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New process coming for aircrew emigration, immigration

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Tim Jenkins
  • 379th Air Expeditionary Wing public affairs
SOUTHWEST ASIA --  Aircrew emigrating and immigrating here are in for shorter wait times when a new processing area opens soon.

The new area, scheduled to open late November or early December, gives aircrew members two dedicated windows, one for emigrating and one for immigrating, in the Personnel Support for Contingency Operations area. The new effort aims to cut wait times in half.

"We'll be able to push aircrew out much faster," said Capt. William Cambron, 379th Air Expeditionary Wing host nation coordination cell immigrations officer in charge. "That's our end goal. The quicker we can get them out and back, the better for the mission."

The previous procedure for emigration involved crews departing through the passenger terminal. Since a dedicated host-nation immigrations officer doesn't work at that location, aircrew members had to wait for an officer to arrive.

"Before, host nation officers had to leave their main office to go to the PAX terminal to emigrate aircrew," said Captain Cambron, adding the time to coordinate that could sometimes impact the aircrew's step time to their aircraft.

1st Lt. Todd Mickel, 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron C-17 co-pilot, said with their long missions, any changes that can help improve the immigrations procedure will be well received.

"The fact that (the installation) is looking at the processes and finding ways to make doing our job easier means a lot to us," he said.

According to Captain Cambron, the effort is all about making the methods easier for aircrew to do their job -- cutting the time needed for them to step out to their aircraft and their wait time upon return.

"They already have really long days, so if we can cut wait times, it'll be better for all of us," he said.

In July, representatives from several organizations gathered to begin looking at the emigration and immigration procedures for aircrew, examining ways to streamline them. The combined location was deemed the best solution, and construction on the new area began in October.

The construction involved a new sidewalk, walls and doorways, and a new processing window, which in the end doubles the space of the immigration office, while allowing aircrew to leave and depart from the same point.

Tech. Sgt. Mark Hafer, 816th EAS loadmaster, is looking forward to seeing the new changes.

"To come back after a long mission and then go through immigrations can make for some long days," he said. "It seems like the base is constantly looking at ways to refine the processes to make it easier on us."

Under the current process, total time for emigration and immigration could take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. With the new area, the aim is to cut that time in half, reducing aircrew scheduling time and streamlining the entire procedure.

"We've had great support from the host nation staff," said Captain Cambron. "They've been very cooperative - huge supporters of this. The whole wing -- PERSCO, CE, the architects - everyone was very supportive of this renewal of our processes here and I'm really excited this was able to come together so quickly."