First off, what is a Domain Name Transfer?
It's simply moving the domain name from one register to another.
The register is the company you pay to renew your domain name and where you go to manage your domain name. Before you transfer your domain name, you need to ask the following question:
Is your domain name ready to be transferred?
If the answer is "No" or "I'm not sure" here are the items (check list) you need to check to make sure the transfer goes smoothly for you.
If you miss any of these items, the transfer will automatically Fail. In almost all transfer failures, the person originating the transfer forgot to take care of one of the following items:
IMPORTANT NOTE: Once the Domain Name Process Starts, you will not be able to make changes to the Name Servers. Make sure you have the correct Name Servers assigned to your domain name BEFORE start of transfer.
Login to Current Register - Where ever your domain name is currently registered (the people you pay to keep it renewed), log into your account there and perform the following tasks:
1) Make sure the domain is unlocked first at your current register. All domain name registers allow domains to be "locked" for security reasons to prevent unauthorized transfers or tampering. Make sure your domain is unlocked. If your domain name is locked the transfer will automatically fail.
2) Domain Name records Administrative Contacts email address is a valid email address. Once you start the purchase to transfer your domain to KartHost.com an approval email will be sent to the Administrative Contact for transfer approval. The email address must be a valid one. Otherwise the transfer will fail if the Admirative contact hasn’t approved the transfer within 5 days
3) Privacy Protection (ID Protection) Disabled—You will not be able to transfer your domain name with Privacy Protection (at KartHost, we call it ID Protection) enabled. Make sure to remove It.
4) Obtain your "Transfer Authorization Code" (also known as an EPP Code) to transfer your domain name from your current register. The Transfer cannot begin without the Code.
The official name for the code is the "AuthInfo" Code; however, there are different names for the code. Here at KartHost.com we call the code the "EPP Code", other registers have different names for their codes, like, "transfer key", "domain secret", "transfer secret", "EPP authentication code" etc.
TIP: If transferring away from KartHost please read EPP Code what is it and where do I find it?
5) Important Transfer Gotcha’s to be aware of - If you just registered your domain at another register, make sure:
a) the domain name is beyond 60 days after its creation*
b) the domain name has NOT expired, (in many cases you can transfer domain names within 30 days of expiration, check with the register to confirm)
c) there isn't any outstanding balance due with the current register,
d) make sure NOT to start transfer if the successful transfer would place the domain name expiration date more than 10 years out from "todays" date. You can still transfer, but you will lose the 1 year extension to the expiration year.
*According to the Policy of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) there's a 60-day rule which prevents domain registrations from being transferred if they have not yet gone beyond 60 days after their creation dates.
6) Changes to Registrant Contact –As of December 1, 2016 all changes to the Name, Company or Email Address of the Registrant Contact (which usually happens during a Transfer) these changes must be approved by the Prior Registrant and the New Registrant even if you represent both, you will receive the approval emails.
PLEASE Read this Tutorial: Changing Domain Name Registrant Approval Requirements (IRTP)
If both the Prior Registrant and the New Registrant do not confirm within 60 days of the request, the change implementation will not proceed.
Once this has been done and you have already ordered the Transfer process, the Administrative Approval email will begin. See next Item 7) below.
7) Keep in mind that the transfer doesn't start until the Administrative Contact has APPROVED the transfer.
The Transfer Approval email will be automatically sent after items in 6) Above have been completed.
Once you have completed these steps and prepared your domain for transfer, the transfer process should go flawlessly. Once approval has been granted the transfer request is sent over to the current register and once received the current register has 5 days to transfer your domain to KartHost. (Some registers will allow you to manually approve the transfer away once the request has had time to arrive at the losing register, check in your previous register account for such capability).
8) AFTER YOUR SUCCESSFUL Transfer –
TIP: This does not need to be done if the same email address for another domain name has already been verified with KartHost in the past
You will have 15 days to verify your Administrative Domain Name email address. Verification email will be emailed out immediately after the successful transfer of your domain name to KartHost.
The domain name verification email will be sent to your Administrative Contact email address. Make sure to safelist, whitelist (add to your Address book) this email address at your Email service.
Also make sure to check your junk/spam folder if you haven't received this vital email within few hours of the successful transfer. If you do not verify your email address within 15 days of the success transfer, your domain name will be suspended automatically by the Domain Registrar, not KartHost.
Note: You can always Resend Domain Name Verification Email resent to yourself. If you continue to not receive the Verification Email, would highly recommend changing the your email address on your domain name.
If you are transferring your domain name from GoDaddy, you will find this article useful "Transferring GoDaddy domain name to KartHost" and after the transfer has Started you might want to read "OK You Ordered domain name transfer to KartHost Now What?"
updated May 31, 2017
