PCS & Military Relocation

I am a retired Navy officer, a Jacksonville REALTOR®, and the broker-owner of Military Realty of Florida. I have done this PCS as the service member, not just as the agent on the other end of the phone. Jacksonville is the largest city by land area in the continental United States. NAS Jacksonville, Naval Station Mayport, and Blount Island Command sit on three different edges of that map. The house that works for one gate is often a poor daily drive for the other two.

If you are reading this with orders in hand, start with the gate, then the 90-day clock, then the money. Everything else — movers, Tricare, a Florida license, school packets — hangs off those three.

Read the full list in PCS To Jacksonville: 7 Things Military Families Should Know Before They Move. Then use this hub as the working page while you execute.

PCS orders, decoded

Orders are the trigger. Until they print, TMO will not book household goods, you cannot lock Temporary Lodging Expense, and a lender cannot treat your report date as a fact. A “projected” rotation or a detailer phone call is not enough. Get the PDF, save it, and keep every amendment in the same folder.

What orders actually start, the week they drop:

• Household goods counseling in the Defense Personal Property System (DPS). You do not need a Jacksonville street address to request a shipment — the NAS Jacksonville Personal Property Office has said that out loud during peak season.
• A BAH worksheet against Military Housing Area FL058 (Jacksonville, FL). Pull your rate from the official DTMO BAH rate lookup. Do not use a blog table, including this one.
• A house-hunting plan tied to the gaining gate, not “Jacksonville” as a metro.
• A lodging request at Navy Lodge / Navy Gateway Inns & Suites on both ends, because TLE does not pay for nights you never booked.

What can wait a few days: painting the last house, shopping Nocatee on a map because a friend liked it, and rewriting the LES state of legal residence. Homestead and Florida domicile are real decisions. They are not week-one admin.

Amendments happen. Report dates slide. Detach dates move left. When that happens, the first call is TMO / your Personal Property Office, not the landlord and not the listing agent. A pickup date that no longer matches the amendment is how families pay an attempted-pickup charge and then re-compete for a truck in July.

If the orders drop over Thanksgiving or Christmas, the clock is the same and the capacity is worse. Use PCS Orders Over The Holidays? A Jacksonville Relocation Checklist and still open DPS the week they print.

The 90-day clock

Most incoming families are working a roughly 90-day window from orders to report date. Some get less. The condensed version is below. The long version — week-by-week homebuying — is The 90-Day PCS To Jacksonville Plan.

Data current as of September 2026. Confirm TLE day counts and lodging rules in the Joint Travel Regulations — they changed in late 2024.

Which installation?

Pick the gate first. Then pick the side of the St. Johns, I-295, 9A, or Atlantic Boulevard that makes that gate a commute instead of a second job.

NAS Jacksonville — west bank of the St. Johns

Naval Air Station Jacksonville occupies more than 3,800 acres on the west bank, about nine miles south of downtown. It is the largest installation in Navy Region Southeast. The home search that belongs to that gate is a Westside, Ortega, and Clay County search first — Orange Park, Oakleaf / Argyle, Fleming Island — not a beaches search.

People who live it: Orange Park and the Westside for a short hop via Roosevelt / US-17 or I-295; Mandarin and Beauclerc if you will use I-295 and accept a longer, more predictable drive; Riverside / Avondale / Ortega if you want older housing stock and a city commute. Fleming Island and Green Cove Springs add Clay County schools and more house for the payment, with more minutes on Blanding or 17.

The tradeoff in one line: you are buying a west-of-the-river life. Crossing I-295 to Atlantic Beach every morning is how sailors burn a tour. A lot of NAS Jacksonville households do not stay in Duval at all — they live in Clay County (Orange Park, Fleming Island, Green Cove Springs). That map is its own section below.

Start with 7 Areas To Explore Near NAS Jacksonville.

Naval Station Mayport — beach side

Mayport sits on the Atlantic at the mouth of the St. Johns, roughly a dozen miles northeast of downtown. The home search that belongs to that gate is Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Jacksonville Beach, Mayport village, and then inland to East Arlington / Fort Caroline / Intracoastal West.

People who live it: Atlantic and Neptune if the commute has to be short; Jacksonville Beach if you want more dining and will still be at the gate in a reasonable window; Arlington and the 32225 / Fort Caroline side if you need more house for the BAH and will run Heckscher or Atlantic Boulevard; Ponte Vedra and Nocatee if a St. Johns County address is the priority and you will accept a longer coastal drive.

The tradeoff in one line: you are buying a coastal commute and coastal insurance. Orange Park is the wrong first search for a Mayport report date.

Start with PCS To Naval Station Mayport: 7 Home-Search Decisions To Make Early and the comparison post NAS Jacksonville Or Naval Station Mayport?.

Blount Island Command — up 9A

Blount Island Command is a Marine Corps sustainment hub on the north river / port side. It is not a second NAS Jacksonville. The first-pass map is Northside and Oceanway, then Yulee / Wildlight in Nassau via 9A, with Heckscher and the Dames Point Bridge as the commute spine.

People who live it: Northside ranches and newer construction inside Duval; Yulee if Nassau County is the school conversation and 9A is the daily road; some households still choose Orange Park or the Southside and accept the cross-town drive because a spouse job or family already sits south. That is a choice. It is not the default.

The tradeoff in one line: you are buying a north-river / port commute. Nocatee is not a Blount Island plan.

Start with PCS To Blount Island Command: Where To Begin Your Jacksonville Home Search.

Approximate drive ranges — traffic, gate lines, and school drop-off will move these, so treat them as planning bands, not promises:

• NAS Jacksonville from Orange Park / Westside: often a short drive; from Fleming Island, a workable US-17 / CR 220 run; from Green Cove Springs, longer and getting easier as the First Coast Expressway opened the rest of Clay; from the Beaches, a cross-town I-295 problem.
• Mayport from Atlantic / Neptune / Jacksonville Beach: often a short coastal drive; from Arlington / Fort Caroline, inland but workable; from Clay County, a long daily beltway.
• Blount Island from Northside / Oceanway / Yulee: 9A and Heckscher; from Orange Park or Nocatee, you are commuting across the metro.

Clay County: where a lot of NAS Jacksonville actually lives

If the orders say NAS Jacksonville, Clay County is not a backup map. Orange Park, Fleming Island, and Green Cove Springs are where a large share of incoming sailors actually land — more house for the BAH than the Beaches, Clay County District Schools, and a west-of-the-river commute that does not require I-295 every morning.

Clay is its own county and its own school district. It is not “south Jacksonville.” Property taxes, homestead, and the locator all run through Clay, not Duval. The county seat is Green Cove Springs.

Orange Park

Closest Clay city to the NAS Jacksonville gate. US-17, I-295, and Blanding Boulevard. Mix of 1970s ranches, townhomes, and newer infill. This is the short-commute Clay option. It is also the one that fills first in peak PCS season because people can still make morning duty without living on the Westside.

Fleming Island

South of Orange Park, still Clay, still a NAS Jacksonville commute. Fleming Island is not a small add-on to Orange Park — it is a full market of its own. Eagle Harbor, Fleming Island Plantation, and Pace Island are the names that come up every week with incoming families who want a planned community, a pool, and a US-17 or CR 220 run to the gate instead of a Beaches drive they will regret in month two.

The drive is longer than Orange Park. Most households I put here treat 20–30 minutes as the planning band, not a promise — school drop-off and a closed lane on 17 will add to that. What they are buying is space, amenities, and Clay schools without going all the way to Green Cove.

Green Cove Springs — this is the boom

Green Cove Springs sits on the St. Johns further south. Downtown is a river town. The housing story right now is new construction. As of mid-September 2026, the MLS had on the order of 170+ new-construction listings in Green Cove across a dozen communities and multiple national builders (D.R. Horton, Lennar, Pulte, Meritage, Mattamy, and others — that mix changes weekly). Century Communities closed a 170-homesite deal off Henley Road (Asbury Creek) with sales aimed at mid-2026. That is not a rumor. That is why Green Cove is on this page.

The commute to NAS Jacksonville is the longest of the three Clay cities. What changed the math is the First Coast Expressway. FDOT opened the final Clay segment at noon on June 29, 2026 — US-17 to Leonard C. Taylor Parkway south of Green Cove — completing the Clay corridor from I-10 south. The new Shands Bridge over the St. Johns (about 9,300 feet, published at $595 million) is under construction as a replacement for the two-lane span, targeted around 2030. Green Cove is no longer a dead-end south of Fleming Island. It is the county’s growth edge.

Camp Blanding is further southwest. If the orders are Blanding, Green Cove and Middleburg are the first map, not Mayport.

Oakleaf, Argyle, Middleburg

Oakleaf Plantation and Argyle sit on the Duval/Clay line west of NAS Jacksonville — master-planned, newer construction, HOA and CDD documents you must read before you write. Middleburg is further out: more land, more rural, more minutes. Families pick it for acreage and price, not for a 15-minute gate run.

Clay County homestead and taxes run through the Clay County Property Appraiser, not Duval. If you buy in Fleming Island and file homestead in Jacksonville, you filed in the wrong office.

Movers and moving companies in Jacksonville

Two different jobs get mixed up under “Jacksonville movers.” One is the HHG shipment the government pays for. The other is a local or PPM truck you hire yourself. A PCS to Jacksonville usually needs both conversations, because the government shipment does not carry what you need the first week — and peak season here is unforgiving.

HHG through TMO vs. a PPM

Government HHG: self-counsel in DPS, upload orders, signed DD1299 and DD1797, then stay on the Personal Property Office until pack and pickup dates exist. NAS Jacksonville’s own peak-season guidance has been blunt: moving during summer peak (they have cited May 15–July 31) is when Transportation Service Providers run out of trucks. You do not have to have a destination address to set the move up. You do have to answer the phone on pack-out day.

PPM (personally procured move, the old DITY): you rent the truck or hire a civilian mover, get certified weight tickets, and claim against the government’s constructed cost. Families pick a PPM when DPS cannot hit the dates, when the household is small enough that a truck and a long weekend on I-95 or I-10 is cheaper than waiting, or when they want control of the high-value items. Counseling still happens at origin. Weight tickets still matter. A PPM without counseling and tickets is how a claim dies.

Jacksonville-specific: inbound trucks come down I-95 from the Carolinas and I-10 from the Panhandle and Texas. Local delivery then has to thread I-295, the Buckman, Dames Point, or Atlantic Boulevard to actually reach Orange Park, the Beaches, or the Northside. That last 20 miles is where “the movers are in Jacksonville” still means “not at your house.”

What Jacksonville-area moving companies handle well — and what to watch

This city has a real moving industry, not a couple of trucks and a Facebook ad. Jacksonville is headquarters for a national van line (Suddath has been based here for decades and has historically done a large share of military work into NAS Jacksonville and Mayport). You will also see local companies that know base-access rules, HOA check-in at Oakleaf and Nocatee, and the difference between a Westside ranch and a Jacksonville Beach walk-up.

What they handle well: local shuttles from a trailer that cannot fit a Beaches street; short-notice apartment moves into Orange Park and Southside; storage when HHG is late and TLE is burning; and PPM labor when you bring the truck and need backs and a dolly for one day.

What to watch:

• Peak season is May through August, stacked on top of civilian school-year moves. Book the local crew when you book DPS, not the week the HHG is “supposed” to arrive.
• Hurricane season is June 1–November 30. A named storm in the Atlantic is a rescheduled pack-out. Have a two-day buffer on either side of pickup if you are moving in August or September.
• The Global Household Goods Contract (HomeSafe Alliance as the current single contractor) has had well-publicized delays, including in Florida. That is not a reason to skip DPS. It is a reason to start DPS the week orders print, keep copies of every date, and have a PPM / local-mover backup for the essentials.
• Base access: crews need REAL ID, a sponsor, and time at the gate. A Beaches delivery and a NAS Jacksonville delivery are not the same appointment.
• Claims: photograph serial numbers before pack-out. HHG claims and a PPM claim are different processes. Neither is fast. That is why the cash buffer exists.

Military movers Jacksonville FL are not a different species of truck. They are companies that have done this gate before, will put a date in writing, and know that “Jacksonville” is four counties and three installations. Get three written estimates for any PPM or local move. Compare them on dates and insurance, not a logo.

PCS'ing to Jacksonville? Talk to Matt

Buy, rent, or hold the last house

This is a worksheet, not a pep talk. Pull your FL058 rate from DTMO. Then put three numbers next to it: a realistic Jacksonville PITI (principal, interest, taxes, insurance, HOA) for the gate you will actually drive to; a realistic rent for the same map; and the all-in cost of keeping the last house as a rental or a vacancy.

Questions that change the answer:

• How long is this tour, really? A three-year Jacksonville set can support a purchase. A one-year unaccompanied or a short pipeline stop usually should not.
• Will you claim Florida as domicile? Homestead (file with the county property appraiser; Duval’s deadline is March 1 for the tax year, and you generally need to own and occupy as of January 1) only helps if this is actually your Florida residence. Read New To Florida? 7 Homestead Questions before you rewrite the LES.
• What does the last house do for you? If it cash-flows after a property manager, insurance, and vacancies, holding can make sense. If it only works because you are still paying the mortgage out of this BAH, you are funding two households. See Should You Sell, Rent Or Hold? and The Military Landlord Decision.
• Insurance here is not the last duty station’s insurance. Wind, flood, and roof age on a 1970s Orange Park ranch or a Beaches cottage will move the payment more than a quarter-point on the rate.

Most incoming families I work with are stacking BAH with a VA loan — no down payment, no monthly PMI, still taxes and insurance. Eligibility is its own page: VA loan eligibility. If you already own and are selling out of Jacksonville, use Selling During A PCS. If you are keeping the last VA house and buying here, skip the rumor that “you already used your VA.” You can hold two VA loans. The next section is the actual math.

VA loan limits, entitlement, and two loans at once

The VA loan limit is not one number. It is two buckets, and the bucket you are in is on your Certificate of Eligibility — not on a Facebook thread and not on an FHA chart.

Full entitlement — you have never used a VA loan, or you sold, paid it off, and restored the benefit — has no VA-set loan cap. Zero down is limited by what you qualify for (income, residual income, credit, occupancy) and by the appraisal. A $900,000 Ponte Vedra purchase is an income-and-insurance problem, not an entitlement problem. That is the 2020 Blue Water Navy change. It is still the rule in 2026. Confirm it on VA loan limits.

Partial entitlement — you still have a VA loan open (the last duty station, a rental you kept), or entitlement was never restored — is when a county limit comes back. People call this “the FHA limit.” That is the wrong chart. VA remaining-entitlement math uses the FHFA one-unit conforming loan limit for the county you are buying in, not HUD’s FHA one-unit number. For 2026 in Duval, Clay, St. Johns, and Nassau that FHFA figure is $832,750. The FHA one-unit number for this metro is $580,750. Using the FHA figure for a second VA loan will understate what remaining entitlement can support by a couple hundred thousand dollars. Do not mix them.

Data current as of September 2026. Duval, Clay, St. Johns, and Nassau are not FHFA high-cost counties. Confirm the live one-unit limit on FHFA if you close after a new calendar year. Confirm FHA limits on HUD if you are actually using FHA — that is a different program.

How two VA loans work on a PCS

You are allowed more than one VA-backed loan at the same time. VA said it in plain language in 2026: remaining entitlement, or restored entitlement, plus a lender who will underwrite occupancy. That is the keep-the-Norfolk-house-and-buy-in-Clay move. It is also the keep-the-San-Diego-condo-and-buy-near-Mayport move. It is not automatic, and it is not unlimited.

The occupancy rule still bites. The new Jacksonville house has to be your primary residence in a reasonable time. You cannot VA-finance a second home as an investment. The last house can become a rental after you have occupied it under the rules that applied when you bought it. The new one cannot start as a rental.

How lenders usually run remaining entitlement (VA Circular 26-25-10; same structure as VA’s own published example):

1. Pull the COE. The “Entitlement Charged” column is the only number that matters. Do not guess it from the last purchase price.
2. Take 25% of the county one-unit CLL where the new house sits. For a 2026 closing in Duval, Clay, St. Johns, or Nassau: 0.25 × $832,750 = $208,187.50.
3. Subtract entitlement still charged. What is left is remaining bonus entitlement.
4. Lenders who need a 25% guaranty to sell the loan often cap zero-down at four times remaining entitlement. If the price is higher, you bring cash equal to 25% of the amount above what remaining entitlement will cover — not 20% conventional, not 3.5% FHA.

Illustration — not your file. VA’s own public example uses $75,000 still charged and a $832,750 county limit: $208,187.50 − $75,000 = $133,187.50 remaining; × 4 = $532,750 of zero-down supporting power. A $500,000 Mandarin or Orange Park purchase can still be zero down in that picture. A $650,000 Nocatee purchase would need a down payment. Run your charged amount. The illustration is not your COE.

Three ways families actually use this on a Jacksonville PCS:

• Keep the last VA house, buy here on remaining entitlement. Works when the last house cash-flows after a manager, insurance, and vacancies, and remaining entitlement covers the Jacksonville price — or you have the cash to close the gap. This is a landlord decision plus a COE decision. See The Military Landlord Decision.
• Sell, restore, then buy here on full entitlement. Cleanest zero-down path. Restoration is not automatic the day the wire hits. The loan has to be paid off and VA has to restore the charge on the COE. Time that against the 90-day clock; a delayed restoration is how a Fleming Island offer dies in underwriting.
• One-time restoration / subsequent use without selling. Narrower. Some files can restore once without disposing of the property; most second-house PCS files are remaining-entitlement files, not magic restorations. Have the lender read the COE. Do not plan a Nocatee new-build on a rumor that “VA always restores.”

Subsequent-use funding fee is higher than first use unless the COE shows a funding-fee exemption (disability compensation, certain surviving spouses, Purple Heart on active duty). That is cash-to-close, not entitlement. Tables: VA funding fee.

Pull the COE before you tour. Full walkthrough: VA entitlement — using, restoring, and second-tier. Jacksonville buying-power math: VA loan limits in Jacksonville. How to get the document: Certificate of Eligibility.

The money: save two months before you go

My standing guidance: have about two months of household expenses in cash before you roll. Not invested. Not in the last house’s equity. Cash.

Jacksonville will try to collect that money in the same 30 days:

• First month + deposit on a rental, or earnest money plus cash-to-close extras on a purchase (prepaid insurance, HOA cap fees in Nocatee or Oakleaf, a VA funding fee if you are not exempt).
• Overlap: the losing mortgage or lease still due while TLE nights and the new rent start. HHG is often late in summer. Overlap is the rule, not the exception.
• TLE reimbursement lag. Jacksonville is CONUS, so this is Temporary Lodging Expense, not TLA (TLA is the OCONUS program). DTMO increased CONUS TLE from 14 to 21 days effective 27 November 2024, with a published daily cap — confirm both in the JTR before you budget a hotel. You still pay the Navy Lodge or the Western Way hotel first and wait on the voucher. Check government quarters first; a non-availability number still matters.
• HHG claim gaps. The TV that arrives broken is not replaced this week.
• Everything TMO does not cover: extra days in a hotel after TLE ends, pet boarding, a second car shipment, utility deposits with JEA, a refrigerator because the HHG is sitting in a warehouse in Savannah, school supplies in August, a month of eating out because the kitchen is empty.
• Insurance down payments. Beaches flood and a new Florida auto policy will both want money up front.

Navy Lodge Jacksonville (Mustin Road, NAS Jacksonville) has a finite number of efficiency units and takes PCS reservations early — Military OneSource has listed 102 units and the lodge line at 904-772-6000. Navy Gateway Inns & Suites is the TDY-leaning option on the same installation. Mayport has its own lodge. Call the week orders print. Summer fills.

Tricare, PCM, and medical

Florida is TRICARE East. The regional contractor is Humana Military. Updating DEERS does not, by itself, transfer a Prime enrollment. Official TRICARE PCS briefing material is explicit on the order:

1. Update the address in DEERS (milConnect / Beneficiary Web Enrollment, or 800-538-9552) once you have a Jacksonville address. Region follows the address.
2. Transfer the enrollment. Call Humana Military (800-444-5445) or complete DD Form 2876. Do not disenroll from Prime or Select as a “clean up” step.
3. Get a new primary care manager. Prime enrollees have a PCM at a military hospital/clinic or a network clinic inside a Prime Service Area. NAS Jacksonville and Mayport both have medical homes; civilian network PCMs exist across Duval, Clay, and St. Johns. Confirm they are taking new patients before you submit the change.
4. Re-check open referrals. A referral from the losing region does not automatically follow you.
5. Pharmacy: Express Scripts is national, so the network does not change — but if you filled at the losing MTF, that window closed. Fill a 90-day supply before you detach, then set the new MTF or a Jacksonville network pharmacy.

Specialty care mid-move is where families get hurt — ortho follow-ups, BH, OB. Call the gaining MTF referrals office with the report date, not after you have already missed a week of therapy. Confirm current policy on tricare.mil/east and tricare.mil. I am a realtor, not your TRICARE counselor.

Driver’s license and cars

This is the most confused paragraph on every Jacksonville PCS Facebook thread, so here it is straight.

Driver’s license. FLHSMV’s military page states that out-of-state service members and families may drive in Florida on a valid out-of-state license — and that taking a job or enrolling children in public school does not, by itself, force a Florida license. That is the opposite of the rumor that “the spouse has to get a Florida license in 30 days.” If you are choosing Florida as domicile (LES, homestead, voter roll), that is a different decision and you will convert. If you are not, confirm your case on FLHSMV, not a comment thread.

Registration and plates. This is where the spouse/service-member split actually shows up. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act generally lets a nonresident service member keep current home-state plates. Florida’s registration-tax exemption for nonresident Armed Forces members is written around vehicles owned by the member. FLHSMV’s own procedure (RS-07) notes that the s. 320.10 exemption does not include vehicles owned exclusively by a spouse or dependent child. Cars titled only in the spouse’s name are the ones that surprise people at the Duval Tax Collector. Bring orders. Use the FLHSMV military packet and the Tax Collector’s military residents page. There is a $225 initial-registration-fee exemption path (HSMV 82002) if you do title here — confirm current rules when you go, because forms change.

Insurance. Update the garaging ZIP even if the plates stay from Virginia or Texas. A Jacksonville Beach garage is not an Orange Park garage, and a carrier that still thinks the car lives in Norfolk will have a reason to argue after a claim. Florida no-fault / PIP is its own conversation with your insurer.

Do not quote a statute at the clerk from this page. Take the orders, the titles, and the FLHSMV packet to the service center and let them run the scenario you actually have.

Buying from out of state

This is how I actually run a Jacksonville PCS purchase when the family is still in Norfolk, San Diego, or Naples.

• Pre-approval first, with a lender who has closed VA loans in Duval, Clay, St. Johns, and Nassau. A pre-qual letter from a credit union that has never seen a Florida condo questionnaire is not a plan. Pull the COE early: VA loan eligibility.
• Map against the gate, then watch live inventory. I will not send you 40 listings on the wrong side of I-295.
• Virtual tours mean a live FaceTime or video walkthrough of the actual house — attic hatch, rear yard, roof from the street, the HOA mailbox cluster — not the listing video. Details: Buying From Afar: How Virtual Tours Can Support A Jacksonville PCS and How To Buy A Jacksonville Home From Out Of State During A PCS.
• Earnest money in this market is typically a few thousand dollars, often around one percent of the price, held in escrow. It is negotiable. It is also how you show a seller you are real when you are still 800 miles away.
• If you will be underway or in a schoolhouse at closing, a properly prepared power of attorney has to exist before you need it. Do that with your legal office, not on the tailgate at pack-out.
• Florida contracts are “as-is” more often than people from other states expect. “As-is” does not waive a VA appraisal or minimum property requirements. It changes who pays to fix what the inspector and the VA appraiser find. Budget time. Summer HHG and a 10-day inspection clock will collide if you wait to hire the inspector.
• You still do not have to write an offer before you have set foot in Jacksonville. Plenty of families fly in for a 72-hour trip, walk the final two or three, and write. Plenty of others close remotely. Both work. Sight-unseen on a flood-zone Beaches cottage is how people get hurt.

Schools, kids, and pets

School assignment in Florida is an address-level fact. It is not a county rumor and it is not “Clay is better.” Look up the campus on the district locator, then on Florida DOE school grades. Incoming military students also have MIC3 protections on records, enrollment, and placement — use them, do not assume the registrar knows the compact.

Federal Fair Housing rules apply to how this gets talked about: a district rank is not a reason to steer you onto a specific street. Below is what Florida DOE actually published for 2025–26. You still verify the campus that belongs to the lot you would occupy.

Sources: Florida DOE school-grades results packet (updated Sept. 8, 2026); News4Jax reporting of statewide overall scores (St. Johns 910, Nassau 892) on July 1, 2026; Clay County District Schools superintendent remarks, Aug. 4, 2026 board meeting, as reported by the Clay Today / BC Telegraph. Confirm the campus on the district locator and on fldoe.org before you write. Data current as of September 2026.

Kids and pets in the same week: Jacksonville leases routinely charge pet deposits or monthly pet rent, and HOAs in Oakleaf, Nocatee, and some Beaches condos have breed, count, and weight rules that do not care about PCS orders. Get the HOA documents before you fall in love with the listing. Keep rabies certificates and vet records in the same folder as the school packets. Full checklist: Moving To Jacksonville With Kids And Pets.

Checklists

Orders just dropped

• Save the full orders PDF plus every amendment in one folder.
• Open DPS the same week. Self-counsel. Upload orders, DD1299, DD1797. You do not need a Jacksonville address yet.
• Call the gaining Personal Property Office if dates look ugly. Peak here is May–August.
• Pull current FL058 BAH from the DTMO lookup — with and without dependents.
• Call Navy Lodge / Gateway on the gaining installation. Screenshot the confirmation or the non-availability.
• Tell a Jacksonville agent the report date and the gate. Not “somewhere in Jax.”
• Start a two-month cash buffer. Line of credit is not the same thing.
• If you might buy: COE + written pre-approval from a VA lender who closes in this metro. If you are keeping the last VA house, the COE has to show remaining entitlement — not “I already used it so I can’t.”
• Request school records. Read MIC3 before the losing registrar invents a process.
• Do not sign a 12-month lease sight-unseen on the opposite side of the river from your gate.

30 days out

• HHG pack dates confirmed in writing — or PPM truck and certified scale plan locked.
• Local Jacksonville mover or labor booked if you will need a shuttle, storage, or a one-day unload.
• Lodging for arrival week locked. TLE is reimbursement; the hotel still wants a card now.
• 90-day prescription fill. Humana Military / DEERS transfer plan written down, not “we’ll do it when we get there.”
• Auto and renters/home quotes for the actual Jacksonville ZIP, including wind and flood where the house needs it.
• FLHSMV / Duval Tax Collector packet for any vehicle you might title or plate here.
• School enrollment packet for the address you will actually occupy — not the hotel.
• Pet records, HOA pet rules, and boarding backup if HHG is late.
• Power of attorney done if anyone who has to sign will be underway.
• Earnest-money source and cash-to-close extras sitting in a transferable account, not a credit union that still thinks you live in the last state.

Data current as of September 2026. Confirm TLE, Tricare, and FLHSMV rules on the official pages linked above; they change.