Non Command Sponsorship

Hello!
www.usfkforums.com has a ton of information about being CS and non-CS. Read through those threads for a wealth of info.
Big differences are you have to pay to have your stuff moved there. You're on Tricare-standard instead of Tricare-prime. ( I could have those backwards but you get the idea). You have to get your own passport as you said. I think you might be on a lower list for seeing a doctor and such compared to being CS. There's a few girls on here that are not CS that might have a little more info for you...

I'm Non-CS and it was really easy for me to get over here. I went to the post office to get my passport which only took me two weeks to get and cost me i think like 100-120 somewhere around there not to sure its been over a year now. We did have to buy my plane ticket but we got to use it as a tax right off. The only thing that I had to wait on after my hubby got here was he wanted to make sure he found a place to live. After I got here I did all the paper work that needed to be done.

I would def. still have come over non-cs it takes alot of ladies forever to come over that are becoming cs and really the only thing i had to on was for him to pick a date he wanted me to be here.

I already had my passport and we had been waiting for our paperwork to get on step one for 3 months. I am currently pregnant and knew I couldn't wait very long to get over here. So my husband got an apartment non command sponsored. We put all of our stuff in storage. Our lease was up in our apartment the 15th of January so that's when our date to get me over here was. I left my mom as a POA. Power of Attorney over all of our stuff so when we got our official CS she could ship everything over. I got here January 15th my husband had a 4 day weekend to get everything straightened out. I flew Korean Air and bought the tickets 3 days before. So I had 3 days to move everything out of my apartment and clean it and get it inspected before I had to leave and I was pregnant. It was a disaster thank god I had friends and family to help. I said just call goodwill and tell them to take me house! It made me sad and distraught packing up all of our stuff. SO MUCH STUFF. Good thing my mom knew better! We stayed at the lodge for 7 days and got to move into our apartment. I sold my husbands car prior to coming to get the money for the trip and furniture. We bought furniture and got ripped off of course. But we had furniture and everything so we were living in out apartment well before any of the other people and had stuff. I got CS'd the next week! So we switched everything over it was super easy! I got my visa when I got here. Korea allows Americans to visit for 90 days without a visa. I had medical switched over as soon as I got here. I even got to the doctors within the first week of being here! It's all 100% covered on the base so no worries. It's now march and we are just now getting to ship our stuff over here so I'm glad I didn't wait!! We can't bring my car the bank won't let us so we have to buy a car over here! I would definitely do it all over again! Minus buying the overpriced crappy korean furniture from the base! But since we were the first ones here in our complex I didn't know any better! We also didn't get an oven fridge or washer and dryer complimentary because we were not command sponsored I think. Everyone else did. When you sign your lease you usually get curtains and an oven with the apartment along with an ac. We just got the AC. So we had to buy curtains and rent a fridge and a washer/dryer until they got all our housing paperwork done and it just now got done and it's MARCH! So we get our OVEN and Fridge tomorrow. We still have to rent a washer/dryer combo because I don't want to not have a dryer they get them in weekly so we are the waiting list though. Then we won't have to pay.

Hello!
My husband has been speaking to his sgt and was told that I should just come over with a tourist passport (I will pay for the plane ticket) then get the CS paperwork done. I had a few questions, first- do I need some sort of visa to go over there? I would think so, but my husband said I can get it all done once I am over there, but I would HATE to have to turn around and come back to the states because of wrong information....also, can someone tell me how I can ship my household goods if Non-CS?? We only have a few boxes and can leave the rest at my mothers, we are just going to buy some things we need while we are over there. If anyone has any info I would love to talk to you!! Thanks!

It's way easier than you think! You can get your apartment and everything Non CS. This is what I did, was I put everything I wanted shipped in storage and then the movers are coming to get my stuff at my moms house or storage and I signed Power of Attorney over to her for the shipment. You can even get your car shipped here too but not until you are CS'd. So that would have qualified my mom to ship my car over too but the bank won't let us take here so that was a disappointment. But you can do the POA once you get here after you are approved they have one just for moving stuff. You don't need a VISA Americans can visit for up to 90 days without a visa in Korea! It's easier than it all sounds really. I was surprised once I got over here. It's easier than getting into mexico they don't even pat you down! Try to get your apartment furnished unless you plan on buying furniture while you are staying in the hotel for a few days. It's farely cheap here about $1000 bucks for a fully furnished house of nice stuff. But then again you have to buy all dishware and all that too and there's not much variety on prices so it's kind of expensive. I would go to Lotte Mart or E-mart before I went to the PX to buy kitchen stuff again though. And bed stuff not much of a variety there either. PX is very overpriced on comforters and stuff. You can always get your apartment furnished until you buy furniture to so you can move in right away which is your best option really. Then you won't be rushed like we were into buying overpriced piece of crap stuff. It will give you time to look and you can always go to other bases to buy things like comforters and such. Hope that helps! Where are you moving to there are alot of facebook groups that can help there are way more woman on there than on here and we update faster? If you are moving around Camp Casey add yourself to the Camp Casey South Korea Army Wives group! There's tons of stuff and tons of people with advice Hope that helps! Oh yes and the bank!! Here's a big one if you haven't found out yet with your husband being here. They usually have alot of fees over here for foreign atm's and stuff. You can get a great online bank through USAA. I'm not sure if you have it for insurance maybe it's only for military people. There are absolutely no fees and there customer service is great and they 100% back you up if anything fraudulent happens no questions asked! It's not a real bank like one you go to it's done all online so it's super easy to switch from your local bank to USAA. All we have here are ATM's and like a bank of america shitty bank with fees. So I highly recommend getting USAA before you come and getting the debit cards sent to you before you come here. Mail sucks here and isn't reliable either. So it says it takes like 5 days it takes like 2 weeks. Oh and for rent you can't write checks you have to pay in WON and it has to be in cash so USAA clears you to take it out the ATM for that day too. It's super easy best bank ever! TTYL!

Thank you so much for all of the info!! It seems so much easier to do it this way! My husband is stationed at Camp Stanley, I forwarded your advice to him! Right now he is looking for an apartment so I can just move over there, I heard staying in lodging can get pretty expensive...not having appliances sounds scary!! Hopefully they have lots of good take out, just in case. Thanks again though Good luck and congrats with baby!!