Traveling overseas with your pet.

Here comes the hard part my dears!

Traveling in its self if no laughing matter, specially when it comes to international travel. But to make matters worse, lets throw our little "babies" into it. Pets is seems, are high maintenance and high priority in your travels. So lets get this over with THE CORRECT way.

Before you get your orders to leave be sure to find out the countries international pet policies.
Lets go with my experience in general.

30 days before travel, you pet needs to get the fallowing at the vets office...

1. Rabies vaccination
2. ID Chip
3. Parvo shots.

Once all of those are done, you have to get two Health Certificates in English and in German languages. Easy and cheap options are to take your pet(s) to the local humane society for the shots and chip. And then Petco provides a vet service that will get you your Health Certificate.

On the plane with the pet is another difficult issue.

When you are connected with your command sponsorship and are making your plans for travel. Be sure to let them know that you are traveling with a pet. They will help you make the reservations with the airlines for your animal. Unfortunately I am not fully finished with my travels so i can not help further. But i'm in hopes that my little man (tiny 3lb palliation puppy) is small enough to fly on board with me and not under in the cargo area. I'll let you know.

Best Website Ever...

In my opinion Bookoo.com is the best website ever. No matter where you are and what post you are at, you probably have a bookoo. If you are not familiar with this website... Check it out! It is basically an online yard sale. It is an amazing way to connect with your community, buy great items and help build your new home from the ground up.

If you are like my husband and I. We are starting in our new housing division in Vilseck Germany from scratch. We will have nothing but the clothes on our backs our puppy and some little electronics =). I will be moving to Germany soon and I've already been checking out several great items on Bookoo.

So please be sure to check it out....

DNA testing

OK, so to all those woman who have gotten pregnant by a soldier and he's not stepping up or denying the child here's how to go about getting a FREE DNA test AND child support.

Not many people know that the military WILL NOT provide the test because it's a civilian matter NOT a military one.
What you need is

1. An address of the father or even his battalion commanders office. 
2. You need to go to your nearest child support office and file. It's free to you. Just keep in mind if there is a possibility of more than one father you need to write every possible father down with as much info about him/them as possible. I you can't find his address or info just find out his rank and commanders name and or his unit. You MUST know his name. 
3. You will also need your child's info as well as yours. Birth certificates, social security cards for both mother and child and two forms of Identification. 

They will schedule you and the father( at the same time) to come in and you all take a cotton swob several times in both cheeks. It's relatively painless quit annoying though. It will take a few weeks to get the results but you can call in regularly to see if test results have come in as I did. Once the results are in if positive the results will say 99.999% which is a definite yes!!!! Once that happens the father will be scheduled to come in and sign off on the child support amount agreement. If he fails to comply the court will simply order him to do so. And then your good to go


-Special thanks to military wife Florita Lee, for sharing her story and helping in any possible questions

Getting your Tricare

For those who need help with your Tricare. This is another easy process if your on a military istillation.

Go to your Military Instillation, find the Tricare office and ask for a Tricare Prime application. The application is kind of a long one, and be sure you know all of your husbands information right off hand. The application will ask you for his social, work number, rank, branch of service and other important info... Just make sure you know mostly everything.
   Just because you have filed the application out doesnt mean you are covered yet. Normally it takes up to a month for them to get you ready for a doctors visit.

Not to those of you who are trying to get all of this done while your husband is Over Seas.

Once you are married and your husband has received all the appropriate documents from you. He will have to go to his closest tricare office and sign you up. But with out you being there, you will only be registered for tricare standard.

Once you are enrolled in tricare standard, you will need to go to the nearest base or tricare.com and fill out the online application. The online application requires a fee.

Me myself, I had family and another military wife friend in San Antonio TX very near to Fort Sam Houston. So I went to the tricare office there.

Passport/SOFA/Visa issues

No Fee passports are an AMAZING thing. They help us a lot. You can obtain your No Fee passport at any normal army post at the In and Out Processing center on the base.

Documents needed are

1. Birth Certificate
2. Copy of husbands ID card (Front and Back)
3. 2 passport photos

You can get your passport photos at your local Walgreens, walmart or any photo center near by that offers it.

Now, for us weirdos that live away from military posts. Find your nearest reserve base. Here in Houston TX, our nearest helping hand is Ellington Field.

You will need all the same basic stuff and when you do go to get your passport, be sure to ask for the passport to be expedited. That will speed up the process. I applied for mine, and was told i would receive it in a min of 2 weeks max of .

Proxy Marriage

Getting married to my husband while he was in a different country was the easy part. with just a little money and some documents, I got everything done in one day. Marriage to someone while they are not present is called a Marriage by Proxy. Its easy for us here is Texas. The laws are on our side. Other states are require you to travel to another state. So lets recount what I had to go through here in Houston Texas to get married.

My husband logged onto Harris County clerk of courts ( http://www.cclerk.hctx.net/Forms/D0241.pdf ) and print off and fill out the Affidavit of Absent Applicant on Application for Marriage License. He then got it notarized and mailed it back to me with a front and back copy of his Military ID card.

At the clerk of courts office, with my witness in hand. I filled out the paperwork needed by me, supplied the paper work my husband had sent me and then had my witness sign on behalf of my husband. Paid for the Marriage license its self. The cost of the marriage license was 72.00 dollars for processing fee. 25.00 dollars for the Marriage License its self.

Once my documents were signed and the 72 hour minimum wait was waved with the copy of my husbands military id card, I rushed upstairs to the judges chambers to perform the marriage with my witness stand in. The cost for the judge to perform the ceremony was 40 dollars. Prices may very depending on judge and or Justice of the Peace.

After the judge signed the certificate, I proceeded back down stairs to the Clerk of Courts and gave them my Marriage license and got a certified copy of it and I was done. With that marriage license in hand, I was ready to proceed to the Social Security Office to change my name.

(Even though this has NOTHING to do with being a military wife, and the hard process of getting to your man over seas. The process for changing your last name is simple. Just take your marriage license and ID card into your local office. Fill out the form if necessary and that's it. They will give you a receipt with your new name, and in a few short weeks you will get your new Social Security Card)

After you are finished with all of your paper work, you MUST express mail the fallowing paper work to your husband.

1. Copy of your birth certificate
2. Copy of your ID card
3. Copy of your Social Security Card
4. Certified copy of your Marriage License

Any other forms that are needed will have to be verified by your husband.
Express mail gets back to your spouse in a week.