DAF Form 965, the Overseas Dependent Election Statement, is the form Air Force and Space Force members complete after receiving an overseas assignment notification to lock in whether dependents will accompany them and to list preferences for what comes after the tour. You fill it out in two parts: a tour election (accompanied or unaccompanied) and a set of follow-on or home-basing preferences. The governing policy is Department of the Air Force Instruction 36-2110, Total Force Assignments.
The fillable PDF is hosted on the Department of the Air Force e-Publishing site, and most Military Personnel Flights link to it directly.1F.E. Warren Air Force Base. OCONUS Outprocessing Your assignments office or virtual out-processing portal may also bundle it into an overseas assignment worksheet. Do not sign until you have the information below in hand, and if you plan to bring dependents, wait until your advance application for concurrent travel has been approved or disapproved.2Department of the Air Force. Department of the Air Force Instruction 36-2110 – Total Force Assignments
Choosing Accompanied or Unaccompanied
The central question on the form is your tour type. An accompanied tour means your dependents relocate with you at government expense under command sponsorship. An unaccompanied tour means you serve without them. This one choice drives your tour length, your household goods weight allowance, your housing eligibility, and whether Family Separation Allowance applies.
Tour Length
The standard overseas accompanied tour is 36 months and the standard unaccompanied tour is 24 months. Hawaii and Alaska carry a flat 36 months either way.3Per Diem, Travel, and Transportation Allowance Committee. JTR Supplement – Tour Lengths and Tours of Duty Outside the Continental United States Many common locations run shorter unaccompanied tours set by the Joint Travel Regulations supplement, such as 12 months in Korea, Turkey (most locations), Djibouti, Adak, and Souda Bay, and 15 months in parts of Australia, Greece, and Morocco. Korea’s accompanied tour is now 36 months with the unaccompanied tour at 12 months.4United States Forces Korea. USFK Adjusts Tour Length Policy to Enhance Stability and Readiness in the Republic of Korea Your assignment notification specifies the tour length for your location. Confirm it before you sign.
Household Goods
Your tour election affects what you can ship. Many overseas installations administratively reduce household goods weight below the normal allowance for your grade, and unaccompanied members generally receive a smaller allocation than accompanied members at the same location. At some dependent-restricted locations, unaccompanied members are limited to a small unaccompanied baggage allowance with no household goods shipment at all.5Defense Travel Management Office. JTR Supplement – Administrative Household Goods Weight Allowance Locations Check the JTR supplement for your specific installation before you decide what to ship and what to put in storage.
Family Separation Allowance
If you elect an unaccompanied tour and you have dependents, you qualify for Family Separation Allowance at $300 per month once you have been separated from your dependents for more than 30 continuous days.6Military Compensation. Family Separation Allowance The rate is flat, does not vary by rank or location, and continues for the length of the separation.
Medical Clearance Before You Elect Accompanied
Electing an accompanied tour is not just a checkbox. Each dependent needs medical and educational screening before the election is final. You complete AF Form 1466 through the process in AFI 40-701, and the screening feeds into the Exceptional Family Member Program to determine whether facilities at the overseas installation can support any special medical or educational needs.2Department of the Air Force. Department of the Air Force Instruction 36-2110 – Total Force Assignments
The installation commander can deny command sponsorship when a dependent’s needs cannot be accommodated overseas. If you have a family member enrolled in EFMP or receiving specialized services, schedule the clearance appointment early. Members who arrive overseas without a cleared AF Form 1466 because they ran out of time before their report-not-later-than date may have to proceed unaccompanied and apply for command sponsorship after arrival, a longer and less certain path.2Department of the Air Force. Department of the Air Force Instruction 36-2110 – Total Force Assignments
Follow-On and Home-Basing Preferences
The second section of the form captures your preferences for what comes after the overseas tour. Two programs apply to members heading to short-tour or dependent-restricted locations: home-basing and follow-on.
Home-Basing
Home-basing returns you to the same CONUS installation, or long-tour location in Alaska or Hawaii, you left before the overseas assignment.7Air Force’s Personnel Center. New Web-based Assignment Application Debuts March 3 If stability for your family matters most and your previous base worked well, this is usually the stronger choice. When you request both home-basing and follow-on on the same form, home-basing is considered first.2Department of the Air Force. Department of the Air Force Instruction 36-2110 – Total Force Assignments
Follow-On
Follow-on lets you pre-select a preferred next assignment. You can list up to eight CONUS locations (specific bases, states, or regional locales) and up to eight overseas locations (bases or countries). If you list both CONUS and overseas preferences without requesting home-basing, your overseas preferences are considered first.2Department of the Air Force. Department of the Air Force Instruction 36-2110 – Total Force Assignments List the maximum number of choices in priority order. You get one shot at follow-on per overseas tour, so a short list works against you if your top picks have no openings.
Retainability
Both programs require enough time remaining on your enlistment or service commitment to cover the follow-on assignment. If you are short, you may need to reenlist or extend before the application can be processed. Your MPF will calculate the exact retainability needed based on the follow-on location’s tour length and your projected departure date.
Submitting the Form
Submission varies by base. Some installations take the completed form through the virtual MPF portal or by email to the outbound assignments section. Others require hand delivery.1F.E. Warren Air Force Base. OCONUS Outprocessing The form is usually part of a larger overseas assignment worksheet that includes your travel screener, medical clearance documents, and follow-on paperwork. Ask your assignments office for the routing steps at your base.
Before submitting, verify that your date of separation, time-in-service data, and dependent information all match your official records. Mismatches between the form and your personnel record are a common source of delay.
What Happens After You Submit
Timing depends on how far out your departure is. With more than 150 days until you leave, your preferences load into the Personnel Data System and route to the appropriate assignment office roughly 120 days before departure, and that office then approves or disapproves within 10 duty days. With fewer than 150 days out, preferences are forwarded by email and processed within 5 duty days.2Department of the Air Force. Department of the Air Force Instruction 36-2110 – Total Force Assignments
The tour election itself is generally confirmed faster than the follow-on decision, but the overall timeline can stretch if dependent medical clearance is still pending or if concurrent travel approval has not come back from the gaining installation. Track status through the assignment management system or by calling your MPF.
Changing Your Election After Submission
DAFI 36-2110 accounts for changes in family circumstances. What you can do depends on where you are in the PCS process.
Before departing on PCS, you can switch from unaccompanied to accompanied or the other way, and the same applies if you acquire dependents before departure. Timing is the catch: notify the MPF too late to complete shots, passports, visas, and medical clearance, and you may have to proceed without your family and handle the change from overseas.
After departure but before arriving overseas, contact the nearest MPF to start the change. They will process a new tour election, request travel approval from the gaining base if concurrent travel is not automatic, and handle dependent clearance. You may need additional retainability or an active-duty service commitment extension.
After arriving overseas, changing from unaccompanied to accompanied requires a formal command sponsorship request to the installation commander or equivalent. Approval of command sponsorship doubles as approval of the accompanied tour election. Going the other direction, from accompanied to unaccompanied, is simpler and can usually be approved by the MPF as long as dependents and household goods have not already joined you at government expense.
Approval authorities for each of these situations are laid out in Tables 7.2 and 7.3 of DAFI 36-2110.2Department of the Air Force. Department of the Air Force Instruction 36-2110 – Total Force Assignments The earlier you act, the smoother the change. Switching tour types after arrival adds weeks of paperwork and uncertainty, so treat the initial election seriously even though it is technically reversible.