SIDN changes registration period to 12 months

Following the announcement made on March 4 this year in our newsletter, the article below contains instructions and advice on switching .NL domains registered through Realtime Register with a quarterly or monthly registration period to the annual registration period.

Announcement

Starting March 2026, SIDN will migrate to the new Hello Registry platform, and all .NL domains will be required to use an annual term. This means that the current monthly and quarterly terms will be discontinued. As our reseller, you may have customers with .NL domain names currently on monthly or quarterly registration periods. These domain names must be converted to yearly terms before March 2026.

We strongly recommend you follow the below action plan and timeline, created by SIDN, starting as soon as possible. This will prevent .NL domains are still set to monthly and quarterly terms all converting to yearly terms at the same time when .NL migrates to the new platform. This will prevent being confronted with one large recurring yearly renewal charge on your account balance and will result in multiple renewal charges for all your NL domains divided over the whole year instead.

Action plan and timeline

1: Stop new quarterly registrations

Stop as soon as possible with new registrations on quarterly terms. All new registrations must be made on an annual term from May 1, 2025.

When requesting creates through our portal, the default period is set to one year

When requesting creates through API, make sure you define a period of 12 months for domain creates

POST/v2/domains/testdomainyear.nl

{
    "customer": "KBRTR",
    "registrant": "KBRTR",
    "period": 12,
    "ns": [
        "ns1.test.nl",
        "ns2.test.nl"
    ],
    "contacts": [
        {
            "role": "ADMIN",
            "handle": "KBRTR"
        },
        {
            "role": "TECH",
            "handle": "KBRTR"
        },
        {
            "role": "BILLING",
            "handle": "KBRTR"
        }
    ]
}

2: Convert incoming transfers

Convert all incoming transfers directly to yearly terms. When requesting transfers through our portal, the default period for transfers is one year.

No additional configuration is necessary to request transfers through our portal with an annual period for .NL.

When requesting transfers through API, make sure you do not define a period or a period of 12 months for domain transfers. When no period is defined, transfers requested through API are set to an annual registration period by default.

POST/v2/domains/testdomainyear.nl/transfer

API example with period defined

{
    "customer": "KBRTR",
    "registrant": "KBRTR",
    "period": 12,
    "authcode": "gdyeagd@EDA",
    "ns": [
        "ns1.test.nl",
        "ns2.test.nl"
    ],
    "contacts": [
        {
            "role": "ADMIN",
            "handle": "KBRTR"
        },
        {
            "role": "BILLING",
            "handle": "KBRTR"
        },
        {
            "role": "TECH",
            "handle": "KBRTR"
        }
    ]
}

API example without period defined

{
    "customer": "KBRTR",
    "registrant": "KBRTR",
    "authcode": "gdyeagd@EDA",
    "ns": [
        "ns1.test.nl",
        "ns2.test.nl"
    ],
    "contacts": [
        {
            "role": "ADMIN",
            "handle": "KBRTR"
        },
        {
            "role": "BILLING",
            "handle": "KBRTR"
        },
        {
            "role": "TECH",
            "handle": "KBRTR"
        }
    ]
}

3: Convert existing domains to annual period

Gradually over time convert existing domain domains currently set to monthly and quarterly terms to yearly terms between April 2025, and March 2026. This phased approach will align each domain’s renewal date with the new requirement.

Changing the registration periods for existing domains

To change the registration period for existing domains, follow the instructions below.

Important

Renew period not updatable > 30 days in advance of expirydate

Please note that the renewal period cannot be changed when the expirydate for a .NL domain is > 30 days in the future. In order to change the renewal period for .NL domains, the must be within 30 days of the expirydate.

Follow the instructions below on the first of every month

To gradually change the renewal period and moment of invoicing for a yearly period for all the domains in your account, follow the below period at the first of each month.

1: Login to the portal and go to Domains Dashboard Domains that are about to expire

2: Add a TLD based filter for the NL ccTLD

3: Add a filter for the Auto renew cycle for 1 and 3 months

4: An overview of all the .NL domains with a monthly or quarterly period in your account that are set to expire in the next 30 days are displayed in this filtered list

5: Click 'Bulk Job' and then 'Update domains' to start a bulk update for the domains that show in the filtered list

6: Select the 1-year auto renew cycle from the drop-down menu, leave all the other options available in the bulk update form as is

7: Click 'Next' and then 'Create job' to proceed with the bulk update

8: Click 'Run all tasks' to update the auto renew period for the .NL domains in the bulk update you just created to the annual period

9: Once the bulk update has completed, all tasks will show as completed under the 'Completed' task tile. If any tasks have failed for whatever reason, they'll show as failed under the 'Failed tasks' tile. If you have any failed tasks and are unable to get them completed, contact our support department through email; support@realtimeregister.com

10: Keep in mind to perform the above changes through a bulk update every month to gradually change the registration period for existing .NL domains in your account and spread invoicing for yearly renewals evenly over a whole year instead of all domains receiving a forced update simultaneously next year.