[smass]

Anyone here have experience with being a temp resident in CA? We live in FL and my wife is going to be out in CA going to school for the next 8 months. She is taking her car and it appears that CA wants her to re-title, register, smog, switch insurance and get a new drivers license. Students under 24 years old are not required to register but my wife is 43.

Once done with school, she would then need to title, register, insure and change her drivers license back to FL. The car is currently in both of our names and I will only be in CA on random weekends. The ticket for not registering in CA is $300 which is actually less than all of the above items. The problem would be if she got more than one ticket .

I am perfectly OK with giving the CA tax man his $$$. I simply don't want to re-pay all the fees associated with coming back to FL as a new resident when we technically never left. As she did not spend more than 6 months of any calendar year in CA she is not a CA resident.

Thanks

[Ryan 330i]

I had a similar issue. You actually do not need to register in CA if it's only temporary. They say after 30 days of living there you do, but honestly you don't. As long as your current state plates and tags are current, and you're insured you're fine. This was actually told to me by a friend at the CA DMV. The only issue would be if you kept getting stopped by the same cop, which is very unlikely. I spend half my year in Oregon and half in CA, and I've never had a problem. It it's a PIA to register a car with an out of state title, especially if there is a lone still on the car. Lots of paperwork, and unnecessary. If it's only for a few months I'd not worry about it.

[Thp4]

Once you return to florida, you will not have to pay the 225 initial registration again. I was told yesterday at tax collectors office that since I previously had a florida tag (prior to moving to ga) that I would not have to pay that fee again when i register my car. I confirmed this on the web page..

[N6CRB]

Please don't feed the tax dudes. It only encourages them.

[smass]

Thanks for all the great info. She parks in a garage where she is staying. Hopefully that limits her exposure.

[Sara]

How would it work if (god forbid) she were to get in an accident.. Would her insurance cover her? Just want to make sure shes covered.. Happened to my sister. She got hit (was not at fault) and the opposing counsel deposed her and in her deposition she had to state why she was staying Louisiana yet had Mississippi tags and insurance. Which is a huge no no.

[smass]

Originally Posted by Sara504

How would it work if (god forbid) she were to get in an accident.. Would her insurance cover her? Just want to make sure shes covered.. Happened to my sister. She got hit (was not at fault) and the opposing counsel deposed her and in her deposition she had to state why she was staying Louisiana yet had Mississippi tags and insurance. Which is a huge no no.

I checked with State Farm FL before she left and they said she is 100% covered. This is another area where change is bad. Dropping State Farm FL for the auto could cause them to drop my homeowners coverage. They no longer write homeowners policies in FL and the only alternatives are no name companies.

[smass]

Update. My wife was getting worried so we went to DMV yesterday. They were very helpful and were able to get her CA tags but also maintain the registration and title in CA. So she now has 2 sets of plates and DMV says to switch them when she switches states. They tried to take the title/tag several times out of habit so pay attention. Ultimately they wanted the FL registration which she gave to them and then ordered a new one on the FL DMV website.

It cost $211 but the ticket for out of state tags is $300 and you can get more than one! She was not required to switch her drivers license or insurance from FL.

I called CA DMV a few weeks ago and they insisted we would need to transfer/surrender the title and tag. Internet searches did not mention that you can legally have tags in CA and FL at the same time. Hopefully this info will help someone else.

[to_riffic]

~fail

There are thousands of "actors" in Hollywood trying to break into the biz with out of state plates and they don't bother to register them at all. When they do get pulled over, they just say they "just got here from so and so state a week ago."

My friend had his Michigan plate on for over a year before he decided to make SoCal his home, then only did he register for a CA plate....

[smass]

Sacramento is a little different than LA. There are very few out of state tags. The teachers college my wife is going to has a troll who likes to look for offenders with out of state tags. Several staff members warned her. As this is a teachers college all the students are above 24 years of age and are required to have CA tags. I agree it is a fail. Compared to lawless FL, CA is close to a communist state .

[to_riffic]

Originally Posted by smassey321

Sacramento is a little different than LA. There are very few out of state tags. The teachers college my wife is going to has a troll who likes to look for offenders with out of state tags. Several staff members warned her. As this is a teachers college all the students are above 24 years of age and are required to have CA tags. I agree it is a fail. Compared to lawless FL, CA is close to a communist state .

lol. well put

[Boostaddiction27]

you do not need to register your vehicle if you are a temp resident in CA...if you are a perm resident in FL and are here for school,military etc..you will be fine