Transferring an existing domain entails switching the domain name registrar that handles the domain registration service, so after the transfer, you will have to manage things like renewal fees or DNS modifications through the new registrar company. The transfer process itself is standard with most top-level domain name extensions. Certain country-code extensions are more specific and entail different procedures, but in the general case transferring a domain name entails a few necessary steps and one of them is unlocking the domain. The lock is a safety feature, which is being adopted by more and more registry organizations. It is a default feature supported by all gTLDs. If a domain name is locked, it won’t be possible to initiate a transfer process, so no one can even attempt to snatch your domain name. The domain lock can be removed only through the account where the domain name is registered in the first place and all new domain names that support this option are locked by default the moment they are registered.