How to transfer a domain from GoDaddy to Hosting Nation

So, you’ve got a domain at GoDaddy and you want to transfer it to Hosting Nation. That’s Great!

Transfer steps

1. Make sure that your contact info at GoDaddy is up-to-date. If you’ve changed email addresses since you first registered your domain, now’s the time to update your domain contact info at GoDaddy. Specifically, the email address associated with your “Administrator” contact must be correct, in order for your domain transfer to go through. If you don’t know how to change your contact info, GoDaddy provides a guide to help you through the process.

Warning

If your email address is out-of-date, update it. However, if you change your Organization name (or your First or Last name if there is no organization listed), you won’t be able to transfer your domain away from GoDaddy for an additional 60 days.

2. Unlock your domain at GoDaddy. This guide shows you how.
3. If you purchased GoDaddy’s Protected Registration service, cancel it.
   If you purchased GoDaddy’s Private Registration service, cancel it.
4. Grab an authorization code (aka EPP key) from GoDaddy. This key is a one-use password that allows you to transfer your domain to another registrar, in this case Hosting Nation. This guide shows you how to get your code. GoDaddy will email it to you within 24 hours to the email address listed under your “Administrator” contact, which is one reason we updated it in step 1.
5. Initiate the transfer at Hosting Nation
   
   Type in your domain to be transferred under Domain Name, then copy the authorization code from your email from GoDaddy and paste it into the Auth Code Press Submit.

The transfer will be added to your cart. From Your Cart, click "Continue to Billing" to pay for your transfers. Once you’ve paid, Hosting Nation and GoDaddy will both send you emails asking you to confirm the transfer. Find the Hosting Nation email and click the provided link to confirm the transfer. Then, find the GoDaddy email and follow the instructions to confirm the transfer on their end. If you don’t receive the email from GoDaddy fairly quickly, follow this guide to manually approve the transfer.

What’s next?…

Now that you’ve initiated the transfer, it can take up to five business days for it to complete.

You can check on the status of pending transfers by logging into your Hosting Nation account and clicking "transfer" at the top of the page.

Potential issues

There's a few scenarios where you simply can't transfer a domain to Hosting Nation… or anywhere else.

1. Was your domain first registered fewer than 60 days ago? If so, you’ll need to wait until the 60 day mark before transferring it to Hosting Nation. We feel your pain, but our hands are tied.
2. Was your domain transferred fewer than 60 days ago? Same deal as above. ICANN rules say a domain must stay at one registrar for 60 days before it can be transferred to another.
3. Did your domain expire recently, or is it about to expire?  If it’s close, you may want to renew your domain with GoDaddy first before transferring it to Hosting Nation, to prevent any interruption of service. Please note that domain transfers can take up to five days to complete. Please consult GoDaddy’s expired domain transfer policy or contact GoDaddy support for a definite answer about whether your expired domain will transfer in time. Additionally, if you renew an already-expired domain at GoDaddy, then transfer the domain to Hosting Nation within 45 days, your registration may not be extended for an additional year. For more information, check out our guide "If I transfer a domain to Hosting Nation, will I lose any existing months or years of registration?"
4. Does your domain already have more than nine years of registration? Since domains can only ever have ten years registration max, sometimes the registry won't allow transfers that already have nine years of registration.