I am back! 3 years later!
I feel awful about not finishing this series. But life happened and boy did it. But I at least wanted to come back and finish out these blogs for people who are PCSing and looking for some advice. I will continue with my TMO experience.
So household goods day arrived and the movers showed up early in the morning. Probably one of the biggest questions I had was do I have to feed them? And what do I get for them? To be honest, I feel like this was a bit of a fail for us. I decided to have water bottles in the fridge and I bought a box of donuts and let them know they could help themselves to them. I figured since it was breakfast time they could enjoy those and then we would see once lunch time came.
The movers were a crew of about 4 people with one being the person in charge of writing everything down. They got right to work, with each person taking on a different room. Boxes and lots of paper!! They wrap everything up in sheets of brown paper and just toss that into boxes. No bubble wrap. It made me nervous at first but I guess thats how it's done. I had left the boxes for my plate settings out with the intention of having them put them in there but they let me know that they wouldn't do that. They said it would take too much time for them to figure it out and they assured me my plates would be safe wrapped up in paper. They also let me know that I could wrap them myself if I really wanted to. I quickly realized that I couldn't put the plates in fast enough while they were packing and that I was just getting in the way at this point. Their solution was to wrap up my plates and put my empty boxes in a box so I could take them with me lol. I knew for next time that I should've just put my plates away in their corresponding boxes before they showed up.
One of the things I was told before the movers came was they they didn't want you wrapping things yourself. This is the reason I didn't put things away in boxes beforehand. But from my experience, they don't really mind. They just put whatever you wrapped in a box. So that was something to consider for my next move. One thing to keep in mind is that if you do wrap things yourself, they can't guarantee that it won't break. It would become your responsibility at that point.
So they continued to wrap things up and throw them in boxes. Their lead person would walk around and write everything down that was going in each box in a sheet of paper. And those pesky stickers!! You will learn about those stickers. I swear I still find them round. So, everything they wrap gets a sticker with a number. That number gets written down in the sheet of paper with a description of the item. Thats how they keep track of all your belongings. For your electronics, they write down the serial number next to them.
They continued to pack things up and this is where people say it is a good idea to keep an eye on them. We tried. We would walk around and just watch things get packed but it gets old after a while. It also feels weird just staring at them while they are trying to work. But this is up to your personality. Some people really like to make sure that things are getting done properly and belongings don't go missing. But the process was really straight forward. wrap things up, put them in boxes, record them on the sheet, close the boxes up and move on.
For furniture, they would take most things apart and wrap up the pieces in paper and tape. It is a good idea to have ziplock bags and let them know you would like all the screws and pieces in there. I took it a step further and used masking tape on the inside of the ziplock bag and label what those parts were for. I didn't do this for all our furniture. I mostly did it for our curtain rods. But if you don't have anything available, they wrap the screws up in paper, tape it up and write with sharpie what it belongs to. That works too. They have a special box called a "parts box" and thats where they throw all those things in so they are easy to find once you receive your stuff.
A funny story that still sticks with me until this day is about our mattress. I should preface this by saying that a couple of days before the movers show up, someone from the company comes out to your house to kinda take inventory of your stuff. They want to make sure they have the right packing materials and know what to expect. They had asked us if our mattress was a special kind, like memory foam. We were not sure about the answer. It was a cheap mattress from Ikea but I wasn't even sure it was memory foam although I didn't think it was a spring mattress. So we said no. Well, when the movers were wrapping it up, they were worried it was memory foam. This meant they would have to store it laying down as opposed to upright. I guess they were not prepared to do that. So they were going back and forth until one of the movers said they would just put it upright followed by him saying "It will be aight." To this day, I still remember him saying that. And I remembered it while my mattress was being unpacked in Okinawa. I said, "our mattress better be aight." We are super laid back so we didn't make a big fuzz about it. And our mattress did end up being "aight."
So lunch time came around and I noticed they never ate the donuts I had laid out. At this point most of the stuff was packed up and they were all taking a smoke break outside. So I wasn't sure if I should be providing lunch, since "breakfast" wasn't eaten. My husband went out there and asked them if they wanted lunch and they said they would probably just go home early and grabbed lunch on their way out. At this point, they all kinda came back in and ate our donuts lol. So they left all our boxes packed up inside and said they would be back the next day to load it in the truck.
Next day was easy. Only a few of them showed up and they basically loaded everything up into the moving truck. It took a lot less time than the day before and we didn't worry about food for that day. So that was it. We waived our things goodbye and sat in an empty house. Nothing too crazy about our experience except us stressing about food. I would say for next time, I would go ahead and have lunch ready for them during that first day. I think most people do that and that is what makes the most sense. We just had a weird vibe from our people. And that is another thing. Most of the time, these are local companies that are contracted out. So you don't really know what you are gonna get.
Another issue to touch on is tipping. Some people do, some people don't. We didn't. PCSing is expensive. No matter how much the military covers for it, there are always expenses that come up when you are moving. It was not in our budget to have extra money to tip the movers. So that is up to you how you wanna handle that. It is definitely not required but I'm sure it is appreciated. Especially if your crew went above and beyond for you.
So that is it. That was our experience with the movers and our household goods packing.
Thanks for reading!
Wednesday, March 21, 2018
Sunday, March 8, 2015
TMO - How to Prepare for the Movers
Hello!
Today I'm going to write about the dreaded TMO. This was our first PCS and all I have ever heard about was how horrible TMO is. So I was not really looking forward to this part of the process. I was mentally preparing myself to have my stuff missing or broken. Luckily for me, I don't own any stuff that I would consider super valuable or irreplaceable. I figured if stuff gets broken, we'll just get new stuff.
So our TMO journey began by scheduling it. You can't schedule TMO unless you have hard copies of your orders which can be tricky for some. I felt like we waited forever to get hard copy orders and we were kind of cutting it close. But thankfully, we were able to schedule TMO for the dates we needed. I think we did it for 2 weeks later. It wasn't a big deal to get a date for them quickly. I believe my husband attended a brief where they explained how everything worked. Truthfully, I wish I could've went to that. Sometimes men don't know the right questions to ask when it comes to your home. More on that on my Unaccompanied Baggage post.
So there are 3 parts to your TMO move.
1. Household Goods - Furniture, the big stuff. Pretty much everything in your house that is not going in the next categories.
2. Unaccompanied Baggage - Anything you want there right away. This shipment is supposed to get there sooner than your household goods. You will have a specific weight limit on this so you have to pick and choose what is important for you. I will make a separate blog on this.
3. Storage - Anything that you feel you don't need to take with you but you still like to keep. For example, you don't need a washer and dryer when you move into base housing here in Okinawa, so you can choose to store those if you want. I also know of people who just have a ton of stuff and have to store some since the houses can be a lot smaller here in Okinawa. This category also includes cars since you are not allowed to bring your cars here.
I chose not to put anything in storage. We sold one of our vehicles and took the other one to my parent's house for them to maintain. I didn't like the idea of a car sitting in storage for 4 years. As far as our stuff, I chose to sell the stuff I wasn't gonna bring. My thinking was "Do I really want to store something for 4 years??" and "If I don't need it for 4 years, do I need it at all?" I'm the kind of person that hates to accumulate things. If I haven't used it in a while, it needs to go. So this brings me to some tips I have before TMO shows up in your door.
1. "Spring Clean" - Get rid of anything you don't need. I tried to start this process early on, but as the date got closer it got more and more overwhelming. First, get rid of stuff that you don't feel is useful to you anymore. Throw it out or donate it. Go through your clothes and get rid of anything you haven't worn in a while. Go through every closet and get rid of stuff that's been sitting there. You would be surprised how much junk one can accumulate over time. I was hauling stuff off the Airman's Attic constantly. And I'll admit, there was some stuff that just kept lingering around because I wasn't sure what to do with it. Be strong! If you are not sure, get rid of it! You want a fresh start in your new house, free of clutter.
2. Make the decision -- Is this coming with me? - A couple of days before the movers showed up, I went through the house asking "Is this coming to Okinawa? Yes - keep it there. No - needs to go now. At some point you have to make the final decision. They are showing up and will literally pack everything they see, so it's your job to make sure they only see what is going. I think I had the hardest time with this step. Like I said, little stuff just lingers and it's so hard. Is my McDonalds happy meal purple Minion coming with us? lol. I had to keep going over the house and getting rid of stuff until I felt like they can come today and take everything.
3. Organize - This step was more for me. New house, new start. And I wanna start with an organized house. I bought a bunch of different sized tubs and started storing some of our stuff. Depending on your movers, they may or may not let you pack stuff on your own. But I figured they could just put my tub in a box anyway (which they did). I started with my Christmas decorations. I wanted more legit storage for them than cardboard boxes. So I neatly packed those in big tubs. Then I stored some of my son's old baby clothes in small tubs. I also started packing some of the stuff on his shelves since those were special to me. I then packed some tubs with stuff I didn't necessarily want the movers touching, like my bras and breastfeeding supplies. So just organize what you can and pack what you don't want them to touch.
4. Separate and pick a special room to keep stuff - I chose a couple of rooms in my house that I labeled as "Do not pack." One was my son's room where I kept stuff I wanted in our unaccompanied baggage and our luggage/clothes that we were taking with us. You might have to switch it out depending on how your shipments were scheduled In our case, household goods picked up our stuff first. I also didn't let them pack the laundry room. I kept our cleaning stuff there and just last minute stuff we might need. It is really nice having designated rooms where you can throw stuff and know they won't go in there. It also saves you a headache from the last minute stuff you might find going through your house for the millionth time. If you were putting stuff in storage, same method applies. Separate your stuff depending on what shipments they are going into and label rooms.
I gotta admit. This was a bit stressful. But the earlier you start, the easier it will be. Of course, if all else fails, just let them in and let them pack. But I found that being a little organized helped me feel better about the whole thing. And trust me, it definitely helps once your stuff arrives. That is a stressful process on its own. I hope you found this helpful on how to get ready for TMO. I will be making a couple more parts on my TMO experience as it is just so much to blog about.
Until then... Thanks for reading :-)
Today I'm going to write about the dreaded TMO. This was our first PCS and all I have ever heard about was how horrible TMO is. So I was not really looking forward to this part of the process. I was mentally preparing myself to have my stuff missing or broken. Luckily for me, I don't own any stuff that I would consider super valuable or irreplaceable. I figured if stuff gets broken, we'll just get new stuff.
So our TMO journey began by scheduling it. You can't schedule TMO unless you have hard copies of your orders which can be tricky for some. I felt like we waited forever to get hard copy orders and we were kind of cutting it close. But thankfully, we were able to schedule TMO for the dates we needed. I think we did it for 2 weeks later. It wasn't a big deal to get a date for them quickly. I believe my husband attended a brief where they explained how everything worked. Truthfully, I wish I could've went to that. Sometimes men don't know the right questions to ask when it comes to your home. More on that on my Unaccompanied Baggage post.
So there are 3 parts to your TMO move.
1. Household Goods - Furniture, the big stuff. Pretty much everything in your house that is not going in the next categories.
2. Unaccompanied Baggage - Anything you want there right away. This shipment is supposed to get there sooner than your household goods. You will have a specific weight limit on this so you have to pick and choose what is important for you. I will make a separate blog on this.
3. Storage - Anything that you feel you don't need to take with you but you still like to keep. For example, you don't need a washer and dryer when you move into base housing here in Okinawa, so you can choose to store those if you want. I also know of people who just have a ton of stuff and have to store some since the houses can be a lot smaller here in Okinawa. This category also includes cars since you are not allowed to bring your cars here.
I chose not to put anything in storage. We sold one of our vehicles and took the other one to my parent's house for them to maintain. I didn't like the idea of a car sitting in storage for 4 years. As far as our stuff, I chose to sell the stuff I wasn't gonna bring. My thinking was "Do I really want to store something for 4 years??" and "If I don't need it for 4 years, do I need it at all?" I'm the kind of person that hates to accumulate things. If I haven't used it in a while, it needs to go. So this brings me to some tips I have before TMO shows up in your door.
1. "Spring Clean" - Get rid of anything you don't need. I tried to start this process early on, but as the date got closer it got more and more overwhelming. First, get rid of stuff that you don't feel is useful to you anymore. Throw it out or donate it. Go through your clothes and get rid of anything you haven't worn in a while. Go through every closet and get rid of stuff that's been sitting there. You would be surprised how much junk one can accumulate over time. I was hauling stuff off the Airman's Attic constantly. And I'll admit, there was some stuff that just kept lingering around because I wasn't sure what to do with it. Be strong! If you are not sure, get rid of it! You want a fresh start in your new house, free of clutter.
2. Make the decision -- Is this coming with me? - A couple of days before the movers showed up, I went through the house asking "Is this coming to Okinawa? Yes - keep it there. No - needs to go now. At some point you have to make the final decision. They are showing up and will literally pack everything they see, so it's your job to make sure they only see what is going. I think I had the hardest time with this step. Like I said, little stuff just lingers and it's so hard. Is my McDonalds happy meal purple Minion coming with us? lol. I had to keep going over the house and getting rid of stuff until I felt like they can come today and take everything.
3. Organize - This step was more for me. New house, new start. And I wanna start with an organized house. I bought a bunch of different sized tubs and started storing some of our stuff. Depending on your movers, they may or may not let you pack stuff on your own. But I figured they could just put my tub in a box anyway (which they did). I started with my Christmas decorations. I wanted more legit storage for them than cardboard boxes. So I neatly packed those in big tubs. Then I stored some of my son's old baby clothes in small tubs. I also started packing some of the stuff on his shelves since those were special to me. I then packed some tubs with stuff I didn't necessarily want the movers touching, like my bras and breastfeeding supplies. So just organize what you can and pack what you don't want them to touch.
4. Separate and pick a special room to keep stuff - I chose a couple of rooms in my house that I labeled as "Do not pack." One was my son's room where I kept stuff I wanted in our unaccompanied baggage and our luggage/clothes that we were taking with us. You might have to switch it out depending on how your shipments were scheduled In our case, household goods picked up our stuff first. I also didn't let them pack the laundry room. I kept our cleaning stuff there and just last minute stuff we might need. It is really nice having designated rooms where you can throw stuff and know they won't go in there. It also saves you a headache from the last minute stuff you might find going through your house for the millionth time. If you were putting stuff in storage, same method applies. Separate your stuff depending on what shipments they are going into and label rooms.
I gotta admit. This was a bit stressful. But the earlier you start, the easier it will be. Of course, if all else fails, just let them in and let them pack. But I found that being a little organized helped me feel better about the whole thing. And trust me, it definitely helps once your stuff arrives. That is a stressful process on its own. I hope you found this helpful on how to get ready for TMO. I will be making a couple more parts on my TMO experience as it is just so much to blog about.
Until then... Thanks for reading :-)
Thursday, February 19, 2015
My Experience with the Medical Clearance
Hello!
Today I wanna share my experience with our medical clearance. To be able to PCS to Okinawa you will have to get medically cleared. This involves a bunch of paperwork and an appointment with medical to review all your records. Your current base pretty much goes over your records to see if there would be any existing medical problems that would get you disqualified to PCS to Okinawa. They do this to make sure that you will have all the services that you and your family need while stationed overseas. If your child needed speech therapy for example, they want to make sure they can offer the same services here as they would in the states. Your current base will review your records, but your gaining base is the one that approves or denies you. I feel like my family had a relatively easy time with this process. We did have a little bit of a scare for a second but I will go into detail below. This all depends on the current services you are receiving or any special conditions that might need specific care. Besides the no fee passport, this is something you want to get started with right away. I was told it would take a very long time but for us the longest part was getting our paperwork together.
Number one thing for dependents, take care of your dental!! I am not a fan of the dentist, like many of you I'm sure. But I had put it off for so long that I found myself not having visited the dentist in 3 years. I knew I had cavities, I just never made the time to take care of it. But when I found out we had orders, I was kicking myself in the butt! One of the requirements for medical clearance is to be cleared by your dentist. They have to sign a form indicating what "category" you are in. They want your dentist to be able to sign you off saying you wont need any dental care in at least a year. Well, of course I needed work and I couldn't get signed off right away. The bad part is that you can't get the process going unless you submit all your paperwork, including the dental form. So it actually took me about 3 weeks to complete all my dental work and finally get signed off. If I had been up to date on everything the whole clearance would've gotten done much quicker. So go see your dentist! Make sure you are good to go.
Besides dental, there are a couple of other papers that need to be filled out and turned into medical. My husband went to the clinic, told them we were going overseas and needed to get his clearance done, and they gave him the paperwork and even walked him through most of it, it was simple stuff. There was a form for school aged children that needed to be completed as well. It was to inform them of any special services that are being recieved by your children such as speech or physical therapy. Once we filled out all the paperwork, my husband return to medical turned them in and we got our screening appointment. For this appointment, you want to make sure you have all your medical records from off base services. My son was seen at an off base pediatrics office so I had to get his medical records from there. I also got my records from the OBGYN from when I had my son.
I was a little nervous about this appointment because I didn't want to be disqualified. I had recieved some counseling after I gave birth and I was worried that it would be an issue. I knew in advance that they only have a problem with it if you have been seeing a therapist for longer than 6 months. At the time, I was at about 5 months. So I was worried for a bit. But everything worked out in the end.
The day of the appointment, we showed up and waited. They called us back to a conference room. We actually didn't see a doctor. It was just two ladies that said the doctor was running behind and they were just gonna ask us a couple questions. They said our paperwork looked good and there shouldn't be any issues. To be honest, I don't remember what the questions were except for one. They asked me if I had ever seen a therapist. I said yes. They kinda stopped and I could tell there was something wrong. They asked me how long and I told them the time frame. At this time, one of them said to the other "That's less than 6 months." They asked me what I was seen for and if I got discharged, which I didn't, I just felt good and stopped going. They said they thought our case was gonna be simple but now they weren't sure and asked us to wait outside. You can imagine the anxiety I was feeling. I felt like everything would've been great except for this little issue. So we waited and eventually one of them came back out to the waiting room and said we were good to go :-)
So that was all. A little bit of a scare but it all worked out. We didn't hear back from them but we obviously got approved since we are in Okinawa now lol. It was a much easier process than what others made it sound like. But our family doesn't have a lot of medical issues. I'm sure the process is different for everyone. The thing to keep in mind is that they are not trying to go after you or deny you just because. They just want to make sure you are able to get the same services you need in the states while overseas. While it would suck to get denied, they are doing so because you won't be able to get the services you need at that specific base. Some services are very limited overseas and if your family really requires them, you might be better off staying stateside.
Thanks for reading and good luck with your clearances!
Today I wanna share my experience with our medical clearance. To be able to PCS to Okinawa you will have to get medically cleared. This involves a bunch of paperwork and an appointment with medical to review all your records. Your current base pretty much goes over your records to see if there would be any existing medical problems that would get you disqualified to PCS to Okinawa. They do this to make sure that you will have all the services that you and your family need while stationed overseas. If your child needed speech therapy for example, they want to make sure they can offer the same services here as they would in the states. Your current base will review your records, but your gaining base is the one that approves or denies you. I feel like my family had a relatively easy time with this process. We did have a little bit of a scare for a second but I will go into detail below. This all depends on the current services you are receiving or any special conditions that might need specific care. Besides the no fee passport, this is something you want to get started with right away. I was told it would take a very long time but for us the longest part was getting our paperwork together.
Number one thing for dependents, take care of your dental!! I am not a fan of the dentist, like many of you I'm sure. But I had put it off for so long that I found myself not having visited the dentist in 3 years. I knew I had cavities, I just never made the time to take care of it. But when I found out we had orders, I was kicking myself in the butt! One of the requirements for medical clearance is to be cleared by your dentist. They have to sign a form indicating what "category" you are in. They want your dentist to be able to sign you off saying you wont need any dental care in at least a year. Well, of course I needed work and I couldn't get signed off right away. The bad part is that you can't get the process going unless you submit all your paperwork, including the dental form. So it actually took me about 3 weeks to complete all my dental work and finally get signed off. If I had been up to date on everything the whole clearance would've gotten done much quicker. So go see your dentist! Make sure you are good to go.
Besides dental, there are a couple of other papers that need to be filled out and turned into medical. My husband went to the clinic, told them we were going overseas and needed to get his clearance done, and they gave him the paperwork and even walked him through most of it, it was simple stuff. There was a form for school aged children that needed to be completed as well. It was to inform them of any special services that are being recieved by your children such as speech or physical therapy. Once we filled out all the paperwork, my husband return to medical turned them in and we got our screening appointment. For this appointment, you want to make sure you have all your medical records from off base services. My son was seen at an off base pediatrics office so I had to get his medical records from there. I also got my records from the OBGYN from when I had my son.
I was a little nervous about this appointment because I didn't want to be disqualified. I had recieved some counseling after I gave birth and I was worried that it would be an issue. I knew in advance that they only have a problem with it if you have been seeing a therapist for longer than 6 months. At the time, I was at about 5 months. So I was worried for a bit. But everything worked out in the end.
The day of the appointment, we showed up and waited. They called us back to a conference room. We actually didn't see a doctor. It was just two ladies that said the doctor was running behind and they were just gonna ask us a couple questions. They said our paperwork looked good and there shouldn't be any issues. To be honest, I don't remember what the questions were except for one. They asked me if I had ever seen a therapist. I said yes. They kinda stopped and I could tell there was something wrong. They asked me how long and I told them the time frame. At this time, one of them said to the other "That's less than 6 months." They asked me what I was seen for and if I got discharged, which I didn't, I just felt good and stopped going. They said they thought our case was gonna be simple but now they weren't sure and asked us to wait outside. You can imagine the anxiety I was feeling. I felt like everything would've been great except for this little issue. So we waited and eventually one of them came back out to the waiting room and said we were good to go :-)
So that was all. A little bit of a scare but it all worked out. We didn't hear back from them but we obviously got approved since we are in Okinawa now lol. It was a much easier process than what others made it sound like. But our family doesn't have a lot of medical issues. I'm sure the process is different for everyone. The thing to keep in mind is that they are not trying to go after you or deny you just because. They just want to make sure you are able to get the same services you need in the states while overseas. While it would suck to get denied, they are doing so because you won't be able to get the services you need at that specific base. Some services are very limited overseas and if your family really requires them, you might be better off staying stateside.
Thanks for reading and good luck with your clearances!
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
The Truth About No Fee Passports
Hello!
Today's topic was a big one for me. So much that this is actually the reason my husband had to push his "report no later than date." The "no fee passport!"
The Big Question: DO I NEED A NO FEE PASSPORT???
Simple Answer: YES!
Long Answer: Uhh... Still not sure.
A no fee passport is basically a passport that the military provides for you at no cost when you are pcsing overseas. It is only good for traveling between the US and your overseas duty station. This passport is at no cost to you, hence the name. You can make an appointment with the passport office (mps building in our case) and they will walk you throught it. Now I will mention, the active duty member is not required to get one. They are fine traveling with their orders. So you just have to worry about getting them done for your family members.
A little back story on my problem... I am not a US citizen, which means I cannot get a no fee passport. I am fine traveling with my country's passport. I was told whenever I got to Okinawa, my passport would get a "SOFA" stamp and I would be good to go. SOFA stands for Status of Forces Agreement which is what lets us stay in the country without worrying about a visa or overstaying our welcome. This only left my son needing a no fee passport for our PCS. As soon as I found out we were pcsing we went down to the post office and processed regular tourist passports for my son and my husband. I knew we wanted to travel to different counrtries while stationed here so I thought it would be good to just get it done.
Now, I was under the impression that we wouldn't need no fee passports since we already had tourist passports. My thinking was that no fee passports where for people who didn't own any kind of passport. It made sense in my head that people shouldn't be required to shell out the $120ish fee when the military is making them move to a foreign country. So no fee passports where available when you didn't see the need for a tourist passport. But for people who already had one, it shouldn't be a big deal. You can do more with a tourist passport anyway. So I just let time pass by thinking we have passports, we can literaly get on a plane right now and go to Japan no problem.
I had doubts about my conclusion so I asked and googled and got mixed answers. It wasn't until our PCS briefing that they told me my son would still need a no fee passport. So here we go trying to get this no fee passport processed in time. It was a little frustrating because it can take 8-12 weeks to get it back. When I asked what would happen if we didn't get it in time, they said my husband might have to go ahead of us. I was not about to fly accross the world with a one year old by myself. I kept thinking, I dont need the no fee passport, they are gonna stamp mine, why can't they just stamp his!? But no. We had to have it. They said my husband would not be able to outprocess without it. So we actually had to go through the process of pushing his date an extra two weeks in order to have this passport. Funny thing is the passport is identical to the tourist passport, except for a little stamp... But what can you do.
Now, the reason why I say I'm still not sure about the answer to this is that I have read and heard from others that were not required the no fee passport. There are people who have traveled with tourist passports and had no problems. But maybe every situation is different. I can't say for sure. I can only go by my experience. My advice: go get the no fee passport. It's free, just get it done. Even if you are like me and people tell you it isn't neccesary. Just do it. Then you won't have to worry about it any of this. Make sure to get it done ASAP because it does take about 2 months to get it back. Oh and in case you were wondering, they will not expedite it! Again, my experience. Ive heard from others saying the military is capable of expediting it if they see fit but in my case they said absolutely not.
Thanks for stopping by!
A no fee passport is basically a passport that the military provides for you at no cost when you are pcsing overseas. It is only good for traveling between the US and your overseas duty station. This passport is at no cost to you, hence the name. You can make an appointment with the passport office (mps building in our case) and they will walk you throught it. Now I will mention, the active duty member is not required to get one. They are fine traveling with their orders. So you just have to worry about getting them done for your family members.
A little back story on my problem... I am not a US citizen, which means I cannot get a no fee passport. I am fine traveling with my country's passport. I was told whenever I got to Okinawa, my passport would get a "SOFA" stamp and I would be good to go. SOFA stands for Status of Forces Agreement which is what lets us stay in the country without worrying about a visa or overstaying our welcome. This only left my son needing a no fee passport for our PCS. As soon as I found out we were pcsing we went down to the post office and processed regular tourist passports for my son and my husband. I knew we wanted to travel to different counrtries while stationed here so I thought it would be good to just get it done.
Now, I was under the impression that we wouldn't need no fee passports since we already had tourist passports. My thinking was that no fee passports where for people who didn't own any kind of passport. It made sense in my head that people shouldn't be required to shell out the $120ish fee when the military is making them move to a foreign country. So no fee passports where available when you didn't see the need for a tourist passport. But for people who already had one, it shouldn't be a big deal. You can do more with a tourist passport anyway. So I just let time pass by thinking we have passports, we can literaly get on a plane right now and go to Japan no problem.
I had doubts about my conclusion so I asked and googled and got mixed answers. It wasn't until our PCS briefing that they told me my son would still need a no fee passport. So here we go trying to get this no fee passport processed in time. It was a little frustrating because it can take 8-12 weeks to get it back. When I asked what would happen if we didn't get it in time, they said my husband might have to go ahead of us. I was not about to fly accross the world with a one year old by myself. I kept thinking, I dont need the no fee passport, they are gonna stamp mine, why can't they just stamp his!? But no. We had to have it. They said my husband would not be able to outprocess without it. So we actually had to go through the process of pushing his date an extra two weeks in order to have this passport. Funny thing is the passport is identical to the tourist passport, except for a little stamp... But what can you do.
Now, the reason why I say I'm still not sure about the answer to this is that I have read and heard from others that were not required the no fee passport. There are people who have traveled with tourist passports and had no problems. But maybe every situation is different. I can't say for sure. I can only go by my experience. My advice: go get the no fee passport. It's free, just get it done. Even if you are like me and people tell you it isn't neccesary. Just do it. Then you won't have to worry about it any of this. Make sure to get it done ASAP because it does take about 2 months to get it back. Oh and in case you were wondering, they will not expedite it! Again, my experience. Ive heard from others saying the military is capable of expediting it if they see fit but in my case they said absolutely not.
Thanks for stopping by!
Saturday, January 24, 2015
Why I Decided to Start This Blog
Hello Everyone!
I remember the moment I found out we were PCSing to Okinawa. It was around 2am and my husband had just gotten home from work when he told he got orders. When he said Japan, I was in shock. Now mind you, we actually wanted orders here! But I was still shocked that this was actually happening. I remember the anxiety of "what now!?" So what is the first thing I do? The internet! I was up until 5am on google and youtube, trying to find as much information as I could. Housing, the flight there, the weather, I wanted to find out as much as I could. I soon would regret that decision, since I have a baby that wakes up early in the morning lol. But I just couldn't shut my mind off.
In the short 4 months we had to get ready for this move, I came up with lots of questions. And to be honest, not a lot of straightforward answers. You ask 3 different people the same question and you get 3 different answers. I remember coming out of our PCS briefing just as confused as when I went in. It was definitely a frustrating time. The best way I found to get good information was to ask people who had just gone through it. So while going through this crazy move, I wrote down my questions and told myself I would put all this information out there. So hopefully I can help someone out there not be so overwhelmed about this crazy process.
Now, I am writing this from an Air Force spouse's perspective. I know there are some differences between the branches, so just keep that in mind. I will write about my experiences before, during, and after moving to Okinawa. Hopefully some of you will find my blog helpful :-)
Thanks for stopping by!
I remember the moment I found out we were PCSing to Okinawa. It was around 2am and my husband had just gotten home from work when he told he got orders. When he said Japan, I was in shock. Now mind you, we actually wanted orders here! But I was still shocked that this was actually happening. I remember the anxiety of "what now!?" So what is the first thing I do? The internet! I was up until 5am on google and youtube, trying to find as much information as I could. Housing, the flight there, the weather, I wanted to find out as much as I could. I soon would regret that decision, since I have a baby that wakes up early in the morning lol. But I just couldn't shut my mind off.
In the short 4 months we had to get ready for this move, I came up with lots of questions. And to be honest, not a lot of straightforward answers. You ask 3 different people the same question and you get 3 different answers. I remember coming out of our PCS briefing just as confused as when I went in. It was definitely a frustrating time. The best way I found to get good information was to ask people who had just gone through it. So while going through this crazy move, I wrote down my questions and told myself I would put all this information out there. So hopefully I can help someone out there not be so overwhelmed about this crazy process.
Now, I am writing this from an Air Force spouse's perspective. I know there are some differences between the branches, so just keep that in mind. I will write about my experiences before, during, and after moving to Okinawa. Hopefully some of you will find my blog helpful :-)
Thanks for stopping by!
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