Who runs it
.ca is administered by CIRA, and its expiry process is a registry with residency requirements attached to eligibility.
What happens after expiry
Auto-renew grace, then a redemption period, then release.
The grace period
CIRA provides a grace period after expiry during which renewal is possible at normal cost.
Recovery after that
A redemption period follows, with a recovery fee. Total time from expiry to release is generally more than two months.
Worth knowing about .ca
Canadian Presence Requirements apply. If the registrant no longer meets them, for example after a corporate restructure, that becomes a problem separate from renewal.
What is true of every extension
- The domain stops resolving the moment it expires. The website and the email both stop at once, because both depend on the same records.
- Your registrar panel may still show the domain as active while the rest of the internet already treats it as gone.
- Every stage after expiry costs more than renewing did, and the last stage cannot be undone at any price.
Registry policies change. The shape of the process below is stable, but confirm the exact windows with your registrar before relying on a specific number.