You got that phone call from your military spouse – “Hey, we have orders.” Excitedly you ask where.
“Overseas”
Panic mode.
Take a breath.
And start a checklist of all the things you need.
And peruse this article for answers to some of your questions.
What does it mean to move overseas with an OCONUS (Outside of the Continental United States)?
Paperwork upon paperwork upon paperwork.
It is true; there is a lot more paperwork with an OCONUS move. Get a binder or a large folder with tabs and keep track of everything you can in one place. While there a lot more xx required for a move overseas, it is no different than any other move in that once you get it all done, you will be on your way overseas.
What happens to my Privately Owned Vehicle (POV)?
Most locations overseas do not allow shipping a POV as the vehicles overseas have the steering wheel and driving are on the opposite of the road. Most of the time, shipping of one vehicle is covered for OCONUS moves to Hawaii. Check your orders to see if shipping of a vehicle is covered.
In cases where shipping is not allowed or covered as part of the military orders, storing your POV may be covered. In most cases, a service member is eligible to have one POV stored at a storage facility in a government-procured storage facility. There are limitations on vehicle sizes that are covered, so make sure to read the updated TRANSCOM guidelines for storing a vehicle.
What is medical clearance?
Before moving overseas, medical clearance is required. Why? Many of the overseas locations have limited availability of specialized medical services. A medical screening is completed by your medical provider and the paperwork is provided to the military-specific medical group that will be overseeing medical care for you or your family overseas. The screening identifies if there are medications or conditions that cannot be filled while your family is living overseas, and identify any vaccinations that may be required. If a condition is identified that prevents a military move to that location, the service member will be notified. Once medical clearance is provided, your family will be provided area clearance which begins the process for the military to book flights for everyone on the military orders.
How many passports do I need for an OCONUS PCS?
When on a government-ordered move, federal passports are provided. This official passport is also called a “no fee” passport and can be used when on travel orders from the government. It is not to be used for leisure travel outside of the government move. The “no fee” passport will be arranged for through the Human Resources or Travel Office arranging the travel for the move and be required for military dependents as well as the active duty service member. If leisure travel is desired while overseas, a tourist passport is required which can be obtained through the state department.
Will I need a Visa?
Each overseas location has requirements for military stationed overseas. The Travel Office will provide the required paperwork if a visa is required as part of your orders. The visa should be used with the “no fee” passport.
What about scheduling the move?
While most CONUS moves have one move – from door to door or door to a storage facility in one move, OCONUS moves require different moves. An advanced shipment called an unaccompanied shipment, typically smaller in weight allowance, will arrive quicker than a household goods shipment. A second shipment of the most household goods holds furniture and mattresses, etc., and will typically take several months to arrive at the OCONUS location. If there is a weight restriction for the OCONUS move, a third shipment that goes to storage with the other items can be arranged. In some cases, like moving to Okinawa, there may not be a weight limit, but some service branches still cover a storage shipment due to the smaller size of homes and lack of storage. If your OCONUS move has multiple shipments allowed, it will be in the military orders and loaded in the Defense Personal Property System for arranging.
A note about items to bring overseas – many overseas housing locations do not have a garage, basement, or deck, and housing choices are not known until the move has been accomplished. It is best to store larger tool items or outdoor equipment.
Are pets allowed?
This is base dependent. If pets are allowed, they will be required to have a veterinary screening. The screening may include rabies shots, FAVN screening, and vaccinations based on the area moving to.
There may be limitations to flying pets during the summer months due to the heat with commercial airlines but may be allowed on the Patriot Express.
Upon arrival at the duty station, there will likely be a mandatory pet quarantine period for which some of the fees are reimbursable.
Moving overseas is a stressful move, yes, and there is a lot to do. Take each step slowly, and mark off each item as you accomplish it. Many military families had moved overseas before and survived, despite how you may feel after interacting with the military travel office.
I am a retired US Air Force Chief Master Sergeant (E-9) with over 30-years on active duty. I have pretty much seen it all; not everything, but enough to offer some advice…
Once again Heather Walsh has written a wonderful article. Now she just needs you to act proactively on her advice and maybe learn a thing or two from my “Teachable Moments.”
I’ll digress a moment, a Teachable Moment is when I try to pass on the advice and counsel of my experiences and the wisdom of my predecessors (we weren’t all Brown Shoes…).
As for passports, my first overseas assignment was to NATO, HQ Air South, Naples Italy. My family was issued Blue Tourist passports and I was not issued a US passport and was told my DD Form 2 AF (my ID card) was good enough… Not taking the “‘ol Sarge’s” advice, I acquired my own Blue Tourist passport and got an International Driver’s License from my local AAA (the Auto Club…). Both proved useful in different circumstances… On my subsequent PCSs and TDYs, I traveled with an issued Maroon US Official passport and I acquired my own Blue Tourist passport since the official US passport is not valid for personal travel.
Now you really need to get real advice (by the book type–regulations, etc…) concerning the “No-Fee Military” passports, they are not regular Blue Tourist passports and you may need both if you plan on doing some tourist traveling… So do not trust the ‘ol Sarge who said he did not need anything…
As for your POV when you PCS, If you cannot take it with you, I suggest you sell it rather than try to store it (officially–government funded or privately–your relative’s home). First off, selling it now means it would be 3 or 4-years newer than when you return, it will not have sat unattended for years (seals drying out, rust deepening, etc…) or your relatives driving it around, putting lots of miles on it and I’m sure they will not “baby” it like you do… As for the government funded storage (Heather Walsh provided a link to the TRANSCOM guidelines), the circumstances are extremely limited and not likely to affect you. Therefore, my advice is if you cannot ship it, sell it…
First I’m going to tell you two War Stories from my past and let them be a warning to you, history repeats…
But first, you need to know there are two types of War Stories.
There are those that really happened, the teller has firsthand facts, it either happened to him/her or they saw it happen… And the teller will start their story off with “This really happened…”
Then there are those where the teller heard about something through the grapevine, gossip, a bull session, or is just plain making it up just to sound important… There tellers will start their story off with “This ain’t no shit…”
Back in the late 1970’s, I received orders to NATO, HQ Air South, Naples, Italy, and This Really Happened…
I was authorized a POV shipment with three-year, accompanied PCS to Naples. My car was only 3-years and in really nice condition (no scratches, no dents, no rust…). I took it to the dealer and had a complete tune up performed, all hoses replaced, a brake job, all fluids (brake fluid, antifreeze, etc…) replaced, new battery, and new tires (including the spare…) replaced. I brought my car down to shipping port (Norfolk VA) and since I had had couple of CONUS PCS’s previously, I knew how there is always some contention about what entails “a mark, a scratch, a dent, etc…) when it comes to describing “damage” with your HHGs, I brought my camera with me to photograph the car, as delivered, to the shipping location, I even photographed the shipping clerk (he posed with the car…) who accepted the car. When the car was delivered to me at the port in Naples, Italy, the new tires were long gone and there were four mismatched old, worn out, bald tires on rims that did not even match (some tires were 13 inchers and some were 14 inchers…) luckily I had removed the hub caps and put them in the back of the car. The new battery had also been replaced with an old one. Our transportation shipping support was provided by the Naval Support Activity in Bagnoli, Italy. You cannot believe the resistance I got from them in filing a claim for the theft of my tires and battery. That was until I provided the photos of the car as it was turned into the shipping authority in Norfolk (the shipping clerk smiling next to my car with the new whitewall tires and the photo of the engine compartment with the new Diehard battery). They still wrote on the claim, “sergeant ‘claims’ tires and battery were stolen from his POV during transport and provided attached photos in support of his ‘claim’ of theft”, as if I was trying to rip the government off…
So, in this Teachable Moment, the Moral is: If you are shipping or storing your car, Photograph everything, interior, exterior, front back, bumpers, engine compartment, etc… Since most folk now use a smart phone as their camera, copy those photos to somewhere you will not erase, or loose the JPGs and they will be available years later…
Later, in the mid ’80s, I received orders to Osan AB, Republic of Korea (ROK), I had a choice between one-year unaccompanied with Home-basing (return right back to my old base and the family could stay in our home and the kids could stay in school) or take a two-year accompanied tour (full JTR shipment of HHGs and shipment of my car…). I chose the one-year tour and left the family in place. I chose to store my car as my wife did not drive a manual transmission. Prep’d everything, stored in the garage, but after a year, the brakes had to be rebuilt, the front and rear mail seals had dried out and a whole host of other gaggle of little things seem to constantly go wrong… I should have sold it rather than try to keep it… I traded it in in less than a year and received less than I would have if I had sold it privately previously to PCSing…
You are serving in a different world than I served in. My family and I tourist’d to places that we as Americans and Westerners are no longer welcome. If you are advised to do something or get something, you had better think twice and probably take the time to do it. “Murphy’s Law” always has to prove itself an evil brute… “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”
This time the moral comes from Aesop’s Fable, ‘The Sick Lion’, He is wise who is warned by the misfortunes of others.
Keep your ear to the ground and your nose to the wind. As always — Aim High!
Chief