Also called local presence requirement · presence requirement
Nexus requirement, explained
Rules differ by extension. The .us registry accepts US citizens, permanent residents and people domiciled in the US, US-organized entities, and foreign entities with a bona fide US presence; it treats nexus as a continuing requirement and runs spot checks. The .eu extension is open to EU and EEA citizens wherever they live and to residents and organizations based in the EU or EEA. The .au extension requires an Australian presence, which a foreign company can establish through an Australian trademark, but only for the exact-match name. The .ca extension applies its own Canadian presence rules.
Nexus shrinks the buyer pool, which lowers liquidity and resale prices. Do not buy a restricted name you cannot hold yourself, and treat services that lend you a local presence with caution: the provider is usually the registrant of record, and some registries ban such arrangements; the .us registry prohibits proxy registrations. Eligibility can also vanish. After Brexit, UK registrants who no longer qualified lost their .eu names, which were suspended in 2021 and revoked from January 1, 2022.
Example. A US-based investor without EU citizenship skips an expiring .eu name at auction, because winning it would not make the investor eligible to hold it.
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