Question About Establishing Residency and Car Insurance

[Revenir]

So, finding out information about this is driving me nuts! Maybe someone can help me out.

I'm moving from MO to CA for my MFA. The program pays for OOS tuition for the first year, but you have to establish residency for the remaining two years.

My confusion comes with my car. I'm the primary driver, but it's technically my dad's car. His name is the only one on the title, but I'm on the insurance policy. He's basically allowing me to borrow it indefinitely until I get another car. I know I need to get a CA driver's license to establish residency. Does the car also need to be registered to CA since that's where it'll be driven? Or can it still have MO tags since it's my dad's car? If it does need to be registered in CA, how does that work with insurance?

Also, anyone have any advice on this whole residency thing? I understand you need to have an apartment or home in the state, get a new driver's license, and open a new bank account in the state. Am I missing anything else? I don't really own property or anything like that.

Thanks to anyone who can help. I'm planning to talk to my insurance provider and the CA DMV when it gets closer to my actual move in day, but I figured I might ask here as well. Hopefully someone has been in a similar situation!

[MarineBluePsy]

This sounds like a question that should be directed to your dad's insurance carrier.  Ultimately you want to make sure they know where the car is in order to prevent them from denying coverage should something happen.  Every state has its own laws regarding this and if the insurance carrier your dad uses can write policies in the state you'll be going to they will have some insight about how to proceed.  If they can't write policies in the state you're going to then a change may be needed to make sure you're sufficiently covered, but that's also something they can likely advise you on.  You can also browse the new states motor vehicles department website to see if there is a section regarding students from out of state that outlines expectations.  Some states don't require students from elsewhere to change their car registration and other's do.

When I moved for grad school I did both, checked the motor vehicles website for School State and they said students from out of state aren't required to change.  Then called my insurance carrier, explained the situation and they could write policies in School State, but given the huge price increase I ended up switching companies anyway and just have to provide documentation that I'm still a full time student when the policy renews.  So my registration and driver's license is still with Home State and this doesn't create problems with my insurance being written for School State and I will be returning to Home State as soon as my program is done.

[Sigaba]

On 8/28/2019 at 9:32 AM, Revenir said:

Does the car also need to be registered to CA since that's where it'll be driven?

Yes.  You will need to register the vehicle and display the issued California plates.

The links below provides some of the answers to your questions.

https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/pubs/brochures/howto/htvr33

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=VEH&division=3.&title=&part=&chapter=2.&article=1.

Please note that if you're parking on a UC campus, you can be issued a citation if your vehicle is not registered in California -- so stashing on campus as a means to economize may not be a sustainable option.