After they expire, domains take 75 days to become available.

During the first 61 days the domains' status is: PENDING DELETE RESTORABLE
During the last two weeks, their status is: PENDING DELETE SCHEDULED FOR RELEASE

The domains are released at 8 pm UTC / GMT.

In other locations the time is:
1.30 am Mumbai and New Delhi
4 pm U.S. Eastern
1 pm U.S. Pacific

Thanks
You are doing a great job keeping this forum fresh and very up to date.
We appreciate it.
Brent

always easier for US domainers.....it`s early morning for Australians

Thanks for the kind words, DomainLobe - hopefully we can continue to grow the forum at a steady speed.

italiandragon - welcome! A funny time in Australia but 1 or 2 am in the morning in India. I'd love it if someone could explain why thats the time for Indian domains drops!

because that suits better the americans which probably are the targeted market of .in

Yes, the sad fact is they are the ones largely driving the domain aftersales market at the moment so we have to live by there rules. Dammit!

Very true.

.co.in (despite being the more popular extension) is actually the big undiscovered secret in Indian domains

My top ten traffic names include:

7 .co.in
2 .in
1 .org.in

No, that's the schedule established by the registry.

Is it possible for a person who owns a domain, to actually renew the domain in the last 2 weeks of the stipulated time? Frankly I have never tried this, either got them renewed in time or sold them off.

I think it's too late at that point.