As announced during the 47 ICANN Meeting in Durban, ICANN has commenced Extended Evaluation (EE) ahead of previously published timelines.
On 26 July 2013, ICANN sent 14 EE election notifications to applicants with applications that are eligible for EE. During EE, applicants will have the opportunity to address the outstanding deficiencies on the application. Moving forward, on the same day that ICANN publishes Initial Evaluation (IE) results for an application, ICANN will issue notifications of EE eligibility and election with respect to the application, if applicable.
For EE, ICANN has re-engaged all of the firms that performed the Financial, Technical/Operational, Geographic Names, and Registry Services evaluations during IE. EE will be performed by these expert, independent firms based on the same criteria used during IE.
The EE process is intended to be interactive, providing for more communication between the applicant and ICANN regarding issues that need to be resolved.
For additional information about the EE Process, please visit: http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/application-results/ee-process-05aug13-en.pdf [PDF, 49 KB]
For a snapshot of times for the New gTLD Program and Earliest Path to First New gTLD (hypothetical), please visit: http://newgtlds.icann.org/en/program-status/timelines