Found out recently that my nephew's parents are going to Europe to collect him at the end of his mission. My limited knowledge of returning missionaries was that they were basically hands off until they were "debriefed"; is this unusual? I wonder, because his father works in the COB and may have secret squirrel clearance others may not get.

To my knowledge this occasionally happens, but not very often. It happened to a few missionaries in my mission in Alabama.

When I was younger (in the late 60s and early 70s), this was a common practice, particularly if their missions were in Europe.

However, I don't think they were officially 'released' until they had returned and gave their 'report' to the SP, or somebody.

This was actually pretty common in my ward/stake growing up. They had to be released by a member of the stake presidency though so it was not uncommon for the family to make a phone call to a member of the SP and be released over the phone. Then they returned and reported when the family was done with vacationing. Don't know how acceptable this practice was to the rest of mormondom (I'm quite sure they're not suppossed to be released over a phone call), but it happened and not infrequently. People in my stake had the money, and the stake president who was in my ward and SP for over a decade was willing to do this for the families.

The reason more parents do not do it is probably because of the cost.

It happened in the Philippines. Happened in my ward here in the states. I am pretty sure the missionary is not released until they get home. Thats ok, missionaries don't have to be with their comp, just another penisholder or member.

It's still pretty common. More so in affluent communities.

My non-Mormon parents came and picked me up from my mission. My mission president had no problem with this.

It happens alot. I met several missionaries parents who came to get them, some of the missionaries were even released over the phone.