Register your .SL today!

• I just registered a domain name. When will I be able to use it?

Changes of name servers may take up to 48 hours to propagate over the internet. If it is taking longer, please contact us.

• I have the trademark and someone has registered my trademark as a .SL

Unfortunately, we cannot make any changes to the registrant fields without a legal change of ownership, a court order, or an order by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). If you feel that you are the rightful owner of the domain name, please contact the registrant of the domain name. If you are unable to find a satisfactory solution with the current registrant, you need to settle the issue with a court order. Discrepancies with trademark or rightful ownership are handled by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Their email address is [email protected]. If a domain name is under a dispute, we lock the domain name once the WIPO notifies us. It cannot be modified or transferred to another registrar. Once we receive a court or WIPO ruling we update the domain name accordingly.
For further information see our Registration Policy.

• Who should be designated as a Registrant / Holder?

The individual or organization that registers a specific domain name with the SL Domain Registrar. This individual or organization holds the right to use that specific domain name for a specified period of time, provided certain conditions are met and the registration fees are paid. This person or organization is the "legal entity" bound by the terms of the Domain Name Registration Agreement.

• Who should be designated as an Administrative Contact?

The administrative contact is an individual or a group name under which more than one individual is authorized to interact with the SL Domain Registrar on behalf of the domain name registrant. The administrative contact should be able to answer non-technical questions about the domain name's registration and the domain name registrant. It is strongly recommended that this contact/agent be the registrant or someone from the registrant's organization.

• Who should be designated as a Technical Contact?

The technical handles the technical aspects of maintaining the domain's name server and resolver software, and database files. They keep the name server running. This person would be the technical contact running the primary nameserver or making technical changes to the domain record.

• How do I make changes to the name servers of my domain?

Changing name servers for your domain is done by email. Please send a request to registrar [at] nic.sl. The request should be issued from the email address of the Administrative or Technical contacts.

• How do I reassign my domain, or change ownership of my domain?

Reassign domain name to another holder, or change of ownership should be done by email.
The request to reassign should be submitted from the registrant email address and must be confirmed by the new and the old registrant.
Reassignment of domain registrant is the same process of deleting a domain and then registering it to another holder, merged to one action. The price for reassignment of domain registrant is the price for one year registration which is $50.
The expiration date of the domain is reset to the date the reassign took place.

• What makes a valid domain name?

A valid domain is compatible with the following rules:

• Maximum domain name length is 63 characters, minimum is 4 characters.
• Valid characters for a domain name are letters (a-z), numbers (0-9) and hyphens (-).
  Though, domain cannot start or end with a hyphen. Also, two consecutive hyphens are not valid.
• Internet reserved names such as company, example, icann, ripe, www, root-servers and more are not valid.
• Names are case insensitive.

• What is the domain naming structure and are there any restrictions?

The following formats are accepted as a SL Domain name.

• EDU.SL is limited for educational organizations in Sierra Leone, or educational organizations that have local representation in the country.
• GOV.SL is reserved for local government entities and organizations. Registration requires a signed authorization letter from the Minister of Information Office.
• NET.SL is not enforced, but encouraged to be registered by network related companies such as ISPs, cable companies etc.
• ORG.SL is not enforced, but encouraged to be registered by non-profit organizations.
• COM.SL and .SL are for commercial and general use, and fully open for registrations.

• How do I register a GOV.SL domain?

GOV.SL is reserved for Sierra Leone's government agencies and offices only. To apply for a domain under GOV.SL zone you must complete the following steps:

• Download and fill the GOVSL.TXT template form.
• Request a signed authorization letter from the Minister of Information Office.
• Send the template and the authorization letter to [email protected]

• My domain is about to expire. Will it auto-renew?

Auto renew is not possible at the moment. The domain contacts (registrant, administrative, and technical) will receive a notice when a domain is about to expire.

• I forgot to pay for renewal. Is my domain lost?

If payment for renewal has not been issued on time, the domain will go into Deleted Redemption Grace Period for 30 days, where the domain is removed from the zone file. This will cause the domain to stop function and hopefully be noticed by the domain owner.
During the grace period, registrants could redeem their registrations by paying renewal fees, plus a service charge.

• How do I obtain vouchers?

Vouchers may be purchased locally at Afcom offices in Sierra Leone.
Note that each voucher is valid for ONE domain, ONE year, and for PUBLIC registrations only.

• What is the policy for IDN domain registrations?

An Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that potentially contains non-ASCII characters such as letters with diacritics or non-Latin scripts.
As for the moment IDN registrations are not available.

• What are the accepted payment methods?

We accept the following payment methods:

• PayPal - Visa, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express are accepted.
• Bank Wire Transfer - Contact us for additional details.
• Cash - We accept cash payments at AFcom offices at Freetown, Sierra Leone.

• What is the advantages of using Private WHOIS Listing?

When adding a domain to the cart you have the ability to choose Private WHOIS Listing. A domain that marked as private will not show in our WHOIS database. Your personal information such as your name, address, email and phone number kept hidden from spammers and scammers.
Nevertheless, if you plan to send spam, violate the law, or engage in morally objectionable activities through the use of private domain registration then keep it mind that it will not protect you.
The Registrar will reveal your personal detail upon request from government and law enforcement agencies.

• I have a question that is not listed here. What to do?

You can contact us using the online form available here.