.sa Registration

In order register a .sa domain name, an applicant must either be physically present in Saudi Arabia, have a local representative to act on his or her behalf, or hold trademarks or trade names registered with the concerned authority in Saudi Arabia. The .sa extension is the popular active domain name assigned for Saudi Arabia. It is administered and managed by the Saudi Network Information Centre (SaudiNIC), which maintains the internet services provided by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.

The registration request must be made in the form of an official letter which is signed by authorized personnel. Profit making entities must submit copies of legal documents providing details of commercial registration, trademark registration and license along with the application. The domain registrants also need to provide the details of at least two domain name servers with IP addresses.

The following are the second-level domains that are widely used in Saudi Arabia.

• com.sa — for profit making bodies and authorized trademarks
• edu.sa — for educational establishments
• sch.sa — for schools
• med.sa — for medical services
• gov.sa — for government agencies and entities
• net.sa — for network services
• org.sa — for non-commercial entities
• pub.sa — for public entities or individuals not falling under the above categories

Registrants must always conform to certain .sa domain name standards set forth by the registering authority. The minimum and maximum number of alphanumeric characters allowed for registering .sa domain names are two and 63 respectively. The hyphen is also an accepted character, but is not allowed as the first or last character of the domain name. When applicants want to register a domain name in the name of a person, then the name must be followed by at least 2 digits. Modifications and deletion of domain names can be made upon request. No ownership transfer of .sa domain names are possible unless an entity merges with another entity.

SaudiNIC has the right to cancel the registration in the case of violation of the terms and by the order of a Saudi legal authority. Any disputes arising in the matter of .sa domain registration will be resolved under the laws of Saudi Arabia. Currently, the registration is absolutely free and there is no need to renew the registration agreement. For more information, vist http://www.saudinic.net.sa.