Maybe a stupid question, but...

[prosodic]

When you become a legal residence of one state, how do you lose your legal residence status in another? Lance and I were discussing this the other day. He's always been a legal resident of Minnesota, and the same goes for me of Ohio. But now that we're buying property in Washington state, we'll be legal residents there.

Of course, we'll be registering to vote in Kent, but not everyone who relocates is a registered voter. And we'll eventually be getting Washington drivers' licenses too, and certainly our cars will have Washington plates. And we'll both be employed in Washington.

However, I don't think most of these things will alert either Ohio or Minnesota to the fact that we aren't legal residents there anymore (although I would think that registering to vote should do it, but I'm not sure about this).

So, what say you, Live Journal people? I know many of you have relocated. What are we supposed to do, if anything?

Comments

[anmorata.livejournal.com]

When you do your taxes, you're probably going to file as a partial resident in both states, depending on when you move. That, changing over your driver's license, paying Washington taxes (don't forget to have Lance change his Home of Record on his LES), and registering to vote will give up your Ohio residency.

I never gave up my residency.. I never changed the plates on my car, never registered to vote in another state, and most importantly, we never changed the Home of Record or paid taxes elsewhere. This was important, because I knew I'd be coming back home at some point. I'm glad we did it this way - I had to provide all kinds of documentation showing that I was still an Ohio resident where it came to tuition at Kent State.

Honestly, though? The only place it really gets noticed is taxes. Other than that, the state doesn't really care if you're a resident, but if you are, they want their tax money. :P Keep a close eye on it, though - I still get tax forms from cities I've lived in in the past, despite not living there for years. Not all records departments are up to speed and accurate. You may find yourself getting some odd things in the mail, but since you've been abroad for almost 4 years, that may not be the case.

[jerseyfille.livejournal.com]

When I moved to IN, I changed everything over (and sent my license plates back to the NJ DMV so maybe that's how they know?) but since I had made money in NJ that tax year, I think I was still a resident, and for some reason I remember getting tax stuff for NJ the next year(or it might have been NY since I made money there the previous year as well). I'm not sure if the states really care one way or the other, as long as they get their money!

Although I was still considered out of state by IU since I had only moved there for schooling purposes even though I had changed everything over, and was for all intents and purposes a legal IN resident *shudder*. ;) :)

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the info. Washington state actually doesn't have a tax, which is part of the reason we want to be legal residents there. But I think we become legal residents automatically by virtue of meeting certain criteria, one of which is buying property in the state.

I'll get an Ohio tax form for this year, but hopefully I won't have one for 2008.

We may end up staying there indefinitely, if things go well with Boeing and Lance has a good shot at a civilian position there. So for the foreseeable future, it makes much more sense to change our legal residence to Washington. I don't think I'll live in Ohio again and I doubt we'll ever settle in Minnesota (not if I have anything to say about it, we won't...it's too damn cold).

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

I know I'll get Ohio tax forms for 2007, but since we're moving into our house 2 weeks before the new year, I don't want to be on record as a legal resident of Ohio at all in 2008. That's mainly why I was asking.

And the education aspect is important too. At the moment, I still plan to go back to grad school, and I want to be considered a state resident.

[jerseyfille.livejournal.com]

I think if you wait until Fall 2008 to go back you'll be considered in-state. I want to say most in-state rules say that you must live in the state 6 months before starting school you qualify but don't quote me on that. You could also say you moved for your husband's job and not for the sole purpose of going to school.

[dimwit68.livejournal.com]

Grad school ? With all the job applications I thought that had faded into the background.

It sounds as difficult for you to move to another state as it is for me to move to another country!

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

I was going to work full-time and do grad school on the side...many MLIS programs are designed for working professionals. So it wouldn't be a full-time grad school thing like last time.

Besides, I have to fund it somehow. :P

[onelargecat.livejournal.com]

In my experience, each state sets its own rules for what constitutes residency. Living there for more than 30 days, starting a job there, plus a couple other things all count, in the state's eyes, as making you a resident (for tax purposes). For school residency purposes, each school is different, but I think the standard is you have to have lived in the area for at least one year before the date of enrollment to be able to qualify as in-state for tuition purposes.

For practical purposes, all I've ever had to change was my car's registration and license plates. I've never needed to "notify" my old state in any other way. In fact not even every state wants its license plates back...Massachusetts definitely wanted license plates back but that was the first time I'd encountered that.

Oh...useful link I just spotted!
http://access.wa.gov/living/resources/residency.aspx


I also found something saying that if you're active duty military (or spouse) that for tuition purposes you qualify for in-state tuition immediately, without the 12-month requirement.
http://www.washington.edu/students/reg/residency.html

[godchick.livejournal.com]

Being military might be different. After moving to the state of Washington, you have 2 weeks to change your driver's license and car registration plates. I live on a border city and the police crack down all the time on out of state plates, big fines for those who don't comply. They check utility companies for residency proof.

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the links! I thought of searching on google for this, but I wanted to get a feel for personal experiences with changing state of residence.

And I don't know when I'll actually start grad school, but I'm glad they'll consider me an in-state resident right away. That's reassuring.

[prosodic.livejournal.com]

Well, we'll both have to get Washington plates right away anyway, so I'll check into driver's licenses.

[mysirensong.livejournal.com]

Since I've moved out of, back into and out of Ohio these last few years I may be able to assure you that you won't get tax forms once you are working in Washington and definitely NOT working in Ohio. (And even if you do, just by virtue of the fact that they may still send them thinking that you're a resident and just stationed elsewhere temporarily, the state tax department is AMAZINGLY helpful, which I found quite surprising! I had a problem just recently with NC asking for money from 2002 -- when I didn't make any money in NC, all of it was in OH, and I had to call OH and ask for them to send proof of that to NC - wow! They were so nice and got me what I needed so quickly. So, for tax purposes you may even want to look them up online and make a pre-emptive phone call at the beginning of 2008 if you'd feel better about it that way. Holy crap this has been a long parenthetical phrase!)

AWESOME that WA doesn't have state tax. NC doesn't have local taxes and I thought *that* was cool. :-)

[almightychix0r.livejournal.com]

You have either 30 or 60 days (I can't recall) to switch your licenses and registrations over to Washington from the date you purchase your house. I remember that much. We moved into our house the beginning of September and switched our licenses in October, because of that rule/law/regulation.