited statements showing a minimum working capital of S$50,000 or in SGNIC’s assessment, it is necessary for a potential registrar to provide a performance bond.
• A S$4,500 accreditation fee for successful applicants. This accreditation fee will cover an accreditation period of three years. Thereafter, renewal of registrar accreditation is at a three yearly interval at a fee of S$4,500.
• A S$3,000 starting balance in the Deposit Account with SGNIC.
• Prevailing taxes will apply to fees payable.

To encourage competition and promote innovation, there will be no limit on the number of registrars accredited by SGNIC.

Yes, registrars may use (Extensible Provisioning Protocol) EPP to perform domain transactions with the registry. SGNIC also provides Java and Perl APIs to simplify EPP communications.

Registrars are given fourteen (14) days grace period for new registrations. If a registrar withdraws the registration by deleting a domain name within this grace period, the registration fee will be refunded to the registrar automatically.

Except for new registrations, all other domain transactions that incur charges (such as renewals and registrar transfers) made during the fourteen (14) days grace period are not entitled to refunds.

The 14-days grace period for new registration is defined as 14 days from the date and time of the registration.

Specifically, the formula used to determine whether a deletion is within the 14 days period is given by:

(Deletion Date/Time) - (Registration Date/Time) < (14x24 Hours)

Here are some examples:

A typical domain lifecycle is shown in the figure below:

EXPIRED Status

The SgR2R registry system runs an automated script  at an hourly interval (45th minute of every hour) to update affected domains to EXPIRED status.  An ACT(Active) domain goes into EXP(Expired) status when the expiry date/time is past the execution date/time of the automated script. Specifically, the formula used to determine if the status of a domain name should be changed to "EXP" is given by: (Date/Time when script is run) > (Expiry Date/Time).  

DELETED Status

The SgR2R registry system runs an automated script at an hourly interval (45th minute of every hour) to update affected domains to DELETED status.  An EXPIRED domain goes into DELETED Status when the expiry date/time is 30 days past execution date/time of the automated script.  Specifically, the formula used to determine if the status of a domain name should be changed to "DEL" is given by: (Date/Time when script is run) - (Expiry Date/Time) > (30x24 hours).

PURGED Status

The SgR2R registry system runs an automated script at regular intervals (45th minute of every hour) to PURGE domains with DELETED status.  An DELETED domain name gets PURGED when the deleted data/time is 30 days past execution date/time of the automated script. Specifically, the formula used to determine if a domain name should be PURGED is given by: (Date/Time when script is run) - (DELETED Date/Time) > (30 x 24 hours).

Although the specific DELETED Date/Time is not available in public WHOIS and thus the specific date/time of the purging cannot be derived accurately by the public, the general advice to the public would be that under normal circumstances, a domain name will be purged on the next 45th minute after 60 x 24 hours have passed since the domain name expiry date/time. 

For example: Domain name expiry date/time: 03-Dec-2011 07:23:52. Domain name purge date/time: 01-Feb-2012 07:45:23.

However, SGNIC does not guarantee all domain names will be purged as per described above as there may be other reasons that may prevent the purging (e.g. the domain name is being held for pending court cases or if there was system maintenance activities during the the execution of the automated script).

The following table provides further insights on the various status codes and the applicable actions for each status.

A registrar transfer request initiated by the winning registrar will be automatically approved after 7 days if there is no explicit action from the losing registrar. A script will be run at midnight everyday to auto-approve registrar transfers.

Specifically, a transfer request will be approved if:

(Date/Time when script is run) - (Date/Time of transfer request) > (7x24hours)