Domain transfer steps: site downtime, delay for GoDaddy to Namecheap

I have a domain registered at GoDaddy and hosted at BlueHost. I wanted to transfer domain from GoDaddy to Namecheap because of better deal at Namecheap. Here are the steps I followed and the time these steps took.

1. Purchase the domain renewal at Namecheap.com. Now you should get an e-mail receipt from Namecheap.com with order/purchase details. You should also get another email asking you to get EPP code from GoDaddy.
2. Login to GoDaddy.com and get EPP code. This will be emailed to you instantly. (Check the 2nd link at the bottom References section for step-by-step instructions)
3. WhoisGuard protection needs to be turned off. Go to DomainByProxy and do it. It will be turned off instantly and your Whois information (name, e-mail, physical address etc) will be disclosed to the world!
4. You should now get another email from Namecheap involving eNom Inc for domain transfer authorization(from info@transfer-approval.com). It is legit email, not a scam since it looked suspicious to me initially at first look. You can immediately approve it.
5. Then finally GoDaddy will send you domain transfer confirmation. Accept it immediately.
6. Now your domain will be deleted from GoDaddy and the process from your end is done. All the above steps took 30 minutes or less. No website downtime at any point so far. Wait for the transfer completion.
7. If you login to Namecheap, you should see the pending transfer information
8. In another 30 minutes, I got the confirmation email from Namecheap about the completion of transfer. All done with no pain!!

All the above steps took 1 hr or less. No website downtime at all

Additional Info:

• The nameservers for the domain (from your hosting provider) does not change. You do not need to do anything on hosting side
  
• Make sure that you have full access to the admin e-mail of your current domain (at GoDaddy). EPP code will be sent to this e-mail.
• Here you can find some info for avoiding downtime. I did not follow it as I was fine with short downtime, if it happened.

How to transfer a domain into Namecheap without a huge downtime? (Free DNS, Transfer to Namecheap, ) • Namecheap.com Knowledgebase

http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/582/0/

References:

1) 6 Steps To Transfer Domain Name to New Registrar http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2008/07/how-to-transfer-domain-name-to-new-registrar/

2) How to transfer a domain from GoDaddy (Transfer to Namecheap) • Namecheap.com Knowledgebase

http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/article.aspx/876

3) Time for Successfull Domain Transfer? - Domain Names - Web Hosting Talk

http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=569481

4) Things to Know About Transferring a Domain | DNSimple 
http://blog.dnsimple.com/things-to-know-about-transferring-a-domain