The deadline for an organization to submit its application during the second RSP Evaluation Program application submission period is 23:59 UTC on 12 August 2026.
Organizations that have not submitted their organization's application by 23:59 UTC on 12 August 2026 will be deleted from the system as they are considered draft applications.
For submitted organizations' applications, ICANN must receive the applicant's RSP fee payment by the later of:
- 23:59 UTC on 19 August 2026; or
- 23:59 UTC on the date that is seven calendar days after the invoice was sent. For example, if an invoice is sent on 14 August 2026, payment must be received by 23:59 UTC on 21 August 2026.
Confirmed organizations, meaning that they have paid the RSP fee and passed background screening, must submit RSP applications for the types of RSPs (i.e., Main, DNSSEC, DNS and Proxy) within seven days of being confirmed. After this seven-calendar-day period expires, the RSP applicant may not submit any RSP applications for types of RSPs (i.e., Main, DNSSEC, DNS and Proxy). Confirmed organizations that have applied for Main RSP can submit RSP applications or change requests for IDN Services, IDN Tables, and additional Registry Services at any time during the New gTLD Program: 2026 Round.
Regarding the RSP fee:
Per the RSP Handbook:
The evaluation fee covers all required reviews, evaluations, and testing for all RSP applications and IDN service applications, and is a singular fee for all applicants. That is, all applicants will pay only one fee even when applying for one or multiple types of RSPs, Registry Services, or IDN services. Note, that if a Registry Service application requires the evaluation by a third-party panel, an additional fee will be incurred for this specific review.
For avoidance of doubt, the RSP fee is paid once for the RSP Evaluation Program and can be paid either during the pre-evaluation period or during the second evaluation period.
More information about the timeline of the periods of the next-round may be found here: https://newgtldprogram.icann.org/en/application-rounds/round2