<p>I have been reading around trying to understand this, but perhaps someone can clarify;</p>
<p>If a student moves to CA to establish residency, and lives there for a year+, gets a CA driver's licence, supports themselves financially without any support from their out-of-state parents, are not claimed on their parents taxes as a dependent, pays CA state taxes, has a CA residential address... can they then (after the full year of residency without attending school during that year) apply as a CA resident?</p>
<p>The student would still be a dependent under FAFSA guidelines, but I assume that is irrelavent to establishing CA residency... or not?</p>
<p>California is one of the “easier” states in which to establish residency for tuition purposes, but the kid needs to be financially independent. They must live on their own dime, and be able to show pay stubs (or a large trust fund that kicks off big interest), not mommy’s and daddy’s for the year they are here.</p>
<p>^ Hahaha. Hmm…well then, I guess all those students paying OOS tuition at UCs are just stupid? CA is fairly HARD to establish residency. Without being financially independent, five years of residency is required in order to be considered “in-state”. In order to establish in-state residency as someone who did NOT attend high school in CA/really live tehre, you have to live in CA for more than one year and be financially independent (not be listed on your parents taxes as “dependent” for two years.) Also remember, being financially independent and establishing residency in CA is WAY more expensive than most other states due to housing prices and just increased living expenses. So it’s not just, get a crappy job and a crappy apartment because even crappy apartments can be pretty expensive.</p>
<p>In case I have transcribed any of this information wrong from the official website, here it is: </p>
<p>*Unmarried undergraduates from other states qualify as financially independent if they were not claimed by their parents or others as dependents for tax purposes for two preceding tax years and if their annual income is sufficient to meet their needs. *</p>
<p>So…you have to wait until your parents haven’t claimed you for two years, AND you have to demonstrate that you have had a high enought income during that time to show that you really were supporting yourself. That would be hard for many kids to do.</p>
<p>Does that also mean that you can’t be on your parents’ health insurance anymore?</p>
<p>What about if parents are married; dad has established residency and paying CA state income tax as of May '09 and Mom still working in TX waiting for kiddo to graduate HS. Applied to UCLA.</p>
<p>Thanks. I get this question from time to time from kids at the high school. I kind of had an idea, but wanted to make sure I was understanding the specifics correctly.</p>
<p>I actually was born and raised in CA and went to college and grad school there at state publics, but I moved to a neighboring state some time ago – and of course residency wasn’t an issue for me at the time anyway so I never paid much attention to it.</p>
<p>One more question… I know community colleges in CA have different standards for determining residency - less stringent ones in some cases. Is it possible for a student to establish residency in order to attend a community college by meeting that cc’s requirements, and then after a couple years as a (fully self-supporting) cc student qualify for residency for CSU schools?</p>
<p>I seem to recall you cannot be a student while establishing residency, but would that apply to a cc student too since their residency (at least as it pertains to the cc’s own requirements) has already been established?</p>
<p>Nope – they are just not financially independent. Parents are paying for them. (What part did you miss in my prior post.)</p>
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<p>Yup, as easy as that. Every year kids move to Santa Barbara or San Diego or LA, work for a year and then take courses at the local college at instate rates.</p>
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<p>Not relative to some other states, and you would see the difference if you peruse grad school boards, particularly the professional schools’. </p>
<p>Let me try again: for instate tuition, an OOS student MUST be financially independent for UC/CSU and even jucos – but they tend to look the other way due to additional circumstances. Jucos can be more flexible bcos they also receive targeted funding from time to time, such as job retraining funds, or displaced workers. Thus, they can offer a course to any local adult at subsidized rates.</p>
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<p>Definitely, but the key is not attending a juco per se, but just being a resident for a “couple of years…”</p>
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<p>That would have to be appealed, and it would likely be granted since Dad is instate.</p>
<p>It seems to me that the UCLA and Cal websites say doing this is pretty difficult. I suppose the key is being able to live here independently for a few years. That seems like a challenge for many adults in my community. If you had a great trust fund, would that be better than just paying the OOS tuition? I suppose it’s possible to live here on 50K, but could someone with just a high school degree make that kind of money after taxes?</p>
<p>Definitely not easy per se, but just easier than many other states, i.e., the other states are even more difficult.</p>
<p>Yes, a huge trust fund will work. For example, grandfather dies and leaves young wipper-snapper $1MM in cold hard cash. Invested at 5% yeilds $50k per year, which is plenty to live on independently AND pay the cost of attendance at college.</p>
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<p>Exactly, AND pay tuition/fees. But, and this is how other states make it harder, a trust fund won’t necessarily work in their states. The kid would have to purchase property, for example, and not just live off of interest to obtain instate rates.</p>
<p>But the first two years, they wouldn’t be able to attend school ( per the requirements ), right? So they would just have to earn/have living expenses. So lets say they inherit the 100k in living expenses. Why not just use that toward OOS tuition, and have the benefit of earning potential two years earlier? I guess net expenditure would be 200k, vs 150K, but would you ( and taxes ) gain more if you were out in the workforce?</p>
<p>Ahhh…but maybe you have to prove you have/can earn enough to live AND pay relevant tuition? So somewhere between 75 and 100k per year?</p>
<p>I am not sure about the implications of attending school during that time because for Cal for example…</p>
<p>if…“you want to be classified as a resident for tuition purposes, you must have established your continuous presence in California more than one year immediately preceding the residence determination date for the semester during which you propose to attend the University… You must also present objective evidence that you intend to make California your permanent home. Evidence of intent must be dated one year before the term for which you seek resident classification. … Physical presence within the state solely for educational purposes does not constitute the establishment of California residence …”. But maybe if you do some of the other things it would be alright. </p>
<p>My question is about this…</p>
<p>“you are a single undergraduate student who was not claimed as an income tax deduction by your parents or any other individual for the two tax years immediately preceding the term for which you are requesting resident classification, and you can demonstrate self-sufficiency for those years and the current year”</p>
<p>So for Fall '12, you will have to have shown, by the spring financial aid application period, that you made enough money in between spring '11 to spring '12 , to live and pay in state, or OOS tuition? And your parents cannot have claimed you for '10 and '11? That’s some serious planning, but I guess there are scenarios where this could happen. Wonder what the real savings would be?</p>
<p>I am working with one girl right now who is interested in moving to CA, establish in-state residency for a community college (not as difficult as for the UCs and CSUs), and after doing a couple years in comm. college then transferring to a 4-yr state school.</p>
<p>She will be a full Pell recipient, so it’s not inconceivable she could meet tuition, fees, and books at the cc with her Pell and some work-study. However, she would have to work for living expenses. She has friends there with whom she could share rent, and by some stretch of the imagination this could all be possible…</p>
<p>However, my question is really, when the time came to transfer to the CSU or UC school, would the fact that she’d already been enrolled at the community college invalidate her year(s) residing in CA since she was an enrolled student at that time?</p>
<p>The UC/CSU residency requirements seem to say you can’t establish residence if you’re attending college in CA at the same time… the catch in her situation is that she would be attending cc, but at the cc itself she would have qualified for in-state tuition by their standards, which of course are not as stringent initially as the 4-yr publics.</p>
<p>Good question. I hope she would be coming for other reasons too. Do you know what city she’d start with? I live in one of the cheapest, and I don’t know of any students (well, certainly not full time students) who earn enough for living expenses, even with four roomates. She should probably check out Sacramento area.</p>
<p>yes, it happens all the time. Some kids move to Santa Barbara and live in a flop house, work at a local diner and take a class or two at SBCC. After a year they earn instate tuition, and then when they earn their AA, they transfer to UCSB as instate. Again, the key is FULL financial independence for at least one year.</p>
<p>Thanks, Shrinkrap and Bluebayou. Yes, Shrinkrap, she wants to move there to attend school, but she also would like to live and work there before, during, and beyond attending school.</p>
<p>Oddly enough, she also has a parent (divorced, non-custodial) who lives just inside the CA border. However, she does not live with him, is not supported by him, did not attend high school there, and so forth… so his residency doesn’t really do her any good as far as I can tell.</p>