Do grad students from out of state change residency and car insurance?

[Humulus_lupulus]

I'm technically "borrowing" my parents' car while I'm in grad school, so while I have a house and a Michigan drivers license, the insurance is still in my home state. I talked to a lawyer friend of mine and he said it was ok to do that.

[kumapanda]

Would it be ok for me to necro this thread? 

I'm a California resident and I'll be moving out of state for 2 years in Virginia for grad school.  I called the DMV for both Virginia and California and got conflicting answers on whether or not I should be changing my residence.  The California DMV said I could still drive in Virginia with my CA driver's license, but the Virginia DMV said I'm supposed to change my driver's license and license plate within 30 days if I become a resident. 

Should I become a VA resident to pay for the in-state tuition at the program?  Although it would save me money, would that mean I have to surrender my CA residency?  I have intentions on coming back to CA when I'm gone with my graduate program and my impression is that it takes lots of work to regain CA residency.  I'm also concern much these transitions could effect my right to vote in the upcoming elections. 

[CBclone]

Pretty sure you can drive in any state with another state's license, assuming it's still valid/not expired. 

I have Colorado residency (and may return there after my MS, but it's not a need to do so) and attend school in New York. Still have a Colorado license, license plates, and vote via absentee ballot. In fact I just paid for my vehicle's annual registration and simply called the CO DMV in the county I moved from to give them my new address in New York and they sent me the registration card and sticker. Honestly I just didn't want to deal with changing things. 

Also consider that in many states you cannot just switch residency and *poof* receive in-state tuition. Most require at least one year of maintaining a home and receiving income in-state, some with the caveat that you cannot be a student during that year either, before receiving in-state benefits. Now that I think about it, one of our interns where I worked last summer was a NH resident attending school in CO and tired of paying OOS rate. Got a CO license, plates, etc., last May and did not enroll in any courses over the summer, fall, spring, or this upcoming summer. Will be able to receive in-state tuition when he re-enrolls in the fall, but had to take a full year off from school to do so. 

[moni28]

I am from New York, and attend grad school in Florida. I bought my car in Florida, so I have Florida plates on my car, but both, my father and my name, are on the car's title and registration, as issued by Florida DMV, which is how I maintain my New York license still-my father lives in New York. Hence, I consider myself a New York resident, relative to "permanent address". I have not decided yet if I will stay in Florida, or return to New York, after grad school yet. If I choose to stay in Florida, I will then change my license from New York to Florida. 

Edited May 14, 2016 by moni28

[Cat_Robutt]

I think part of this depends on where you are moving to––for example, establishing residency is more expensive in California than in New Mexico or Pennsylvania, as are getting car tags renewed. Some food for thought in this particular year, however: where you are a resident is where you vote. Mail-ins and early voting are fine, but you may want to consider brushing up on who is running for which seats in the place you will be spending the next several years. Local politics may influence changes in your community much more so than national elections.

[PizzaCat93]

On May 14, 2016 at 1:17 PM, moni28 said:

I am from New York, and attend grad school in Florida. I bought my car in Florida, so I have Florida plates on my car, but both, my father and my name, are on the car's title and registration, as issued by Florida DMV, which is how I maintain my New York license still-my father lives in New York. Hence, I consider myself a New York resident, relative to "permanent address". I have not decided yet if I will stay in Florida, or return to New York, after grad school yet. If I choose to stay in Florida, I will then change my license from New York to Florida. 

Sorry to revive this thread yet again. I have a similar issue as above. My father and I jointly own my car. He will be staying in state A while I move to state B for my PhD. My program requires that we apply for residency after one year, but if the application is rejected, they still will continue paying OOS tuition. As such, since I am the primary driver of the car and will have it garaged in state B, I assume I do have to register it in state B, even if my father still has ownership of it and resides in state A? I'm concerned about both the legal ramifications as well as that of my residency application. 

[Piagetsky]

Interesting thread.  I'm moving out of the country for grad school, and I wonder what others have done as far as residency.  I obviously won't be a Canadian permanent resident or citizen because I cannot apply until after I've completed my masters.  However, I won't have an address of my own in the States, so if I move my US mailing address to my mother's in Oregon but I lived last in North Carolina and my last mailing address was South Carolina, where the heck am I a resident?  Where will I file my 2017 taxes?  Anyone been here before?

I know I have to get an Ontario driver license and insurance policy.  Other than that, seems I'm in limbo.

[maelia8]

@PizzaCat93, I have a similar situation (except that only my father's name is listed on the deed of the car, not my own). I take the car to state A at least every six months and make sure that the registration tags are up to date, get the smog checked there, etc., but I simply didn't list a car on my residency application at my university in state B at all (as I'm technically just "borrowing" it from my father for the long term). Any chance you could remove yourself from the deed?

[ETRXRock]

I moved from Texas to Arizona. My husband had to get an AZ license (for work), but I am keeping my Texas one. The DMV in AZ said since we are only here for my studies (2 years), we do not have to register our vehicles. The only thing I had to do was change my address on my license to my parents' house since we sold our house.

We still have not figured out how we will do the state inspections on both the cars. 17 hours is a long drive for an inspection . How has anyone else handled this?

 

Also, you can take the title to court and have your name on it. This goes under gift/donation. Similar to a sale, but there is no taxes or anything involved.

[TakeruK]

3 hours ago, ETRXRock said:

I moved from Texas to Arizona. My husband had to get an AZ license (for work), but I am keeping my Texas one. The DMV in AZ said since we are only here for my studies (2 years), we do not have to register our vehicles. The only thing I had to do was change my address on my license to my parents' house since we sold our house.

We still have not figured out how we will do the state inspections on both the cars. 17 hours is a long drive for an inspection . How has anyone else handled this?

Because of inspections, most students I know choose to change their vehicle registration, even if they don't have to. Some people are moving from NY to CA, so that's a really long drive for an inspection! 

[rising_star]

6 hours ago, ETRXRock said:

We still have not figured out how we will do the state inspections on both the cars. 17 hours is a long drive for an inspection . How has anyone else handled this?

You don't actually have to go home to do the inspection, just to the state of Texas. El Paso, Amarillo, etc., are way less than 17 hours from anywhere in Arizona.

[klader]

FWIW, my home state (A) and new state (B) don't have inspections, and my car is registered in my mom's name. I was told by my insurance company that I can drive my car with state A insurance/license plate around in state B because I am simply borrowing it from my mother for school and I am still a state A resident. All they want is my new mailing address to have on file.

So, all I have to do is be home when my mom renews the tags and everything on her birthday, which is luckily during the summer. I'm also fortunate that my university will pay all OOS fees, so of course this might not work if your university wants you to apply for residency to get the better tuition rate.

It's much cheaper for me to do it this way because I'm still in that age bracket where my own plan would be ridiculously expensive! 

Edited July 26, 2016 by klader

[rising_star]

9 hours ago, klader said:

FWIW, my home state (A) and new state (B) don't have inspections, and my car is registered in my mom's name. I was told by my insurance company that I can drive my car with state A insurance/license plate around in state B because I am simply borrowing it from my mother for school and I am still a state A resident. All they want is my new mailing address to have on file.

So, all I have to do is be home when my mom renews the tags and everything on her birthday, which is luckily during the summer. I'm also fortunate that my university will pay all OOS fees, so of course this might not work if your university wants you to apply for residency to get the better tuition rate.

Honestly, you don't even have to be home for that part. When I was in grad school, my mom would renew a bit early (her birthday is at the end of the month but she'd renew at the beginning) and then mail me the registration and sticker for the tag so that I could put it on my car. This worked smoothly for us for a number of years.

[klader]

Oh, wow! That does work out smoothly. For some reason I thought it had to be renewed right around the actual birthday. Thanks, @rising_star!

[ETRXRock]

Thanks! That never crossed my mind. Looks like we will to our inspections at El Paso. Also, Arizona has a hefty vehicle tax you have to pay every year when you register your vehicles hence why we are doing wverything we can to not register them. They take 1/2 of 60% of the vehicle's MSRP and divide it by 100. Then they multiply that by $3 and that is your tax on top of registration. Every year it drops 15%, but we do not plan on staying here too long. Its HOT!

[TakeruK]

4 hours ago, klader said:

Oh, wow! That does work out smoothly. For some reason I thought it had to be renewed right around the actual birthday. Thanks, @rising_star!

California sends me registration renewal notice almost 3 months before the due date. Since I rather not give the state an interest-free loan, I generally wait until 2-3 weeks prior to the deadline and pay online. It takes about 5 days for me to get my stickers. So if your home state sends out early reminders too, this increases the time you have to get home and pick up stickers! 

[sackofcrap]

I desperately want to change my state residency to match where I go to school (so that I can get in state tuition), but unfortunately, the state where I go to school (Texas) makes this as hard as they possibly can. Just living here for a year and going to school isn't enough. Apparently, on campus jobs (such as being a graduate assistant) don't count for residency purposes. It's so annoying. To make matters worse, not all graduate assistant positions in this state qualify for automatic tuition remission, so I may just be screwed for next year.

I am thankful that I didn't have to worry about car insurance and all of that when I first moved because I didn't have a car at the time. 

[pterosaur]

Also note that you can have residency in different states for different purposes. For voting and in-state tuition purposes, I'm considered a resident of my parents' state, because that's what I consider my "permanent" address and it's where I say I have intent to return. (Intent is important for the purposes of residency here.) However, for tax purposes, I'm considered a resident where I'm going to school (even during undergrad) because of the very specific way that that state's tax laws are written. It's super confusing. I think I'll probably change all the legal residency stuff to the state of my PhD at the beginning of January for simplicity's sake.

[Effloresce]

I'm a new driver (well, have had license for ~6 years now but lived in cities with good public transport) and am on my parent's insurance/car is registered under my dad's name for a grace period while I kinda adjust to driving in a new city. But I foresee that I will eventually establish residency in Tennessee and thus surrender my NY license, transfer ownership of the car to myself, and get TN car insurance. New York is so strict with inspection laws, and I'm not driving 14h to get my car inspected again next year. I'm going to wait for a couple of months though..maybe change all of that early next year.

[Windmills]

For future reference, in Bloomington, Indiana it looks like you don't need to/can't change your residency or car plates—assuming you're there as a student.

[ebooksmaster]

i just went through a little of this myself, when moving from NJ to Texas.
I think the bottom line is students get a little more of a break as far has
how long they are allowed to wait until these things start expiring. I think, when you move, in most
cases you have like 30-90 day to get your license switch over. Essentially though it will
all come down to proving your residency. For this you will usually need 2 or 3 anchoring documents,
like a utility bill, deed or lease, pay stub, bank statement, etc, etc. For a student, especially on campus,
it might be a bit tricky gathering all the paperwork. I think for the Health Insurance I worry the most,
God forbid you need a hospital and they wont cover you, out of state!! For my daughter, it's really twisted,
because, she goes to school in NC, and since I just moved from NJ to TX, her official residence has appeared
to disappear from underneath her.

Edited October 10, 2016 by rising_star
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