I studied my schooling in California from KG to 12th. I will be heading to college in Texas and plan to establish a residency there and become a resident in my 2nd or 3rd year by working over 20 hours a week. My questions is when applying for grad schools after 4 years since my parents are still in California and I studied my high school in california can I apply as resident to California schools at that time? Can some one help to answer this question.
As a dependent, your residency is where you parents are. Not sure what you are doing in Texas to get in state tuition, doesn’t sounds quite right, but if you are working 20 hours a week, you would be a part time student, as you are talking up engineering and pre med this would be especially true. What is the instate tuition route you believe you can get in Texas?
Terrible plan. This is from UT Austin’s website. You will still be a CA resident. Are you trying to get instate tuition for UT? …if you can’t afford UT OOS, then stay in CA for undergrad.
Requirements
If you are independent for tax purposes, you may gain resident status if you establish domicile in the state.
If your parent(s) claim you as a dependent on their federal income tax return, they must establish domicile in the state for you to claim residency.
To establish domicile, you or your parent(s) must meet the following criteria:
Live in Texas for 12 consecutive months; and
Establish and maintain domicile for 12 consecutive months, as evidenced by:
Gainful employment in Texas;
Note: Student jobs do not qualify as gainful employment.
Sole or joint marital ownership of residential real property in Texas by the person seeking to enroll or the dependent’s parent, having established and maintained a domicile at the residence;
Ownership and operation of a business in Texas; or
Marriage for one year to a person who has established domicile in Texas.
I am no expert but, my guess is you can’t have it both ways. To be an ‘in state’ student in Texas, you will need to forego your CA local status by no longer being their dependent. You will probably need to move back the CA after you graduate from the Texas college and re-establish your residency with at least 366 days of physical presence in California, and Concurrent intent to permanently remain in the state (drivers lic, job, etc)
According to the UC website
“You normally cannot establish California residence for purposes of tuition while maintaining legal ties to another state or country (e.g. state tax liability, driver’s license, voter’s or vehicle registration). These documents are seen as indicators of your intent to stay in California, and must obtained concurrently with the start of your physical presence in California”
You can read more about it here.
https://ucop.edu/residency/10-things-grads.html
Every state is different with CA being the most restrictive and you may be able to do exactly what you plan depending on if you can get in state in Texas, states don’t get to tell each other who is in state and who is not. If you follow Texas rules for in state then you will get in state in Texas, if you can follow CA rules then you can get in state in CA. They may or may not be mutually exclusive.