Why is there no link in my admin area to initiate domain transfer?
Only qualified hosting accounts will have a "Transfer domain registration for free" button in the admin panel, some reasons that make your hosting account not qualified for free domain registration transfer:
The main domain in the hosting account is already registered by 2MHost.
The main domain in the hosting account is not .com, .net or .org.
The hosting account is not active (expired, suspended, cancelled).