.im Registration

Introduced in the year 1996, the .im domain is the national top-level or primary domain (TLD) for the Isle of Man, located in the Irish Sea, British Isles. The registrar, Domicilium (IOM) Limited, has the ability to issue and manage .im domain names on behalf of the Isle of Man government.

In the beginning, the .im domains were only available to Isle of Man based organizations. Since July 2006, however, the .im extension has become available to all who have connections with the Isle of Man. In order to ensure the appropriate usage of .im domains, there are certain rules and regulations enforced by the registry. All .im domain names are now made available on a first come, first served basis. The domain name is restricted to 32 characters, consisting of alphabets from A to Z, digits from 0 to 9 and the hyphen. Renewal after the period of expiration and transfer of ownership to a third party are also allowed. The following are the valid extensions available with this domain.

• .com.im : for companies, partnerships, sole traders and other commercial organizations
• .ltd.co.im : for private limited companies
• .plc.co.im : for public limited companies
• .net.im : for Internet service providers
• .gov.im : for institutions and agencies under the Isle of Man Government
• .org.im : for individuals and non-profit-making entities
• .nic.im : for .im domain supporting infrastructure
• .ac.im : for academic organizations

Though .im domain names are freely available and can be used for any purpose, there are certain restrictions applied to some .im domain names. In the case of ltd.co.im and plc.co.im domain addresses, they are only available to the entities registered with the Isle of Man Companies Registry. To get .im domain names with these extensions, applicants must submit a copy of the company's Certificate of Incorporation.

If you need to know more about .im registration, visit the official Isle of Man domain name registry website at http://www.nic.im.