Ask Army Wife 101: Housing Question

Hi MsCorp,

Q. My fiancee is stationed at schofield Barracks,hawaii after NTC we will be getting married I want to be moved in before he leaves for deployment in August. We have four kids,how long do you think it'll take for us to be able to move down there and do you think it'll be in time?

A. Thanks for writing Army Wife 101!

Their are many factors you will need to take into consideration. First if I am reading your question correctly it appears that your fiance is already here in Hawaii. This usually means that since you will have gotten married after he has already moved here that the Army will not pay for you to come here. He may be able to get his orders amended though to include you and his other dependents.He will need to look into that with his command

The next thing you will need to do is get your EFMP (Exceptional Family Member) screenings. These are medical screenings to make sure you and your children don't have any medical issues that cannot be treated over here. This is how you will be command sponsored to come here. Once the EFMP screenings are complete the paperwork will be sent to Hawaii for approval. You will need to be in the DEERS system to get this done. You can come here without command sponsorship but you will not be able to get housing onpost and essentially will be footing the bill for everything out of pocket.

I mention these things above because each of them will be major factors in how fast you move here. Your soon to be husband will need to complete alot of these task himself and unfortunately nothing can be done until you are married.

The good part is that once you do get here housing should be a piece of cake since in Hawaii you can live on any branch's installation. I also live here at Schofield Barracks and had a house within a week. With the soldiers deploying many spouses tend to go home leaving many home opened up for moving in. You also mentioned you have 4 children so chances are depending on the children's ages you will receive a nice brand new 4 bedroom home.

I hope that my answer to your question was of some help too you, and feel free to write again if you have any more questions.

Hooah & Smooches