Use this checklist to identify preparation relevant to your role, the evidence needed and the person who should own the action. It is an independent preparation aid, not an official readiness assessment or certification. Completing a printed list does not establish compliance or a successful technical migration.
How to use the checklist
Read the transition overview first. Current means a check you can perform under today's arrangements. Scheduled means preparation for the future framework; it does not authorise using a future procedure in current production. Cutover means an action to time against Nominet's confirmed transition instructions.
The source review for this edition is 3 November 2026. Nominet's formal notice currently schedules transition for 9 February 2027, with a revised effective date if it is delayed. Check the notice again before using this checklist near the transition.
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Identify your role
Owner means the registrant or someone authorised to manage its domains. Registrar team means the responsible business, operations and support staff at a registrar. Technical team means people maintaining the relevant integration. Reseller means a service working through a sponsoring registrar. Membership on its own is not a technical role: see the role guide.
Account, responsibility and customer checks
| Applies to | State | Action and detailed guide | Official reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner | Current | Confirm the registrar, authorised contacts and a usable account-recovery route. Use the role guide to separate ownership from provider access. | Preparation guidance |
| Owner managing directly with Nominet | Scheduled | Follow Nominet's instructions for moving to a registrar; confirm this situation actually applies. Read the role guide. | Direct-registrant guidance |
| Registrar team | Scheduled | Assign responsibility for the agreement and policy review, including membership requirements and any applicable exception. Use the role guide. | RRA, Schedule 1 |
| Registrar team and reseller | Scheduled | Compare existing customer terms, notice processes and help pages against the changes. Use the communication review. | Formal notice |
| Registrar team | Current and scheduled | Identify the support owner and escalation route for a transfer, renewal or access problem. Review customer support messages. | Official readiness areas |
Renewal, lifecycle and transfer checks
| Applies to | State | Action and detailed guide | Official reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner | Current | Review approaching renewals, actual retail charges and payment arrangements. Read the lifecycle guide. | Lifecycle preparation |
| Registrar team and technical team | Scheduled | Record the registry renewal mode and test its effect on customer billing, consent and deletion workflows. Keep retail auto-renew separate. Read lifecycle differences. | Future lifecycle policy |
| Owner and registrar team | Current and scheduled | Distinguish a provider move from a registrant change; identify the procedure that applies on the intended date. Read the transfer guide. | Transfer policy |
| Registrar team and technical team | Scheduled | Review TAC issuance, expiry, locks, receiving-provider charges and renewal exceptions. Use transfer preparation. | Future transfer FAQ |
| Registrar team and technical team | Cutover | Identify pending transfers and expired names whose state requires special treatment. Use the transition checks. | Transition guidance |
Portal, integration and data checks
| Applies to | State | Action and detailed guide | Official reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registrar staff using the portal | Current preparation | Practise relevant interface tasks in the demonstration environment; record its limits. Read the environment guide. | Dragon demo access |
| Technical team | Current preparation | Identify which future testbed is available and avoid treating generic OT&E documentation as proof of access. Read the environment guide. | Specific .UK testbed status |
| Technical team | Scheduled | Map EPP commands, extensions, notifications and stored states against actual integration use. Complete the static evidence table in EPP preparation. | Technical preparation |
| Technical team | Scheduled | Review certificate scope, rotation and the documented IP compatibility position; resolve timing questions with Nominet. Read authentication preparation. | EPP certificates |
| Technical team and reporting staff | Scheduled | Locate DAC, WHOIS, WHOIS2 and list-API dependencies, then test replacement fields and failure states. Read registry data services. | Credentialled RDAP |
For public research, UK drop search and UK WHOIS lookup provide separate source observations. Neither is a test of a registrar's authorised integration or a complete portfolio report. If you operate a schedule-based reminder service, also check source-age handling, complete-import reconciliation and the treatment of changed or withdrawn occurrences before sending.
Before and after transition
| Applies to | State | Action and detailed guide | Official reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registrar team | Before cutover | Assign an incident lead, confirm current instructions and preserve an authorised record of pending work. Read before-and-after checks. | Transition guidance |
| Technical team | After confirmed cutover | Reconcile actual states, expiry information, host dependencies and notifications before assuming old cached data remains valid. Read reconciliation checks. | Registry synchronisation guidance |
| Owner and registrar team | After confirmed cutover | Confirm that the instructions being given now match the live process and that unresolved cases have an owner. Read communication checks. | Preparation guidance |
Assess the evidence, not just the tick
For each action, ask what would demonstrate that it was completed. A named document revision, an approved customer notice, a successful test with the environment recorded, or a reconciled exception list can be useful evidence. A general assurance that “the system is ready” leaves the next person unable to determine what was actually reviewed.
Separate items that do not apply from items that remain unresolved. For example, an owner using another registrar may have no EPP action, while a registrar using only portal workflows still has operational and customer duties. Revisit the relevant items if the official source, your service model or the planned transition changes.
Primary references
Use Nominet's official checklist alongside its detailed preparation guidance, agreements and policies. DomainSabre's role mapping helps organise the work; it does not replace those sources. The reviewed change history records the baseline used for this edition.