Prior to being hired the powers that be are usually very accommodating with your initial placement. Once you are in however, marriage doesn't mean anything and there is no more accommodating. Every move the two of you attempt from here on out will be a gamble. With enough knowledge of the processes, they are gambles you can win but there is always going to be some element of chance involved. There are several things you won't be able to control since the two of you won't be linked together in any way.
My wife and I got selected for transfer in two separate NCEPT panels with release dataes 6-months apart. So we had to deal with some smaller but similar choices; Does the first spouse decline the transfer if second never gets selected? Does the second spouse quit and try CPC reinstatement? Does the first spouse go and withdraw from training back to previous facility if the second doesn't get selected prior to first spouse CPC'ing at new facility? Is a 1-year gap between release dates still worth transferring?
The predicament you find yourself in is much worse than my own as the two of you aren't starting together in the same place. Realistically your only options are:
-For one of you to resign and try and reapply and get placed somewhere closer together.
-For one of you to certify on enough positions where you can withdraw from training and be retained into the NEST and hope something on your list is closer than your present facility and also has a shorter time to certify than your present facility.
-Wait until one of you certify's and then put in a ERR for your spouses facility and hope the stars align where you'll get selected for the transfer relatively quickly with a shorter vs longer release date.
-Put in for a transfer while a developmental and hope one of you can slip through a magic crack during an NCEPT panel where no CPC's can transfer.
-Have a baby, get divorced and hardship.
-Hope you, your spouse or someone in your immediate family get's seriously ill and both hardship to the same place closer to sick family member.
There is no clear and clean way to get together quickly in the FAA from the position you both are currently in and this will create a lot of tough decisions to be made. The two of you will eventually be able to work at the same facility or at least close to each other. It will more than likely take a few years from the sound of it. Your immediate decisions will probably come down to how long you guys think you can last long distance. Or if you already know one of you will be a stay at home parent once kids are in the picture, you might as well just get started once whoever is going to keep working makes it far enough up the pay band to support both of you.
