ACTIVE: The registry sets this status. The domain can be modified by the registrar. The domain can be renewed. The domain will be included in the zone if the domain has been delegated to at least one name server.

REGISTRY-LOCK: The registry sets this status. The domain can not be modified or deleted by the registrar. The registry must remove the REGISTRY-LOCK status for the registrar to modify the domain. The domain can be renewed. The domain will be included in the zone if the domain has been delegated to at least one name server.

REGISTRAR-LOCK: The sponsoring registrar sets this status. The domain can not be modified or deleted. The registrar must remove REGISTRAR-LOCK status to modify the domain. The domain can be renewed. The domain will be included in the zone.

REGISTRY-HOLD: The registry sets this status. The domain can not be modified or deleted by the registrar. The registry must remove the REGISTRY-HOLD status for the registrar to modify the domain. The domain can be renewed. The domain will not be included in the zone.

REGISTRAR-HOLD: The sponsoring registrar sets this status. The domain can not be modified or deleted. The registrar must remove REGISTRAR-HOLD status to modify the domain. The domain can be renewed. The domain will not be included in the zone.

REDEMPTIONPERIOD: The registry sets this status when a registrar requests that the domain name be deleted from the registry and the domain has been registered for more than 5 calendar days (if the delete request is received within 5 days of initial domain registration it will instead be deleted immediately). The domain will not be included in the zone. The domain can not be modified or purged; it can only be restored. Any other registrar requests to modify or otherwise update the domain will be rejected. The domain will be held in this status for a maximum of 30 calendar days.

PENDINGRESTORE: The registry sets this status after a registrar requests restoration of a domain that is in REDEMPTIONPERIOD status. The domain will be included in the zone. Registrar requests to modify or otherwise update the domain will be rejected. The domain will be held in this status while the registry waits for the registrar to provide required restoration documentation. If the registrar fails to provide documentation to the registry within 7 calendar days to confirm the restoration request, the domain will revert to REDEMPTIONPERIOD status. The domain status will be set to ACTIVE only if the registrar provides documentation to the registry within 7 calendar days to confirm the restoration request.

PENDINGDELETE: The registry sets this status after a domain has been set in REDEMPTIONPERIOD status and the domain has not been restored by the registrar. The domain will not be included in the zone. Once in this status all registrar requests to modify or otherwise update the domain will be rejected. The domain will be purged from the registry database after being in this status for 5 calendar days

It is important to note that if you register a domain and then allow it to pass through the stages of expiration, up to "PENDINGDELETE", you as the original domain owner are still the only person with the ability to renew the domain. However, while the renewal charge during ACTIVE and REGISTRAR-HOLD status is the same(currently $20 for HostMySite customers), once the domain gets into the REDEMPTIONPERIOD the cost for renewal increases substantially - currently the fee is $125

The other important point is that when doing a WHOIS lookup on an expired domain, the lookup often will return a status that makes it appear as if the domain will not expire for another year. This is especially true in the REGISTRAR-HOLD status, which is easily mistaken for the perfectly unproblematic REGISTRAR-LOCK status. Before checking the expiration date on any domain, it is important to ensure that the domain's status is either REGISTRAR-LOCK or ACTIVE.

REDEMPTION FEE
The current fee for restoring a domain from the REDEMPTION PERIOD is $88. This is the exact fee charged to us by OpenSRS, we simply push the cost onto the client, whereas most other registrars would add a surcharge of some sort.

DOMAIN STATUSES
The .org domain registry actually has slightly different status codes that correlate to the ones shown previously in this thread. They are listed on the following page:

http://www.pir.org/faqs/general#statuses

A status of INACTIVE means a domain won't resolve, i.e. it won't work. If your domain name is listed in this status even though you have renewed it or it isn't due to expire yet, make sure that there is more than one nameserver listed on the domain record. In other words, the domain record should have something like this:

Nameservers:
ns1.lnhi.net
ns2.lnhi.net

If you're not using HostMysite.com nameservers, they will look different - regardless, there should be TWO nameservers listed. If you only have one, your domain will automatically go to an INACTIVE status.

Note: This is not true for .com and .net domains, which can hold any number of nameservers in an ACTIVE status.