More and more foreigners are starting businesses in Uzbekistan: a Turkish entrepreneur opening a restaurant in Tashkent, an Italian investor running a hotel in Samarkand, a Kazakh IT company entering the local market. Sooner or later each of them asks the same question: can a foreign citizen register a .uz address, the one that looks most natural to Uzbek customers, in their own name? The short answer is yes, but there are a few important details worth knowing in advance.
Who may own a .uz domain
.uz is the national country-code zone. Its rules are set by the zone administrator, and registrars operate under those rules. Under the current procedure a domain holder can be either an individual or a legal entity, and citizenship is not the deciding barrier. A person with a passport issued by another country, or a company incorporated abroad, can be listed as the owner of a .uz domain. The real requirement is that the owner's details are complete, truthful and verifiable by documents. Rules are updated from time to time, so before an important launch it is worth rechecking the administrator's official policy. Some special second-level zones, such as those reserved for government bodies, have their own requirements, but these do not apply to an ordinary commercial site.
What details and documents are needed
Registration creates an owner contact profile. For an individual this means surname, given name, passport number, issue date, address, phone and email. A foreigner enters the data from their national or international passport in Latin letters, spelled exactly as in the document. The most common mistake is adapting a name to Uzbek or English pronunciation: if the passport says Mehmet, the profile must say Mehmet too, or verification will raise questions.
Uzbek citizens have a personal identification number (PINFL), which foreigners usually lack. That does not block registration; the registrar will explain how to fill the field. If the foreigner holds an Uzbek residence permit with a PINFL assigned, using that number makes sense. A legal entity provides its full name, country of incorporation, registration or tax number, legal address and a responsible person, with the company name written in the official Latin form from its incorporation documents.
Example: a Turkish restaurant in Tashkent
Imagine a Turkish citizen opening a restaurant in the Yunusabad district of Tashkent. He wants a .uz domain with the restaurant's name so guests can view the menu and book tables online. He can register the domain personally with his Turkish passport, or, if he has set up a local LLC, register it to that company. The second option is better in the long run. If the restaurant is later sold or a partner joins, the domain moves with the company as a business asset. A personally held domain can become a problem when the owner leaves the country: renewal notices stop arriving, the passport expires and updating the record gets harder.
Risks specific to foreign owners
The most frequent problem is organisational rather than technical. Someone works in Uzbekistan for a few years, returns home, and the local phone number is disconnected. The domain, however, is still tied to that number and an old mailbox, so expiry reminders reach nobody and the domain lapses. Use a long-lived international number and a personal email that does not depend on the company's own domain. A second risk appears when a passport is replaced and its number changes; update the contact right after you receive the new document so ownership can be proven easily later.
- Enter your name exactly as it appears in your passport.
- Rely on a phone number that will work for years, not a temporary local SIM.
- Turn on auto-renewal and keep the balance topped up.
- Register business domains to a local legal entity where possible.
Where the site is hosted matters too
The owner's citizenship has nothing to do with the server, but Uzbek law has another relevant requirement: if a site collects and stores personal data of Uzbek citizens, such as customer names, phones or addresses, that data must be stored on servers located in Uzbekistan. A table booking form collects exactly this kind of data, so check the requirement before choosing a familiar host back home, and consult a lawyer about its exact scope. Local servers also load faster for Uzbek users through the Tas-IX network. sayt.uz servers are located in Uzbekistan, so the domain and hosting can be managed in one place.
What to check after registration
Once the domain is active, confirm the record and DNS with a few commands:
whois restoran-misol.uz
dig NS restoran-misol.uz +short
dig A restoran-misol.uz +shortThe first shows status and expiry; the other two confirm the name servers and site address. If whois shows an unexpected status or DNS is still empty, wait a few hours and check again. Accurate passport data, durable contact channels and, where possible, a local company as owner are what keep a foreign-owned .uz domain trouble-free for years.