Did you change your residency?

[Jarndyce]

I apologize that this is off-topic, but I was wondering whether those of you who moved out of state for grad school changed your residency.

I currently have my permanent address at my parents' house in Pennsylvania, and my fiancée and I will be moving to Florida this summer. When looking into getting car insurance in Florida, one insurance agent suggested that it would be cheaper if I kept my residency in PA, had my car registered in PA, and had PA insurance on it, because FL insurance is more expensive.

I'm just wondering whether this is wise/legal. I have a graduate assistantship and an apartment in Florida, and I plan on living and working there over the summer. Florida requires that if you move there and accept employment that you declare residency/register your car within 10 days(!), but I don't know if there are exceptions for full time students. Does anyone have any experience with this?

[GeoDUDE!]

Are you going to a public school? Then you should change residency for instate tuition... even if you pay for it or not.

[Romanista]

I moved from PA to FL twice.

 

Insurance does tend to be cheaper in PA than FL. But it could be inconvenient if you actually need to "use" your auto insurance considering that you won't be living in PA anymore. You could get away with keeping your PA insurance but it will work against you if you want to prove residency in FL, which you should probably do. The reason being that the tuition and academic fees are always lower if you are a FL resident. You can't get a FL driver's license unless you get insurance from a FL agency so you would have to drop your PA insurance. It usually takes 12 months of residence in FL to get the FL rate.

 

There are no exceptions for the 10 day rule. I've been pulled over while driving with out of state plates and I didn't get a ticket or anything (albeit it was for a different reason). It's kind of hard for anyone to prove that you've lived in FL for a set number of days, especially if you don't have a FL address. As long as your PA license isn't expired I don't see how you would get caught. So you have time to get the car registered. I registered mine after the semester started. If your car hasn't ever been registered in FL then expect to pay at least $300 for the plate, registration, title (not including insurance which you have to show proof of at the DMV). 

 

FL has no income tax so they use the DMV as big source of revenue (which is probably why you can get so many different vanity plates, unlike in PA). 

[Jarndyce]

Yes I'm going to a state school. The school didn't mention about whether I needed to become a resident in order to maintain my tuition waiver, but I have heard of other schools requiring that you become an in-state student for the second year.

And thanks for the feedback Romanista. I did know about the no state income tax in FL, which is another reason I thought it would be better to become a resident, because otherwise I'd be paying the PA piper...I feel like it would kind of be a wash

Edited June 18, 2015 by Jarndyce

[Dr. Old Bill]

For what it's worth, I just went through all of the shenanigans of changing residency today (which, for my wife and I, basically means getting driver's licenses, state inspection, title and registration in Maryland). After paying $750, I still haven't been able to change title and registration on my car from Virginia, and it will cost another $250 to do so. So...about $1000 all told, just to establish residency. That's definitely "YMMV" territory, in my opinion. It makes sense for us, since there is a not inconsiderable possibility that we'll ultimately settle in Maryland, but our insurance rates will be a bit higher, excise tax rates will be a bit higher (6% vs. 3.4% in Virginia), and various other considerations make changing residency more of a hardship (in some states) than some might anticipate. Maryland is pretty strict when it comes to safety inspections, and depending on what state you are moving to, and what your life circumstances are, it is simply worth thinking about.

 

Having said all of that, even if your tuition is fully remitted, universities usually prefer that you establish residency, and some require it outright. I know the DGS at UMD was strongly urging me to relocate to the Maryland side of D.C., and I was able to make that happen. Again though, if money is particularly tight, and depending on what state you're coming from (and going to), it's worth looking through residency guidelines with a keen eye and spending a few minutes finding out what problems others have had in establishing residency in the state in question.

[unræd]

I don't know if this is the case in Florida, but it's true in the states I'm familiar with (Minnesota, Ohio, and California), and is very important to keep in mind (both for the OP and everybody): being a legal resident is often NOT the same as being classified a resident for tuition purposes at state universities. It is very possible to have your legal residence in a state but not be considered a resident for the purposes of levying in-state fees and tuition.

 

Which I'm sure everybody knows, anyway. I've just been running through the list of documents, etc, necessary to corral to apply for in-state residency classification at Cal, and am a bit put out at how easy it is to establish legal residence versus the former!

Edited June 19, 2015 by unræd

[echo449]

For the PhD programs where I needed to get in-state, it was made very clear to me that as a grad student getting in-state status would be pretty easy. However, if I didn't get in-state status by my second year, they would hold me responsible for the difference in the cost of tuition between in-state and out of state. So!

But I'm not sure how it is at a place like Penn State, where residency laws are quite stringent. Perhaps they just cover out of state tuition in stipends?  

[ἠφανισμένος]

But I'm not sure how it is at a place like Penn State, where residency laws are quite stringent. Perhaps they just cover out of state tuition in stipends?  

 

I moved to a state and attended a public institution (not Penn State) where acquiring legal residency didn't matter for tuition purposes, but the difference between in-state and out-of-state tuition didn't come out of my stipend.  I didn't pay any tuition myself; instead, my tuition waiver was simply that much higher. 

Edited June 19, 2015 by Petros

[rising_star]

One reason to change your registration is that PA has vehicle inspections and most places in Florida do not... Insurance can be higher, which is worth considering but probably shouldn't be the deciding factor. Yes, registering a car in FL can be expensive but, in my experience, not any more expensive than doing it in another state. And the vanity plate options are great, though for many the extra annual charge actually goes to a cause/organization (university, NGO, etc.) so it isn't necessarily another way for the state to make money. 

 

P.S. Get renter's insurance. Be careful about where you live to avoid flooding. And, if flooding is even a remote risk, get that add-on for renter's insurance.