California Residency and Fulltime?

Hi there,

I'm brand new to this forum, I am just starting to investigate the idea of full-time RV-ing for a little bit with my husband. We realized we can't have kids, and figured, why not?

The problem is that we moved out of our home state of California years ago, and we are no longer residents of the state. We are moving back so I can finish my degree, but I need to gain residency. California seems to have issues with my claiming residency while hanging out in an RV park. Should we try for a mobile home park instead? Have any of you been able to establish residency in California while full-time RV-ing?

It is important to note: I will not do anything illegal, and I am really hoping for California-specific information since the rules vary so much from one state to the next.

Thanks! 

An RV park and a mobile home park are basically the same thing from the DMVs point of view. You should be able to gain residency in either one without an issue.

OTOH if you want to save a bunch of money then make Nevada your domicile. You can have your mail forwarded by a company like Mail Link.

https://www.maillinkplus.com/

Her problem is she want CA  residency for attending college.  The rules there are somewhat different from just being a resident for the DMV reasons.  I am no longer up on CA rules as all my grand kids left and attended college elsewhere.

A mobile home park or campground should work for CA residency but I believe you have to be a residence for a year to get the resident tuition at the colleges. Any chance you could move back to California and work for a year before going back to college? California schools used to be pretty cheap for tuition but I don't know if that's the case any more. And California isn't a cheap place to live for a lot of reasons. Where are you living now? Perhaps their colleges would work for you and be cheaper?

Wendy

Hopefully this link will work with specific information:
http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Residency/establish.html

Thanks guys!

I ended up emailing CSULB for more specifics. I did find out that if you attended 3 years of high school and graduated from that state, you may be eligible for an out of state tuition waiver. We'll see what they say about that.

    Have been a CA resident for decades and a full time RVer for about 18 years. I've stayed in Mobile Home, RV, and every other kind of lot/park with no problems.

If it weren't for the outstanding care I get with my Kaiser HMO I might have moved to NV - however, Kaiser is too good vs. the trade offs.

I have never "taken" a college level course while full timing, but have taught for a number of years at the JC level. I have also taught at GGU in SF but was not RVing at the time.

Have received my mail in various ways while full timing - initially, just bought a PO box at the closes post office to the RV park I was in. For the past 5 or 6 years I have used a UPS Store. That has worked well because the address doesn't "seem" like a PMB. Also, I can get my mail on Sundays, evenings, or holidays. And finally, it's UPS -- so can get my stuff forwarded at whatever speed I want at the time from wherever I am parked at the time.

Probably the longest I've been out of state on a trek has been maybe 5 months or so. During that time I have had an ER visit or two that Kaiser paid the fees involved. If I stay out of state too long and, say, had two ER visits beyond 6 months or so they would most likely get on my case. Such as visit once was billed at $23,000 and a similar visit to a Kaiser ER would have cost $65. Of course, Kaiser administers Medicare - so only paid a fraction of the $23k. That hospital had to just write off the remainder as I am under Medicare.

One other hassle I had that peeved me about CA DMV. I bought my current RV in Texas - and used my RV at the time as a trade that covered about $15,000. In TX, one does not pay state tax on a trade in. However, as soon as I got back to CA I only 20 days to register the newer rig - and then had to pay state tax on that $15k. Bummer . . . 

bonnyal said:

I ended up emailing CSULB for more specifics. I did find out that if you attended 3 years of high school and graduated from that state, you may be eligible for an out of state tuition waiver. We'll see what they say about that.

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I believe that's for immigrants and appears to apply to the time period directly before attending CU. The Univ of Calif policy seems pretty clear-cut that you must have been physically in California for 366 days before qualifying for residency tuition. I'd suggest calling the school you want to attend and talking to the registrar. And check on the schools in the state where you're living now, there might be a better option there.

Funny how many people are trying to figure out ways NOT to be a California resident

AND California is really putting the screws to even the Ca residents for tuition.  It's too bad too. We shouldn't be trying to balance the budget on the backs of our students. 

Holy Cow, I just looked at the in-state tuition for Univ of Calif ! You might be better off staying where you are and finishing up your education there. Unless you really want to return to California and become a resident there.

Move to CA.  Get a CA drivers' license and a CA address.

If you have a CA HS diploma and aren't trying to transfer in any credits from an out-of-state institution, I doubt they'll question your recent whereabouts.
If they do, stay another 365 days, make sure you dot all I's and cross all T's and reapply.

I used to be a student advocate at a university in MT.  We had to learn how students could apply for residency and explain the process.
I knew several other students who moved to MT shortly before HS graduation and stayed with relatives.  With a MT diploma, the school really didn't look any closer.  They did take a close look at kids with out-of-state diplomas and transfer students.  If your parents lived in CA when you graduated, they've already paid some $$ into the system.