Can anyone please confirm that even though I have transferred my domain to Godaddy and paid for 1 years ownership, I will still have 3 years left? It does show on whois as this being the case but can anyone please confirm that this is correct?
Each time you transfer out a domain name to another registrar, the cost for transfer will include one year renewal. So, for example, your domain is registered until 2018 and you transfer to another registrar and paid the transfer fee, your domain will have an additional year until 2019. This is true, at least, each time I transferred in/out my domain to registrars such as GD, NC, NS, RC, etc. I tried to look for some docs on official sites such IANA or ICANN but this is the best that I can find and there's none regarding to my above comment. https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/name-holder-faqs-2012-02-25-en I had one occasion, though, when I renewed a domain name from a registrar that is using Logicboxes domain panels (widely used by various registrar such as RC, etc ) and transfer out before 40 days later, I lost that one year renewal and had to renew again on the new registrar. But GD doesn't use Logicboxes, so this is irrelevant to this topic.
What you see in Godaddy when you log in is the only thing that matters. If they say the domain name will expire in 2018 then that is when it will expire. Nothing else matters what you read.
Yes, I agree with the above comments. You will not lose the years you have paid for the domain even if you transfer it to another domain registrar.
If you have 3 years left, then transfer to another provider for 1 year, then you should come out with having 4 years; however many years you have left on a domain is merely carried or transferred over...