Originally Posted by
Chris99
Your family uses civilian passports, correct? We're going to be heading over to Ramstein as well and were curious as to how the process goes. Are they doing all these as TDYs enroute, or can I go and come back to my home state before we head over (this would give me more time to sell my house)?
Word of caution when you do a TDY enroute to an oversees assignment: If your dependents are not on your TDY orders they will be requried to depart on their transocianic journey from their home. You will be required to depart from your TDY location.
I ran into this on my PCS even though my dependent was already with me at the TDY location. The airfare would have been cheaper for the government and I was not asking for his travel to the TDY location to be covered. They refused and were very uncooperative. They also refused to book my ticket out of my original home location if I was willing to cover my travel back and the airfare difference. Made no sense at all. Only way around it is to ship a car - then they cover everyone's travel to the port and fly you from the port location.
You may have to get creative to return home and fly from there, or you may be need to be willing to travel back to your TDY location after selling your house to pick up your flight. Or you can just ship a car for the sole reason that common sense to your individual circumstance is never considered by the travel office.