If you are a Military dependent under certain conditions; or retired Military. Otherwise, I never heard of such a thing for civilians.

The governing directive for Space-A travel is AMC 24-101V14

If you fly space-a over to Korea for more than 30-days, the military will not collect the air fare. I know...I am the section chief, Personal Property/Passenger Travel and work with AMC all the time.

If you are a non-command sponsored dependent, be aware of this fact:
-If you visit your spouse in Korea for more than 30-days, you will loose any BAH you were receiving in the US. Not saying that it will happen immediatly, but that is the rule.

Here is some great information from NON COMMAND SPONSORED DEPENDENT TRAVEL via Space A directly out of the regulation:

21.1.2. Non-Command Sponsored Dependent Travel Program. The intent of this program is to visit the sponsor's unaccompanied overseas duty location, not to rendezvous at another location.
21.1.2.1. Travel is authorized to the sponsor's unaccompanied permanent change of station (PCS) location. Travel under this program is not authorized when the sponsor is on TDY/TAD orders.
21.1.2.2. The sponsor must obtain prior written approval for non-command sponsored dependent travel from the installation commander or their designated representative (but no lower than the unit commander). Dependents must present a copy of the approval letter to the servicing
air passenger terminal. Letter must state the sponsor's name/rank, approved unaccompanied tour location, sponsor's contact information, dependents name(s) and current residence information, length of authorized stay, and time frame the approval letter is valid.
21.1.2.3. Passengers will be removed from the Space-Available Register on expiration date of the approved time period or after 60 days, which ever comes first. A new letter is required if the time period stated in the letter has expired.
21.1.2.4. Upon arrival at the members PCS location, Non-Command sponsored dependents are not eligible to travel beyond the members PCS location accompanied or unaccompanied.
21.1.2.5. Activated reservists must be on PCS orders and assigned to an unaccompanied tour location for their dependents to qualify for this dependent travel program.
21.1.2.6. The sponsor must obtain documentation, in the form of a letter, verifying authorized travel from their current unit commander. Letter must state the sponsor's name/rank, approved unaccompanied tour location, sponsor's contact information, dependents name(s) and current
residence information, length of authorized stay, and time frame the approval letter is valid. Passengers will be removed from the Space-Available Register on expiration date of the approved time period stated in the letter or after 60 days, which ever comes first. If passengers
have not completed their travel within 60 days from the date of issuance, a new letter is required. Each letter is valid for one round trip from the sponsor's overseas PCS duty location; however, as long as they are moving towards their declared destination they should be allowed
to transit other locations. There is no limit on the number of letters a commander may issue. Dependents must present a copy to passenger terminal personnel, and a copy must remain in their possession during travel.

So are you saying that if we can get the letter, my children and I could fly unaccompanied to Korea and stay for three months? We just would be taken off the register after sixty days or our letter expiration date?

Would we be allowed to fly accompanied back to the States? (Is that beyond the member's duty location?)

What's this about the "disciplinary action" if dependents remain in country for longer than thirty days?

Again, I appreciate all of the help!

Kara

The letter from his commander will state the length of stay allowed. You can get a renewal letter. The only place that you will be able to fly back to is the states. The way the reg reads is that you will not be able to fly to Korea, then hop on a flight to Japan or Australia. The only place you will be able to fly is the US.

The "disciplinary" issue is the revokation of BAH. When a military member is assigned to Korea under an "Unaccompanied tour," the military member is allowed to keep drawing BAH at the location he/she left his/her dependents. The dependents must be at that location for 30-days to continue receiving the BAH. One thing that stupid military members try to do is claim a higher BAH at a location his/her dependents are not located at. The way they do that is like this...member claims and certifies that his dependents are at San Francisco, but in reality, they are in Atlanta, GA. San Francisco is a much higher BAH rate than Atlanta. Two things the military member violates....making a false claim/falsifying gov't documents...and fraud against the gov't. Really stupid thing to do. The gov't will find out. I know of a case right now that the military member has been placed on administrative hold pending court martial. They went over to Korea on a one-year tour. They have been there on admin hold for over two years now. Rumor has it that they are going to get court martialed, fined, busted down to AB and serve some time. Because the gov't found out that on a previous tour to Korea they falsified their BAH along with their current falsification. The gov't will find out and will collect the money.

Yeah, I've read plenty of accounts in the Air Force Times of people getting in trouble for BAH fraud.

So, what you're telling me is that the worst that's going to happen is that we'll lose our BAH and start getting OHA, which is what would've happened anyway? That's not so scary.

Is there a possibility that there's some policy for USFK that "trumps" the regular AMC regulations that you're used to working with? I don't in any way want to offend you, but I want to make sure I have all my bases covered, as it were.

Thanks again!

Kara

Edited to add: Does anyone have experience with the attitude of commanders on issuing these letters? The last thing I want to do is make my husband stand out as a pain in his commander's rear.

Do you think a commander who knows the person is flying over to live for a year will give them the letter? I'm wondering why USFK put out a command policy letter allowing commanders to approve Space A flights for stays less than 30 days if NCS people were already allowed to fly over.

They are allowed to fly over on there own $$ not the militarys money, space "A".

__________________
CH-47 SI

They must find it difficult...

Those who have taken authority as the truth, rather than truth as the authority. --Gerald Massey

fishe, or anyone else...

I couldn't locate the document AMC 24-101V14 . Is it available for download somewhere?

In my situation, my 6yr old daughter will be flying space a with my wife (all my dependents will be command sponsored) back to the states to visit her mother (my x-wife) in the summer. Visitation guidelines have not been set up with the court yet, but will be soon. Would this "30-day" rule have precedence over something like child visitation? i.e. would she only be able to leave Korea to visit her mom for no more than 30 days? OR would a court document saying her visitation is to be 5 weeks every summer over-rule that?

Thank you

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I found it!!

http://www.e-publishing.af.mil/share...I24-101V14.pdf

...read through it, can't find anything about command sponsored dependents traveling w/o sponsor and length of stay outside of home station country.

I'll call a passenger terminal here in a few and see if they know. I'll let you guys know what I find out.

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ScamardoB: Perhaps you didn't notice,you have been talking to yourself, as the previous comments are 1 year old!
But you did a great job, as you answered your own question!
If you find anything new, let us know!