<p>I cross posted with Sybbie, and want to add, yes, if the requirement is that you had to file and pay a certain number of years of taxes in state, to get residency, then you do need to come up with that proof. In fact, that was a requirement that the employee at a college did not have to get in state tuition at the school where she worked. She needed to have filed and paid state taxes for a full calendar year to get in state rates at her school. </p>
<p>Now if you did not work, did not owe taxes, did not file taxes, you can ask what the provisions are for someone who was in state but didn’t fit into a category where that was the case. Some illegal immigrants have that problem. They are here getting money under the table, or in the case of some students, their parents have been so they have not filed taxes though were in state. And yes, that can be an issue if that there is no documentation as to how a living was being made, how the bills are being paid The school might not care about legal/illegal status, but they will not confer in state rates at times if the person was not paying into the state system unless there is a paper trail showing that they did not need to do so. You can’t come as tourist and sit there on your assets and family money, and then say you are in state for tuition, for example. That does happen too, and different schools handle this in different ways.</p>