Here's some info that might be helpful to others:

I started a domain transfer yesterday to move my client's website from iPower to Bluehost. This isn't my first domain transfer. I know a fair amount about how the process works (or so I thought).

I followed all the steps to initiate the transfer in Bluehost's Domain Manager/Hosting Control Panel. Everything went pretty much as I'd expected, except...

Usually within a day of starting a transfer, an "approval request" email is sent to the email address listed under Administrative Contact for the domain. It just says, "We received a request to move your domain to another registrar. Please click this link and follow the instructions to approve or deny the transfer."

A few hours passed. Then a day. Still no email. I was expecting it to be sent from Tucows (now known as OpenSRS). But I had nothing. I contacted BlueHost tech support through live chat. They told me "it's up to iPower now". I contacted iPower, and their rep didn't seem to know what was going on. (They usually don't, which is one reason I'm trying to get my clients to come to Bluehost.)

Getting impatient, I did a search for "Tucows transfer registrar" and found a PDF document that’s meant for their resellers at http://opensrs.com/resources/documentation/. Jackpot! The document describes in detail the process to transfer domains to/from OpenSRS. Here's a snippet:
Transfers-away from Your Account

With this type of transfer, a domain is moving to another Reseller and/or
another Registrar. In this scenario, the end-user requests the change with a
Reseller of their choice and the Gaining Registrar initiates the transfer on
their behalf.

OpenSRS receives notification that a transfer-away from one of its Resellers
has been initiated. The system checks to see if the domain was registered or
transferred in the last 60 days. If so, the transfer request is denied before
any further processing, and the Registry is notified.

The Losing Reseller is notified that the transfer request has been received,
and the OpenSRS system sends an email to the domain's admin contact,
directing them to a website where they can approve or decline the request.

If the admin contact does not respond to the email within five days:
  • Registry automatically acknowledges the transfer
  • all involved parties are notified that the transfer was successful
  • the domain is moved by the Registry
  • the WHOIS info is updated
  • the domain is marked Deleted Transferred in the Losing Reseller's database
It seems according to this that the transfer will be automatically approved, regardless of whether or not explicit approval is granted by following the instructions in the email. This is different from my previous understanding that no response means the domain does not get transferred.

The document also has a nice flow chart showing each step of the domain transfer process.

The PDF is listed under "OpenSRS Domain Transfers Guide" and the URL is http://opensrs.com/resources/documen...omntrnsfrs.pdf. (To note, iPower is just a reseller. The company that actually holds the domain registration (the Registrar) is Tucows… now known as OpenSRS.)

Thought this might help someone else who, like me, is wondering what the !@^& is going on... LOL