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Let's assume that I am not a citizen of India but I want to buy a .in domain name: Is there a guarantee that I'll never lose the right to own my domain name provided I pay the domain registration bills on time?

Prior to 2005, .in domain names were not available to register if outside of India. But after 2005, they became available to register for everyone. I am concerned that it's possible in the future that .in domain names will be made unavailable to people outside of India again, or be made available for an unreasonably high price, thereby forcing me to lose ownership of the domain name I have owned and marketed for many years.

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    How is this question different from: webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/76220/…?
    – closetnoc
    Jan 19, 2015 at 19:39
  • @closetnoc This question is smaller in scope. The question you have linked to has been put on hold due to broad scope.
    – Lone Learner
    Jan 19, 2015 at 19:48
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    I do not think anyone can guarantee this. I am sure it will always be a risk since ccTLD owners (generally governments) can set their own rules.
    – closetnoc
    Jan 19, 2015 at 19:51
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    As you noted in your question and here, registries like INRegistry can change their policies, so there's no guarantee, and any challenges to that would have to be done in international courts. If that's a major concern, maybe you should register a gTDL instead, or in addition to the ccTLD and redirect the later to the former.
    – dan ♦
    Jan 20, 2015 at 0:33
  • Search rankings for country based domain names are weighted too. Using them for vanity reasons is disadvantageous.
    – JamesRyan
    Jan 21, 2015 at 16:13

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As @closetnoc mentioned, the worse case is losing the domain name. Other than that, there is a chance getting penalized by Google if the content of your website is not related to India or Indians.

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  • For some ccTLD, it's impossible to change the target country, so everything on that domain would be targeted to India, you can't choose the target from Webmaster Tools yourself. Does anyone know, if you can change target country for .in ?
    – Badr Hari
    Jan 23, 2015 at 9:32
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There is a huge risk depending on your niche and what is permissible by the laws of said country.

The worst that can happen is getting your domain confiscated, depending on the content you could get sued or tried. You should know what extradition treaties your countries has with the countries you are buying your domain name from.

You often need to prove that you are a resident of the countries in particular before being allowed to register, this varies alot depending on what ccTLD you want.

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    I suspect you may need to read the question again. It is permissible to register a .in domain, the OP want's to know if there is a guarantee that they can keep it if the registrar/ccTLD host changes it's mind in the future. Worse case scenario is that the OP loses the domain name. With respect.
    – closetnoc
    Jan 20, 2015 at 1:59

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