FIRST STEPS IN PLANNING YOUR MISSIONARY PICK-UP
If you are planning to pick-up and return home with your missionary, follow these steps before making your travel reservations.
- Ask your missionary for his/her "release date". The missionary should confirm with his/her mission president that the date is firm. (FYI: all missionaries have a release date as soon as they enter the MTC. This date is subject to change. Make sure the release date has been finalized before making your travel plans.)
- Notify the mission president that you are planning to pick-up and travel home with your missionary. Current church policy requires the concurrence of the mission president for parent/family return travel with a missionary. Such notification and request should be made no less than three months prior to a missionary’s release date.
- The Church Missionary Travel Department normally issues a missionary’s return ticket home if the missionary is returning on his/her finalized release date. If a missionary will delay his/her return travel date as the result of traveling with parents, the Church will issue a travel allowance to the parents equal to the amount of the ticket the church would have purchased on the date the missionary was scheduled to return home.
- If you are picking up your missionary, you are responsible for your missionary’s return travel ticket. The church "travel allowance" will be sent to you in the form of a check, which you can use toward your missionary’s return ticket.
- To receive the travel allowance, do the following:
- After receiving your missionary’s firm release date, plan out your itinerary and determine what date you will be returning home
- Purchase your airline tickets and the return ticket for your missionary
- Email a copy of the ticket to the mission office. Include your contact information, including address, telephone, and email.
- Ask the mission office to forward your missionary’s ticket to the church travel agent that handles your son’s/daughter’s mission
- The Church Travel Department will proceed with sending you a check for the appropriate travel allowance
- If you are traveling to a foreign country, you will need a valid passport. Some countries may require a tourist or travel visa (not to be confused with a credit card) to enter their country.
- Go online to http://travel.state.gov. This travel site is maintained by the U.S. State Department and contains a wealth of travel information. In the lower left hand corner of the home page, see “Learn about your destination” area. Enter the country or countries you will be visiting. Review all the information listed, including but not limited to “Quick Facts”, passport and visa requirements, safety and security, etc.
- Another good site is www.cdc.gov/travel. This web site is maintained by the Center for Disease Control and offers helpful travel, health, and vaccination information to the areas to will be traveling.
