Stage 10 — Move In + Settle

You made it. The truck's at the new place (or you're unloading your own), and the move shifts from logistics to life. This last stage is two jobs: close out the move correctly (delivery, claims, the in-processing that pays you) and actually settle in so the new base becomes home, not just an address.

Delivery day — inspect before you sign

Same discipline as pack-out, in reverse. As your goods come off the truck:

• Check items against the inventory and look for damage as boxes and furniture come in. You're allowed to note exceptions.
• Document damage immediately — photograph it, and record it on the delivery paperwork before the crew leaves. The condition codes you verified at pack-out (Stage 9) are what you're comparing against now.
• Don't let "sign here, we're done" rush you into signing off on goods you haven't looked at.

Filing a damage claim — there's a clock

If something arrived broken or didn't arrive, you can file a claim — but there are deadlines, and they're not generous. The modern process runs through DPS: you typically notify of loss/damage within a set window after delivery, then file the full claim within a longer window (the limits are specific and time-barred — confirm the exact deadlines for your move in DPS or with your transportation office, and start the clock the day of delivery, not "when you get around to it").

• Keep your photos, the inventory, and your high-value list — that's your evidence.
• File in DPS against the carrier; know the notification and claim deadlines and calendar them on delivery day.
• If it gets complicated, your installation legal assistance office can help, free.

Get paid — the in-processing that closes the loop

Arrival is also when the money part finishes. The Welcome Aboard checklist walks the whole first-week sequence, but the load-bearing ones:

• File your travel voucher (DD 1351-2) right away — this is how your PCS reimbursements actually reach your bank (find the form). It's the single most-skipped step that costs people the most money.
• PPM folks: turn in your weight tickets + claim package to get your incentive paid (the tracker has it ready if you kept up).
• Confirm BAH started at the new-location rate, and claim TLE if you're in temporary lodging.

Settle in — the practical and the human

The checklist covers the admin; here's the shape of it:

• Register your vehicle + get base access/decals, update DEERS and your address everywhere, and re-enroll TRICARE in the new region with a new clinic.
• Enroll the kids in school with the records you carried, and re-establish EFMP services if applicable.
• Use the area guides to find your bearings — the commissary and exchange, the parks and beaches, the family stuff your spouse asked about. The map layers exist so you don't spend your first month in ten browser tabs.
• Getting the new place running? We can connect you with vetted local services near the base — house cleaning, lawn care, pest control, water treatment, solar — so you're not cold-Googling each one. Free, no obligation.

And the part no checklist captures: build a community. Your sponsor, your unit's spouse network, the chapel, the youth sports leagues, the neighbors who are also military — a PCS is lonely until it isn't, and the families who plug in fast settle fastest. That's the whole reason this site exists: to get the logistics out of your way so you can get to the living.

What to do this stage

1. Inspect at delivery, document any damage on the spot, and don't sign off blind.
2. File any damage claim in DPS inside the deadlines — calendar them on delivery day.
3. File your travel voucher (DD 1351-2) and, for a PPM, turn in your weight tickets — that's your money.
4. Work the Welcome Aboard checklist: vehicle, DEERS, TRICARE, school, base access.
5. Plug into the community — it's the difference between surviving the move and being glad you came.

That's the roadmap, orders to unpacked. When the next set of orders drops, you'll start again at Stage 1 — but you'll know the whole map this time.