what is the timeline for me to marry him and then be able to join him overseas?

RainHerself

Basically (because everything about a military wedding is SO basic *eye roll* haha) the plan is to marry next year between his tours in Korea and Japan, so that I can join him overseas.

What I want to know is
A- How long do I need to be married to him before I can join him as a dependant?

B- Will I end up letting him go to Japan ahead of me before I can go? Since were doing this on an end of tour break we'll only have about 30 days together to get married and process paperwork. My guess is that even before he leaves Korea he will have his flight to Japan booked, so where does that leave me?

Any advice would be amazing!!! Thanks ladies!

meltoine

You can start the process of joining him immediately, but it will take a while. You will need a state department passport and a visa, and then his orders will have to be redone to include you. This can take anywhere from 3-6 months, possibly more. I know it's a pain - we're going through the same thing with PCSing to Egypt. 

RainHerself

WOW. I had no idea it was such a 'deal'. but that makes a lot of sense. He is coming to visit in July for his midtour break so I think that would be a good time to start since it's about 6 months before his tour is over in Korea.

When you say state dept. passport, you mean just a normal blue passport that I get through the post office or is it something I have to get through the military?

Thank Meltoine! You are a fount of wisdom!

meltoine

You'll have to get a diplomatic passport. I think you can apply for it through the post office, but you'll need a copy of his orders with your name on them and there are a couple of extra forms you'll have to fill out to get out of paying the fee. If you apply for it on base it's a much easier process. 

Principesa3103

My husband and I were married in January and I could have gone out  to England to live with him by March, but because I was in school I opted to stay home until July. I didn't end up needing a government passport, I did however get a visa stamped into mine, which allowed me to re-enter England as many times as I wanted. I hope this helps and good luck to you. I hear Japan is beautiful!

smwiggle

Timewise can really depend on a lot of things.  I would give it about 3 months at least.  Your passport you need is a no-fee passport, that you can get from the travel people on base.  First though, you will need to be legally married so he can get a command sponsorship for you.  This will put you on his orders.  Then you take the orders along with 2 ID to the travel office and they can process your passport.  Oh, you also need a copy of his ID (front and back).  Then you will probably need an EFMP physical from the doctor on base.  This took me about 5 minutes, since I am perfectly healthy.  That really was the big things that I had to do to go to Germany.  There is no specific time that you have to be married for before you can join him, just the time it takes to get the paperwork done.  A lot of this is easier to do with him, since he will be more familiar with all the stuff.

mehgank

It also all depends on the effective date of his orders (report date, minus the travel days). If you two are married before the effective date of his orders, then you will immediately be considered his dependent. For instance, say his report date to Japan is 01 August and they authorize him 3 travel days in conjunction with the leave he is taking en route. That would mean that you two would need to be married prior to 29 July at the very latest. I'm assuming you'll want to be married before then since that won't leave him much time to fly there and report in, but you know what I mean.

Once married, it is imperative that he enroll you into the DEERS system and get you a dependent ID card, as well as enrolling you into Tricare for medical purposes. Also, he must ensure that you are entered into their human resources database (I'm not sure what it is for your branch of the service, but for Coast Guard, we call it Direct Access) as his dependent so that he can start getting paid housing allowance and cost of living allowance at the w/dependents rate.

And one more thing: if he wants to add you to his SGLI and all other "just in case" paperwork, this will need to be done as soon as possible after you two get married. Otherwise, if something were to happen, you'd be left high and dry.

Please note that this is all subjective to the branch of service your FI is in. I can only really speak for the Coast Guard, but a lot of the dependents/beneficiaries stuff tends to be the same throughout all branches of the military.

You'll definitely want to stress to your FI that he needs to speak with his admin personnel (people that will be doing up his orders) and inform them of what his intentions are with this PCS. Getting married en route isn't all that uncommon, but it can be a hassle if things aren't planned well in advance.

I work in admin and have about 5 years of experience with the DEERS system and issuing ID cards to every branch of the service, so I'm definitely willing to help you with whatever questions you might have.

fallingobsession

Do you mind me asking what branch this was for? My FH is in the AF, and this is something we've been trying to figure out...

They are letting him start looking for housing this week, which is good, and we already know he will be approved for the command sponsorship. We already knew about the physical and whatnot, and we were planning on going to a base to get my military ID and whatnot before we fly overseas.  He's been told he can't get me listed on his orders until I'm actually there, so that's what we're doing...

Still seriously confusing though...