A Domain Resellers Guide to .FR Domain Policies : OSRSv3

.FR is the ccTLD for France and is regulated by the AFNIC Registry. All .FR domains have a registration term of one year.

Registration requirements

The tech contact must NOT be identical with the owner contact. The tech contact must be an organization (a P-handle with the organization field filled) and can not be redacted in WHOIS

.FR prohibits special characters in contacts' first and last name fields.

The acceptable syntax is listed:

Latin characters, except for numbers and special characters
Hyphens
Apostrophes
Spaces

Note: Registration details can be found in the TLD reference chart.

Registration Processing

The FR registry does not operate as a fully synchronous registry. As such, the processing of some registrations takes time. There can be delays of 10-30 minutes for the registration process in some cases.

.FR prohibited and reserved names

AFNIC maintains a list of domains not available for registration. Registrants can apply for names on the list if they prove they are entitled to them.

When submitting an order for a prohibited or reserved name, you must provide a detailed statement with a maximum of 4,000 characters. Enter this information in the notes section after submitting the order or email help@opensrs.com.
The request will then be sent to AFNIC’s legal department to approve or deny. AFNIC may require the registrant to provide follow-up documentation, and allow several days for processing.
The registrant needs to meet the .FR residency requirements and provide residency information.

Residency requirements

Residents must provide information to satisfy the regional presence requirements for the .FR registry.

Individual registrants must be a resident of the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein.
Organization registrants must be located in the European Union, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, or Liechtenstein.

Registrant Type	Fields
Individual	No additional fields are required.
Organization	The following fields are optional; however, we strongly recommend that you complete them, as this information helps the registry to validate the registration. VAT Number—The Value Added Tax (VAT) number of the organization. Trademark Number—The organization's trademark registration number. SIREN/SIRET Number—The nine-digit SIREN code or the 14-digit SIRET code is used to identify the business for tax reasons. For organizations in France, please include this number to avoid validation issues with the registry.

Registrant Type

Fields

Individual

No additional fields are required.

Organization

The following fields are optional; however, we strongly recommend that you complete them, as this information helps the registry to validate the registration.

VAT Number—The Value Added Tax (VAT) number of the organization.
Trademark Number—The organization's trademark registration number.
SIREN/SIRET Number—The nine-digit SIREN code or the 14-digit SIRET code is used to identify the business for tax reasons. For organizations in France, please include this number to avoid validation issues with the registry.

NIS 2 Requirements

In compliance with the EU NIS 2 Directive, AFNIC performs eligibility and reachability checks on the registrant and administrative contact following domain registration.

The eligibility check for corporate registrants verifies that they exist as a legal entity and comply with the residency conditions described in the Residency Requirements section above. The eligibility check for individual registrants verifies that they exist and meet the applicable residency conditions.
The reachability check verifies the reliability of the registrant's and administrative contact's administrative data, including postal address, telephone number, and email address. It is essential that this information is accurate and up to date.
The eligibility and reachability checks for the administrative contact are identical to those conducted for the registrant.
In addition to the above checks, AFNIC requires all domain holder email addresses to be verified. OpenSRS leverages the existing Registrant Email Verification process for .fr domains, with the following modifications:

Registrants have 30 days to verify their email address, instead of the standard 15-day window.
The domain name will not be suspended if the registrant fails to complete verification.

Email verification is triggered in the following scenarios:

When a domain name is registered.
When a registrant contact update order is processed.

Renewals

.FR domains can either be set to Auto-Renew or manually renewed. If Auto-Renew is not turned on, the domain will expire one day prior to the listed expiration date

The domain remains in quarantine at the registry for 30 days.

Transfers

Registrar transfers require an auth info code. The registrant obtains the code from the current registrar. OpenSRS will email the domain's admin contact, asking them to approve the transfer. A successful transfer between Registrars will add 1 year to the current expiration date. Please note, this does not apply for transfers between resellers, where the domain is already registered with OpenSRS. No additional year is added for the domain.

As of June 30, 2015, transfers and ownership changes must be processed separately. The change of ownership must be initiated after the transfer has been completed.

A Complete Guide to Domain Transfers article has more information about transfers.

Changes of Ownership

Changes to registrant information must be confirmed by both the current and new registrant. There is no charge for this operation.

Once both parties have approved the trade, each contact will receive an email notifying them of the completion of the trade.

If the current owner's email address is no longer valid, the .FR Owner Change Form. needs to be completed, signed by both parties, and emailed to help@opensrs.com.

Log in at manage.opensrs.com.
Click Domains.
Enter the domain name and hit the Search icon.
Click Edit to the right of the Owner Information section.
Press Save to confirm changes.
Important: An email will be sent to both parties to approve the change, if no response within 15 days, the request is canceled.