One of the first things that runs through your mind when you get orders to Okinawa is, “Ok, so what do we need to do first?” Don’t worry; we have you covered. Here is a list of OCONUS paperwork you need to do first.

There are certain things you will need for this PCS versus a regular CONUS PCS. Check out our list below.

OCONUS Paperwork You Need for Your PCS to Japan

Overseas Screening

Your overseas screening, or OSS, basically helps determine if any services you may need will be available at your new duty station location. Generally, heart conditions and neurology conditions are a hard no, but there are some other conditions that may get you denied OSS. If you are denied OSS, your service member may get unaccompanied orders instead.

You can schedule your OSS as soon as you have web orders. This can be done at your Military Treatment Facility (MTF) or you’re local doctor (although some local doctors don’t like filling it out because they aren’t familiar with the process). Even if you are seen out in town by a civilian doctor, you can still go to your MTF to get your OSS done.

You will pick up the OSS paperwork from your MTF and schedule your first set of appointments. It’s alot of paperwork to fill out and you will need to fill one out for every dependent. Your service member does their own OSS. The paperwork consists of medical information as well as academic (additional educational services that may be needed).

You will do a medical screening, and you will also need to bring your dental records. Once your MTF has completed your OSS, your OSS representative at your MTF will send that paperwork to the OCONUS location. After their review, they will either clear you, ask for more review (i.e., additional dental screening or other diagnostic tests to be done first), or deny you.

You are pretty much in a standstill until OSS is clear. That is because you need OSS to get your Area Clearance, which is needed to do pretty much everything else.

Official Checklists

Marine Corps- Print out THIS official checklist to get you started on your OCONUS paperwork and other information

Air Force- Print out THIS official checklist to get you started on your OCONUS paperwork and other information

No Fee Passports

No fee passports are 100% required to travel to your OCONUS location. Your no fee passports along with your orders serve as your Visa for entering Japan legally. Even if you travel commercially, you MUST get a no fee passport for every single person in the family.

Here’s the thing- you can’t get your no fee passports at a regular passport office or United States Post Office. You must get it at a military installation. For those who are not living near a military installation, that means you must travel to the closest one. They take about 4-6 weeks to arrive, so you’ll need to have plenty of time to make sure they get to you before you travel.

You MUST have a no fee passport to get onto the Patriot Express, the flight that takes you from CONUS to OCONUS. For Japan and Korea, these flights leave out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SeaTac). If your no fee passports do not arrive in time, you will need a memorandum from the military installation in which you applied stating that you have applied for them and they are on their way.

You don’t *have* to have a tourist/regular passport to travel OCONUS on orders. However, a tourist passport is highly recommended because this is what you will use when doing any leisure travel or traveling back to the United States to see family. It’s easiest to do this in the States before you’re arrival but Kadena Air Base does have a passport office as well.

After you arrive (and are settled) in Japan, you will have to visit the passport office on Kadena Air Base or Camp Foster to get your TOURIST passport stamped- this allows you to leave the country stating that you are in Japan under SOFA and are traveling back and forth.

Official and Web Orders

Make several copies of both your web orders and your official orders. You will need them in several different instances while you filling out various OCONUS paperwork before your arrival.

Area Clearance

Area Clearance is also needed for just about everything including scheduling your flights, you no fee passports, registering your kids for school, and applying for housing. It is also needed for setting up TRICARE and dental when you arrive in Okinawa. Area Clearance is needed for every single dependent. After you have completed your OSS and your service member has completed their branch requirements for OCONUS orders, Area Clearance will be submitted to the OCONUS location. Upon approval, the service member will get the Area Clearance paperwork back to use for other paperwork and steps in the PCS process.

Housing Paperwork

Most military families live on base in Okinawa. You will have to get approval from housing to live off base, and the renting process is quite a bit different than it is in the United States.

However, living on base can be fairly easy to set-up, especially if you do Port to Home which is a newer program here in Okinawa. You are assigned housing based on where you service member works and their rank.

Here are links to the housing application paperwork:

• Housing Application-Instructions
• Housing Application(DD form 1746)
• Sponsor/Service member Checklist for Military Family Housing
• Sex Offender Disclosure and Acknowledgement(AF form 4422)
• Pet Registration Form

School Documents to Bring With You

There are documents you will want to have with you when you arrive to Okinawa to make sure you can register your students quickly and easily.

You will need:

• Transcripts
• Vaccination information
• Orders
• Area Clearance
• Letter from housing or piece of mail to your off-base home

If you do not do Port to Home, you may end up registering your students in a different school than where you end up living if the base hotel is not located near your housing area.

Get your Pet Paperwork Set Up

This is a huge concern for most families that have pets. This process can take about 6 months, so you’ll want to get started on it ASAP.

There are only 10 pet spots on each Patriot Express flight so you will want to get your spot ASAP- right after Area Clearance is finished.

Here is an official document with FAQs about pet shipping

You can ship your pet on your own through commercial shippers or private shippers, but it will be out of pocket.

Remember to apply for reimbursement for pet shipping.

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For our Marine Corps friends, visit USMC PCS Support Pacific Region Facebook page for more answers to your pet and OCONUS questions!

Looking for more? Check out these other popular articles on moving to Okinawa.