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I'm in a similar though not identical situation to your husband, and have been forced to learn a fair amount about this, so I may be of some help here.
First, until your husband is trade qualified, the process is called a Voluntary Occupational Reassignment. An Occupational Transfer only applies once you actually have an occupation, and the difference is anything but semantic
I myself am changing from Infantry to Comms Research...I tried kicking off the process during BMQ. My chain of command told me at the time that they would not under any circumstances action my memorandum until I reached my next unit - In my case wainwright PAT. I sent it up anyway and it was indeed fired back, I cannot however confirm that this was due to some regulation or whether my CoC just didn't want to deal with it. Don't take my experience as the only way it can go. However, it is quite possible your husband will have to finish BMQ before he can kick this off.
That said, once I got to PAT in Wainwright, I was able to submit a VOR. How it works is you put in a memo requesting a meeting with your Base Personnel Selection Officer, which can take 2 days or a month to get, depending on any number of factors. S/he will interview your husband - when I had mine, she asked me what trades I wanted (they'll ask you for 3 choices), told me the status of the trade (whether there are spots available or not), told me my CFAT scores were good enough, etc...in my case I went in fairly well informed, so it was a fairly short interview.
Next step is submitting a VOR memo, which is quite straight forward. It has to be approved by his chain of command, which in the case of Wainwright PAT started with the PAT 2 i/c (a Warrant Officer), then to the platoon commander (2LT), coy 2 i/c (capt), coy OC (Maj) and then the WATC CO (Lt Col)...in my case, they lost the damn thing before it got to the CO. I've been lead to believe that they sometimes go missing if you've pissed someone off, but in my case I suspect no foul play - they deal with a lot of the damn things. They also didn't have me fill out the forms that go with the memo, or in fact tell me such things existed - I didn't find out about them until I got tasked to CFB Edmonton and I asked my supervisor to help me find out the status of my VOR. Make sure your husband asks about them, lest they be forgotten and the process be delayed as it was for me.
In theory, once the memo reaches the CO level, there is a second BPSO interview, and then the paperwork is sent to NDHQ. I can't speak to how that works or how long it takes, only that it will probably be awhile. I put mine in three months ago and I haven't even been moved to PARR yet.
Don't let my experience discourage you or your husband, but be advised that it could take awhile.
First, until your husband is trade qualified, the process is called a Voluntary Occupational Reassignment. An Occupational Transfer only applies once you actually have an occupation, and the difference is anything but semantic
I myself am changing from Infantry to Comms Research...I tried kicking off the process during BMQ. My chain of command told me at the time that they would not under any circumstances action my memorandum until I reached my next unit - In my case wainwright PAT. I sent it up anyway and it was indeed fired back, I cannot however confirm that this was due to some regulation or whether my CoC just didn't want to deal with it. Don't take my experience as the only way it can go. However, it is quite possible your husband will have to finish BMQ before he can kick this off.
That said, once I got to PAT in Wainwright, I was able to submit a VOR. How it works is you put in a memo requesting a meeting with your Base Personnel Selection Officer, which can take 2 days or a month to get, depending on any number of factors. S/he will interview your husband - when I had mine, she asked me what trades I wanted (they'll ask you for 3 choices), told me the status of the trade (whether there are spots available or not), told me my CFAT scores were good enough, etc...in my case I went in fairly well informed, so it was a fairly short interview.
Next step is submitting a VOR memo, which is quite straight forward. It has to be approved by his chain of command, which in the case of Wainwright PAT started with the PAT 2 i/c (a Warrant Officer), then to the platoon commander (2LT), coy 2 i/c (capt), coy OC (Maj) and then the WATC CO (Lt Col)...in my case, they lost the damn thing before it got to the CO. I've been lead to believe that they sometimes go missing if you've pissed someone off, but in my case I suspect no foul play - they deal with a lot of the damn things. They also didn't have me fill out the forms that go with the memo, or in fact tell me such things existed - I didn't find out about them until I got tasked to CFB Edmonton and I asked my supervisor to help me find out the status of my VOR. Make sure your husband asks about them, lest they be forgotten and the process be delayed as it was for me.
In theory, once the memo reaches the CO level, there is a second BPSO interview, and then the paperwork is sent to NDHQ. I can't speak to how that works or how long it takes, only that it will probably be awhile. I put mine in three months ago and I haven't even been moved to PARR yet.
Don't let my experience discourage you or your husband, but be advised that it could take awhile.
