I was classified as a Non-Resident [UC Residency Policy]

<p>It is true that leases are not necessary. But usually there will be a boilerplate rental agreement. It isn’t required by either party, CA laws are used in absence. I can’t see why returned checks wouldn’t be used. If you paid in cash and just have a receipt that starts to look shaky. If you paid in cash with no receipt then you have no proof.</p>

<p>If you paid with no receipt, it is possible you were paying under the table so to speak. No proof.</p>

<p>OP: How did you pay rent? (How physically did you pay rent – a check, “pay a person” function through your bank, money order, …) </p>

<p>I paid using money orders. However, the receipts don’t show my name. Plus, I threw out the receipts that I had for 2012. I wasn’t aware that this would be a major deciding factor in establishing financial independence. </p>

<p>I was employed for two years. I filed both state and federal taxes for two years. I have sufficient state documentations. </p>

<p>I just got my appeal letter yesterday and they’re now asking for bank statements and parent and student statements indicating that I didn’t receive any money from my parents or from other people.</p>

<p>Were you self-supporting?</p>

<p>I’m confused as to why paying taxes in a state for two years and filing taxes from that address is not enough. But I’m not an expert. </p>

<p>Were the money orders purchased by you? If so…where are the receipts. </p>

<p>Come on…you are claiming that you have NO receipt for the payment of your rent, but you want someone to give you residency based on that? You will have to find written evidence that YOU actually paid that rent.</p>

<p>@liguel Why did you pay using money orders? Isn’t there a fee to use money orders? Why not just use your checking account (do you have one - if so, what address is on your checks and is the bank local)?</p>

<p>Did your parents or any family member or relative or friend give you money? Did your dad or other relatives send you the money orders for your rent?</p>

<p>Madison, there are millions of people in the US who do not have bank accounts or checking accounts. They live through money orders or making payments at payments centers (for electric, gas, water, etc).</p>

<p>OP, you need to establish your history in California. Through an affidavit of your landlord, receipts you have for 2012-2013 rent payment, work history, taxes.</p>

<p>To the OP…the question the school needs answered is who actually paid the money for your rent. You need to figure out some way to verify this. Did you use cash to purchase the money orders? Did you happen to make a copy of them?</p>

<p>I just looked at a bank check receipt I have…and while I realize that money orders are different, my receipt DOES have my name on it.</p>

<p>OP, your story makes us suspicious, so it’s not surprising that the college is suspicious, too.</p>

<p>The reason why I did not sign a lease is because I never thought that it would be important that time. I’m the one who paid for rent. Unfortunately, my money order receipt does not display my name since I got it from a grocery store. I gave them the complete log report of our apartment. My name doesn’t appear on that, but the control numbers of the receipts that I gave them do. I gave them tax forms, W-2s, and pay stubs. It’s the rental agreement that I cannot provide to them since it was an ORALLY ESTABLISHED RENT-AT-WILL. No one gave me any money. The reason why I paid through money orders is because they won’t accept my check since I didn’t sign the lease.</p>

<p>This may be a lesson hard learned. Next time, sign a lease.</p>

<p>@thumper1 or just have better parents… lol </p>

<p>I’ve used money orders before and there is a space for your name and the recipient’s name. If you didn’t use the space for your name, you can’t prove that it came from you, neither can the university. This was on you.</p>

<p>It looks to me as if you did anything and everything to avoid using your name on everything:
A.) Lease
B.) money orders
C.) name on receipts
D.) utilities
This is not very clever when you are in one of the toughest states that requires month-to-month proof to establish residency. Monthly dated receipts, with names and amounts paid, show continuity.</p>

<p>Tax forms don’t prove where you are living on a month-to month-basis. You can file taxes from anywhere: case in point-our military file their taxes from overseas using Turbo Tax. The State of California does not really use tax forms to establish residency. </p>

<p>Did you not think you would have to establish residency at your primary residence? You have no physical proof that you paid rent with either your name or the landlord’s information on your rent stub. Even if you, or the landlord, are hiding something, your first name can go on the lease; that’s what my daughter and her roommates did. </p>

<p><<<i thought="" i="" was="" a="" ca="" resident,="" but="" they="" decided="" that="" i’m="" not="" financially="" independent="" because="" cannot="" show="" proof="" of="" rental="" agreement,="" check="" or="" something.="" rented-at-will,="" meaning="" it="" more="" an="" oral="" agreement="" with="" the="" actual="" person="" who="" signed="" lease.="" just="" don’t="" get="" logic="" behind="" it.="">>>></i></p><i thought="" i="" was="" a="" ca="" resident,="" but="" they="" decided="" that="" i’m="" not="" financially="" independent="" because="" cannot="" show="" proof="" of="" rental="" agreement,="" check="" or="" something.="" rented-at-will,="" meaning="" it="" more="" an="" oral="" agreement="" with="" the="" actual="" person="" who="" signed="" lease.="" just="" don’t="" get="" logic="" behind="" it.="">

<p>The logic behind it is that thousands of students want to show up in California and be educated at the expense of the California taxpayer. We pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes over many years. Your two years of residency in taxes pays the feds first and then California a minute amount. You had the opportunity to prove your residency by maintaining proof with documentation. No proof=non-resident. Everything is fuzzy because your name is on nothing consistent. </p>
</i>

<p>I’m sorry you find yourself in this situation. </p>

<p>The hilarious thing, really, is that if you had been trying to establish residency you would have done everything right. So, it’s clear to me this was just a massive oversight on your part, and I’m sorry you didn’t realize how legalistic this can all be these days.</p>

<p>I think it’s silly if the point of instate breaks is who pays taxes in what state to quibble over the tax issue, but I’m mostly always at a loss to understand the logic in these kind of beauracratic things.</p>

<p>I hope you figure it out! Good luck. </p>

<p>Yeah, money orders do have a space to write your name. I remember using them to pay some university deposits; had I sent the order without my name and ID, they wouldn’t have known who was making the deposit.</p>

<p>I did write my name. However, it does not show on the receipt.</p>

<p>I paid utilities (internet) under my name for a year too.</p>

<p>You wrote your name on TWELVE receipts and it didn’t come through on ANY of them? Really?</p>

<p>Did your internet bill have THIS address on it?</p>