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!
What are the requirements to get a no-fee passport?
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