Stage 1 — You Got Orders

Your orders just hit. Maybe you saw them coming, maybe you didn't. Either way, the clock is now running on a sequence of decisions that will shape the next 90 days.

The first 72 hours matter because almost every other decision in this PCS — where you'll live, how much you'll pay, how the move itself goes — has an early-stage prerequisite that takes time to set up. Skip the prerequisites and you're stuck choosing from whatever's left.

This guide walks you through what to do right now, what to set in motion this week, and what to deliberately not do yet.

Step 1 — Read your orders carefully

Pull up your hardcopy or PDF orders and find these fields. Different services format them differently, but every set of PCS orders has them somewhere:

• Report Date (also called "Report No Later Than" or RNLTD) — The date you must physically be at the new command. Everything else works backward from this.
• EDD (Estimated Date of Departure) — When you're expected to detach from the current command.
• PCS Travel Time / TLE Authorization — How many days of paid travel you're authorized, and how many days of TLE (Temporary Lodging Expense) you can claim at either end.
• Dependent Travel Authorization — Are your dependents and HHG authorized to move at government expense, or is this a "geo-bachelor" assignment?
• Special Instructions — Look for anything about advance assignment, sea/shore rotation, training en route, or required reporting in uniform.

If anything in your orders confuses you — and it usually does — your Personnel Support Detachment (PSD) or your detailer is the right person to call. Don't guess at what an obscure code means; one wrong assumption can cost you reimbursement.

Step 2 — Request a sponsor (within 24 hours)

Every Navy, Air Force, and Army command is required to assign a sponsor to every incoming servicemember who requests one. Sponsors are usually peer-rank or one rank above; their job is to answer the questions that aren't on any official document.

Email the gaining command's sponsorship coordinator today. Ask specifically for a sponsor who has been at that command for at least 6 months and ideally has a family of similar size to yours. A good sponsor can tell you which neighborhoods are realistic for your paygrade, which schools the other base families actually use, and which on-base resources are worth the trip.

A solid sponsor packet (which you can ask your sponsor for) includes:

• A welcome letter from the command
• A neighborhood guide
• Names of military-friendly realtors, lenders, and pediatricians at the new base
• Whether on-base housing has a waitlist and what the realistic timeline is
• Local quirks (commute bottlenecks, hurricane prep, school enrollment deadlines)

If your sponsor is unresponsive after a week, escalate to their command's CMC or First Sergeant. A bad sponsor experience is fixable; you don't have to suffer in silence.

Step 3 — Lock in your timeline (work backwards from Report Date)

Pull up a calendar and mark these milestones, working backward from your report date:

• Report Date: Day 0
• Move-in window at new location: Day -3 to Day -7 (you want a few days before report to settle)
• HHG arrival window: Day -7 to Day -14 (varies — check estimates with your DPS contractor once booked)
• HHG pickup at current location: Day -21 to Day -28
• Pack-out (movers come and box your stuff): Day -22 to Day -29 (one day before pickup)
• House hunting trip at new location (if authorized and used): Day -45 to Day -60
• Sell/list current home OR notify landlord of lease break: Day -45 to Day -75
• DPS / move.mil registration window opens: As soon as you have orders in hand
• VA loan pre-approval start: Day -60 to Day -90 (if buying at new location)
• School enrollment paperwork start: Day -30 to Day -45 (varies wildly by district)

Print this timeline. Tape it to the fridge. Cross items off as they happen. Half of PCS chaos comes from forgetting a deadline that was perfectly visible if anyone had written it down.

Step 4 — The first money decisions

You'll get reimbursement for some moving expenses and not others. The reimbursable categories on a CONUS-to-CONUS PCS:

• DLA (Dislocation Allowance) — One-time payment based on your rank and dependent status, intended to offset the costs that aren't covered elsewhere (like setting up utilities at the new place)
• MALT (Monetary Allowance in Lieu of Transportation) — A per-mile rate for driving your privately owned vehicle to the new location
• Per Diem — A daily rate for lodging and meals during travel days
• TLE (Temporary Lodging Expense) — Up to 10 days at each end (more in some cases) for hotel/lodging while in transit
• HHG (Household Goods) — DOD pays the moving company directly under DPS, OR you do a PPM (Personally Procured Move) and get reimbursed up to a calculated limit
• PPM Incentive — If you do a PPM, the government pays you what they would have paid the contractor, and you keep the difference (taxable income, but often a meaningful chunk)

The catch: Most reimbursements are paid after the move, sometimes 30–60 days after you submit the voucher. You typically need to front the cash for hotels, meals, and incidentals during the move itself.

If your savings buffer can't cover ~$3,000–$5,000 of out-of-pocket move costs, talk to your command finance office about an Advance PCS Pay request. It's an interest-free loan against your future BAH that you repay over 12 months. Worth doing if cash flow will be tight.

For current rates and the official categories, see the DTMO PCS Travel page and Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS).

Step 5 — Decide what to do with your current housing

If you own at the current location: sell, rent out, or hold and wait?

• Sell — Cleanest break, full equity recovery, but you eat closing costs (typically 6–8% of sale price). VA loan entitlement is restored at closing.
• Rent out — Keep the property as a long-term investment. Requires a property manager (~8–10% of monthly rent) or hands-on management from your new location. Counts as rental income on your taxes.
• Hold vacant — Almost never worth it for more than 30–45 days. Mortgage + utilities + insurance with no income.

If you rent at the current location: break the lease early under SCRA.

The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (SCRA) lets you terminate a residential lease early when you receive PCS orders, without paying an early-termination penalty. You owe rent through the 30 days after the next rent due date following your written termination notice (with a copy of your orders attached). Your security deposit must be returned within the timeframe specified by your state law.

This is a federal right. Some landlords pretend not to know about it. They are wrong. If a landlord refuses to honor SCRA, your installation's Legal Assistance Office (JAG) will write them a letter that fixes it within 48 hours.

We'll cover the sell/rent/break-lease decision in depth in Stage 4 of this guide.

Step 6 — Tell the people who need to know

Make a short list of people and organizations who need at least 30 days' notice:

• Your spouse's employer (if applicable) — Spouses with portable jobs need lead time to negotiate remote work or transfer; spouses with non-portable jobs need lead time to look for new work.
• Your kids' current school — They'll prep records and write recommendations for the next school.
• Banks, credit cards, brokerage accounts — Update address; some accounts need extra steps when crossing state lines.
• USPS — Submit a forwarding order (free for 12 months from move.mil's first day, then small fee).
• DMV — You'll need to update vehicle registration and driver's license at the new state (within varying state-specific deadlines).
• Voter registration — Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP.gov) handles military-specific registration.
• Doctors, dentists, vets — Request copies of records to be released to providers at the next location.

Make this list now while you're thinking clearly. Each item takes 10 minutes; the cost of forgetting one is much higher.

The first-72-hours checklist

If you do nothing else this week, do these:

• Read your orders end-to-end and write down anything unclear
• Email the gaining command's sponsorship coordinator
• Mark Report Date and the working-backward milestones on a calendar
• Pull a current credit report (you'll need this for VA loan pre-approval and rental applications)
• Check your leave balance — you may want to use leave during the move
• Talk to your spouse and kids about the timeline so the family is on the same page
• Schedule a one-on-one with your command's PCS coordinator or career counselor
• Bookmark move.mil and the Defense Personal Property System (DPS) site

What NOT to do yet

You will be tempted to charge ahead on these. Don't:

• Don't sign a lease at the new location yet. Until you've talked to a sponsor and visited (or at least studied) the new neighborhoods, you don't know enough to commit. Sight-unseen rentals signed during week 1 are the #1 cause of "we hate where we live" complaints from PCS families.
• Don't book movers yet. You can't enter HHG into DPS until you've completed the orders intake. Wait until you have the orders in hand and your sponsor's confirmation of report date.
• Don't have your spouse quit their job until you've talked to their HR. Many employers will accommodate remote work for a military spouse. Quitting first kills your negotiating leverage.
• Don't enroll the kids at the new school until your address is locked in. School district boundary lines are precise; the wrong ZIP code means re-paperwork.
• Don't make any irreversible financial moves (large purchases, lease take-overs, refinancings) until you understand the new BAH and the move-cost picture. Wait two weeks.

Authoritative resources

When in doubt, go to the source:

• move.mil — DOD's official moving portal; HHG/DPS information, entitlement calculators, claims process
• Plan My Move (Military OneSource) — interactive checklists tailored to your branch, paygrade, and location
• DTMO PCS Travel — current per diem and PCS allowance rates
• DFAS — pay and reimbursement details
• Fleet & Family Support Center (Navy) or Airman & Family Readiness Center (AF) at your current command — free relocation counseling, in person
• Your sponsor and your detailer — for everything official documents don't cover

Coming up

Stage 2 — Research the new base drops next. We'll walk through how to actually use BAH data to set a housing budget, how to pick a neighborhood from 1,500 miles away, and how to evaluate schools without trusting any single rating site.

If you have orders to one of our launch bases, jump straight to that base's page:

• Naval Station Norfolk