Boys & Bases

Now what? The question that was running through my brain after finding out we were officially moving to Korea. Well, first we had to make our way back from Texas to Colorado to start the hundreds of steps needed for an overseas move. It is not as simple as a passport, tickets, and movers. Everything moves on military time….and for an anxious planner the waiting is the HARDEST part.

Before moving to Texas, we sold most of our items, took some with us and put the rest in storage. Now we were left with scrambling to find a place to stay once we got to Colorado for what we thought was only 2 months. We decided to be wanderers and stay in an Airbnb until we knew for certain our path…and let me just say that was a hot mess for the two weeks we were there. The place was much smaller than we needed, shared a wall with another family, both boys got sick, oh and lucky me I did as well. While this was all happening Jordan was back at his unit trying to figure out all that needed to be completed. To make it simple and not overly lengthy I will share some of the steps here. If you are interested in more details let me know I can break it down more!

*Disclaimer, this is what our steps and move looked like. Some may be different for you depending on the base and family needs. The best advice I can give is to stay on top of the timeline and be pushy with contacts if needed*

• Re-enlist…Jordan had to do this to make sure he had enough time on his contract for us to move with him. OCONUS for families in Korea is two years!
• Updated and current physicals for all dependents moving. This has to be within a year of the EFMP screening. There is a form that can be filled out from your doctor if you have Tricare Select, or you can see a provider on post for this.
• Complete the EFMP screening. For anyone who doesn’t know what this is. It is a program for any family members who might have medical, physical, or mental health needs that would need additional support. Some locations, especially overseas are unable to accommodate some of those and this would mean not moving as a family. This process took about a week to get the phone call setup. We screened and luckily had no need to enroll in the EFMP process making the timeframe and turnaround shorter. Once it is approved by both current base (Ft. Carson) and pending base in Korea it is sent back. Ours took about 2-3 weeks for this clearance.
• After approved through EFMP, he had to get his orders changed from unaccompanied to accompanied allowing us to go. This took about a week or so to complete. Luckily for us with getting added to orders it extended his report date to complete all the tasks.
• No-fee passports were next on the list. With the military the sponsor (soldier) can travel on just orders no additional passport needed unless for personal travel once arriving. For dependents we were required to get a no-fee passport. There is some situations where just a tourist passport is accepted, but we didn’t want to worry about this and completed the process. This essentially states that we are going to Korea on military orders. The appointment for this to get setup can take some time, so definitely a priority to get this scheduled! We had to get all our own photos and bring a few different documents similar to a tourist passport. Once this is completed then you just…wait. It can take anywhere from 4-8 weeks to receive this. I was getting NERVOUS. Ours took almost 6 weeks exactly and we were leaving 3 weeks later. Talk about cutting it close!

While we waited for the no-fee process to be completed we worked on all the household things. Now that we knew we were going to be in Colorado a little while longer we found an apartment…a little more permanent and comfortable of a situation, but this meant more work for us. Finding some cheap furniture options since we wouldn’t be long, moving our necessary items from storage to the apartment and getting any other small items we might need. What a lot of people might not realize with the military and all the moves is the in-between. The restock of groceries, spices, bedding, toiletries or anything else that needs to be replaced is something that happens each move. We were mindful of what we got, but still an added expense. Thankfully we had the help of some friends to move things, a car from my in-laws to borrow, and the BEST Facebook page Fort Carson $1 Auction in Colorado to find things.

The next big step was getting our shipments all scheduled and sorting through our items to see where it all will be. More to come on shipments and packing up! Oh…and did I mention we also have a cat to add to the mix of getting ready to travel with? Lucky him, he will get his own post.

For those who aren’t military I know this post might not be as meaningful or helpful, but I hope it gives an idea of what it’s like for those who are in your life and all it takes for such a BIG move.