A .kz domain has disappeared from WHOIS? Not so fast…

Anyone keeping an eye on an expired .kz domain name may run into a rather confusing situation. At some point, the domain disappears completely from the official KazNIC WHOIS. The only message left is:

“Nothing found for this query.”

Logically, you would assume: great, the domain is available!

But with .kz, “not found” does not automatically mean “available”.

First: 30 days to renew

According to the official .kz rules, the existing registrant still has 30 calendar days after the expiry date to renew the domain.

During this period, the domain may, for example, be placed on serverHold, meaning it no longer resolves normally, while still remaining linked to the existing registrant.

After that, the registrar may remove the domain from the registry.

Gone from WHOIS, but still blocked for 60 days

And this is where things get unusual.

Once the domain has been removed from the registry, it also disappears from WHOIS. KazNIC will then simply report that nothing was found.

Even so, the domain still cannot be registered again for 60 calendar days after its removal from the registry.

KazNIC explicitly mentions this in its information for domain holders: if a registration has recently been removed from the registry, the name only becomes available again 60 days after that removal.

So you end up with the slightly odd situation:

WHOIS: “Nothing found”
Registration: “Not available”

Only after those 60 days have passed can the domain be registered again on a first come, first served basis.

So when exactly does it become available?

That is the tricky part. The 60-day period starts from the moment the registrar actually removes the domain from the registry.

Looking only at the original expiry date is therefore not always enough to predict the exact release time.

And for an attractive domain name, a difference of just a few seconds can matter.

If you want to obtain an expired .kz domain without constantly checking it yourself, you can use our domain grabber service. It monitors the domain and will attempt to register it automatically the moment it becomes available again.