PCS Tips and Tricks Part 3 - Moving overseas

So, you’re projected to move overseas. Maybe you’re excited, maybe you’re less than thrilled. I get it, it’s a lot of emotions to unpack when it comes to moving to a foreign country. Either way there’s an unspoken, unwritten list of things you need to start doing NOW with the projection, or soft orders if you have that, before you even get your hard actual orders.

Here is a running list of things my family and I work through to be prepared to hit the ground running once the hard orders are cut:

1. Schedule physicals for each family member

Once your service member receives their hard orders it will outline if adding dependents onto their travel is authorized or not. If it is authorized, you will need to go through an EFMP overseas screening and command sponsorship process to have the orders amended with each family member listed. To start the EFMP process, you must have an up to date physical on your medical records. Schedule a physical ASAP. We all know depending on where you’re stationed you may not always be able to get into your doctor’s office the same week that you call.

2. Check your tourist passports expiration dates

Family members are issued “no fee” passports when pcs’ing overseas with their servicemember. HOWEVER, even though the no fee passport looks just like any regular passport, it is NOT a tourist passport. The no fee passport can only be used in conjunction with orders to enter the country you are moving to and to come back into the US. So, if you plan to do any travel to any countries other than the one you’re moving to you will still need a regular tourist passport to do so. And it never hurts to have a tourist passport ready for anything so go ahead and check your expiration dates or apply for a tourist passport if you don’t already have one once your overseas projections come in.

3. If you plan to ship a car that you’re financing, talk with your lender NOW about the process to get an approval letter to ship overseas

Once your service member receives their hard orders, just like with dependents, it will state if you are or are not authorized to ship a vehicle at the militaries expense. If you are authorized AND you’re financing your vehicle you will need an approval letter to ship the vehicle from your lender. Your lender has the authority to say yes or no to this request and depending on who your lender is they may not understand how the military works and the process for providing the letter. So, before even receiving your hard orders it will save you a lot of time and stress to go ahead and have the conversation with your lender about this. If they’re not willing to allow you to ship your vehicle, or if they don’t understand, you have some options. Your orders may allow you to store the vehicle in the states while you’re overseas. Or you could look into refinancing your car with a lender that will allow you to ship it (this is what we personally did).

4. Condense/purge household items

When pcs’ing overseas, your HHG weight allowance (the amount of weight of HHG that the military will move at their expense) is typically much less than what it would be if you were moving around stateside. Start going through clothes, toys, household items in boxes covered with dust and sell or get rid of items slowly now. It will feel like a much less stressful task to tackle over time rather than over a single weekend right before the movers come to pack you up, those final weekends you will want to focus on organizing and packing your personal bags not purging.

*All recommendations above are based off of personal experience of pcs’ing overseas with dependents to South Korea (2017) and Italy (2022)