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Hopefully this question is appropriate here.

The .fr TLD stands for France and is managed by AFNIC. In order to register for second-level domains under this TLD, one is required to be a resident of the European Econonic Area.

I am currently a resident of the European Economic Area, but I might move away one day. Does this mean that I might lose my domain in this case? Will I not be able to prolong it any more?

Konstantin Schubert
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    I feel this question definitely does belong somewhere on the stackexchange network. I don't have any strong opinions as to whether that somewhere is here on [SF] or on another site such as [SU] or [webmasters.se]. – kasperd Apr 22 '16 at 13:19
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    @kasperd I'm a moderator on [SU]; it would not be on-topic on our site. Domain registration questions are appropriate for [webmasters.se] though. – nhinkle Apr 22 '16 at 19:32
  • @nhinkle [webmaster.se] is not on the standard list of migration targets. So if you think it should be migrated there, you'd have to flag a moderator to do it. – kasperd Apr 22 '16 at 19:45
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    @kasperd considering an SF mod answered it, I'd assume it's safe to say it's on-topic at SF. Questions only need to be migrated if they're off-topic on the site they were originally asked at. – nhinkle Apr 22 '16 at 20:03
  • @nhinkle I suppose you cannot see that one person already voted to migrate this question to [SU]. I have now [voted](http://serverfault.com/review/close/263808) to keep it on [SF]. – kasperd Apr 22 '16 at 20:33
  • @kasperd that's correct, I don't have sufficient reputation on SF to see close votes. Were it to be migrated to SU, the migration would be rejected. Thanks for voting to keep it here. – nhinkle Apr 22 '16 at 20:43
  • @nhinkle Turns out there is a [question](http://meta.stackexchange.com/q/94536/263194) about that on [meta.se]. – kasperd Apr 24 '16 at 11:57

1 Answers1

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Although I wouldn't be surprised if in practice the registration requirements are only checked on registration and not for renewals, you don't have to lose your domain when you leave Europe.

A number of registrars provide trustee services that allow the registration of a .FR domain to people/organisations that don't qualify directly and your domain can be transferred to such a trustee if required.

MadHatter
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HBruijn
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  • This means if I ever want to move, I just have to find such a registrar that provides a trustee service and transfer the domain to the registrar and to this trustee? – Konstantin Schubert Apr 22 '16 at 16:36
  • Interestingly, I got an "annual reminder" today from my registrar including the following content: Please note that, according to ICANN rules, if any of the contact or owner information is inaccurate, it must be immediately updated. This may be done on our website at http://en.gandi.net/ . If all of the information is accurate, you do not need to take any action. Please remember that under the terms of your registration agreement, the use of false Whois information are grounds for cancellation of your domain name registration. – Konstantin Schubert Apr 24 '16 at 20:04