<p>DH and I are giving some thought to purchasing a car for DD to keep at school next year. She will most likely want to live off campus. We are trying to decide if it would be better to hold the title, insurance and license in PA, or if we should buy her a car and insurance in AL in her name and have her obtain a drivers’ license too. The states I’m familiar with require getting cars registered within a couple of months of moving in. Is being a student an exception to that rule?</p>
<p>Being a student is an exception…her home state is where YOU live. My older son is in grad school in another state, but everything is in our home state…license, insurance, etc. He’s just a student in his school state.</p>
<p>Don’t have her get a license, insurance, in Alabama…keep everything in your home state. Her insurance would likely increase if you got her Alabama everything because it would look like she’s an AL resident and then shouldn’t be on your insurance…and would need a sep policy.</p>
<p>Also, you’ll want her to keep her OOS status…she gets more money if she studies a semester abroad that way.</p>
<p>If you look in many college parking lots (that have OOS students) you’ll see a bunch of OOS plates.</p>
<p>Thanks M2ck. We were also thinking of the complication that state inspection creates. We live so far away, I think it’s possible she won’t be driving the car home unless she comes home for the whole summer. And she’s loving UA so much, she may not want to leave. Just trying to weigh the pros and cons.</p>
<p>Depending on the state, the car may not need an inspection until it returns to the state of registration. Of course, if your state exempts hybrids or vehicles that conform to California emissions standards from emissions testing, you could buy her one of those.</p>
<p>There is really no reason to get a drivers license or have a car registered in Alabama as an OOS student as one likely can’t get AL residency for tuition purposes and getting such documents could possibly negate ones home state residency, which would cause a problem if one wanted to take summer classes at a state university near home.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>Good point about summer classes in one’s home state. </p>
<p>I would also be concerned that my family policy wouldn’t cover an adult child with a license from another state.</p>
<p>We actually asked a Tuscaloosa police officer this question when dinning at a table next to a group of officers at RAMA JAMA’s in T-town a couple weeks prior to school starting… he said there was no need to have D’s vehicle registered in AL/get AL plates. He has a student at UA so we were double confident in his answer. We are also from the Northeast. However, the thought about the annual inspection is a good one that we hadn’t yet thought of…she too will most likely bring the vehicle home only in the summer. Will make a call to our motor vehicle department this week to get an answer on that. DH thinking they will allow an extension for a student OOS.</p>
<p>Hmmm, lots to think about. Just want to avoid buying a car here then having to re-register in AL. So if a student is living in an apt. complex off campus year round, there won’t be any police taking note of the oos plates? DH lived in an apt in Maryland years ago where they tried to catch people who fail to comply.</p>
<p>No doubt, we are over-thinking this.</p>
<p>Juniebug…our D has a car on campus this year. She lives in a gated community off campus. they have her license plate number registered so that they know who the out of state plates are registered to. she has Mo plates and the car is titled and registered and insured in the state of Missouri. If you look around her parking lot there are lots of OOS licenses.</p>
<p>Juniebug, much like those on military orders, students going to school OOS remain residents of their home state as their move is considered to be temporary regardless if they intend on returning to their home state after graduation. It is different from situations where people permanently move out of a state and keep their vehicles registered in a different state to save on licensing fees. </p>
<p>It is a very simple process to switch ones mailing address to Alabama while keeping one’s legal address (for residency and voting purposes) in another state. Since my home state is 100% vote-by-mail, I have my ballots automatically mailed to Alabama and will occasionally get political advertisements about candidates running for office in my home state.</p>