New extension
.swiss domain name
What you need to know about .swiss: who can register it, which details are required and how transferring works.
Specifications
The key details of .swiss
- Registry
- nic.swiss
- Registration period
- 1 to 10 years
- Renewal period
- 1 to 10 years
- Domain name length
- 1 to 63 characters
- Transfer time
- 5 days
- Renewal on transfer
- yes, transferring renews the domain
- Transfer lock available
- yes
- Number of nameservers
- 2 to 12
- Renewable after expiry date
- 35 days
- Quarantine after deletion
- 30 days
Features
- DNSSEC: yesYou can secure your domain name with DNSSEC.
- IPv6: yesThe nameservers for this extension can also be reached over IPv6.
- Special characters: yesDomain names with letters such as é, ü or ø (and sometimes other scripts) are possible.
- Whois privacy: no
- Trustee: no
Requirements
Who can register a .swiss?
- You must be a legal entity with a sufficient connection to Switzerland, such as a government body or a public-law organisation under Swiss law.
- Also possible: a legal entity that is listed in the Swiss commercial register and has both its registered office and its actual place of management in Switzerland.
- An association or foundation that isn't listed in the Swiss commercial register may register if its registered office and actual place of management are in Switzerland.
- A registered branch of a foreign company can't register a .swiss domain name, because it has no legal personality of its own and no head office in Switzerland.
- Branches of foreign companies that were wrongly given a domain name during the introductory period will lose it, unless they transfer the domain name to a party that does meet the requirements.
- At the time of the application, the requested name must fall within a category of names that is available for allocation.
- The intended use must be legal under Swiss law. If you use the domain name to offer or promote products or services, a registered office and an actual place of management are required.
- The name must have an objective connection to you or to the intended use, for example through a trademark right, a geographical indication you're entitled to, or a name the public associates with you.
- Names that refer to the state or its activities are reserved for the government body or public-law organisation concerned.
- General, generic names aren't simply allocated. They're only available through a namespace mandate from the registry.
- In exceptional cases, the registry may allocate a domain name that doesn't meet the requirements, if this is justified by the interests of the Swiss community.
Additional details for registration
- You state whether you're registering as an organisation or as an individual.
- If you're registering as an organisation, you provide the Swiss business identification number, in the format CHE-ddd.ddd.ddd. The organisation's name and this number are publicly visible in the Whois.
- If you're registering as an individual, you provide the Swiss personal identification number, in the format 756.dddd.dddd.dd. Your name and this number aren't published in the Whois.
- You give a short statement about the intended use of the domain name, of no more than 256 characters.
- If the domain name isn't your company name, you state in that statement which right you're basing the name on.
- If the domain name matches a trademark, you provide the trademark number.
Good to know when registering
- A registration isn't immediate. The registry first reviews and checks every application manually.
- After the initial review, the registry publishes your application on its website for 20 days.
- During those 20 days, others can submit a competing application for the same name or lodge an objection with the registry.
- Your application stays pending until the registry either allocates the domain name definitively or rejects the application.
- Generic names follow a separate procedure involving namespace mandates. To apply, you submit a proposal, either in response to a call from the registry or on your own initiative.
- A single namespace mandate can cover several domain names for the same purpose. The registry chooses the proposal that best serves the community.
- The registry can add domain names to a namespace mandate or remove them from it.
- After negotiations with the registry, you as the mandate holder choose a registrar, who registers or takes over the domain names in the mandate.
- After a successful registration, a 60-day transfer lock from the registry applies.
Transfer
Transferring a .swiss
- Make sure the domain name isn't locked. You can check this in the Whois. If it is locked, you as the owner can demand that your current registrar removes the lock.
- You need a transfer code from your current registrar.
- Under ICANN's transfer policy, the current registrant must confirm the transfer first.
- After the request, the owner or administrative contact listed in the Whois receives a confirmation email. The transfer only starts once that email has been confirmed.
- The request then goes through the registry to your current registrar. They also send the owner or administrative contact an email that can be used to reject the transfer.
- If you don't respond to that email from your current registrar, the transfer is completed automatically after 5 days.
- If the email address in the Whois is invalid, the transfer can't go ahead. In that case, ask your current registrar to update the Whois details.
- After a successful transfer, a 60-day transfer lock from the registry applies.
The transfer code
- A transfer code is required to transfer a domain.
- The owner or administrative contact requests the transfer code from the current registrar.
- The code is at least 8 and at most 32 characters long.
- The code contains at least one letter, one number and one special character.
Owner
Change of registrant
Change of registrant
- ICANN's transfer policy applies to a change of owner.
Renewal, cancellation and quarantine
- When you renew, you must still meet all the registration requirements.
More information
Registry rules and links
- Registry website nic.swiss
- Registry whois whois.nic.swiss
- Dispute resolution policy icann.org
- Registry terms and conditions nic.swiss
Related extensions
View all domain extensionsCompiled from the registry's rules. Registries sometimes change their rules; if in doubt, the registry's terms take precedence. Updated on 11/11/2026.