We live in IL…for now. Our daughter is a junior in HS in IL. My husband will be retiring the same time our daughter graduates HS next year (2019). I don’t work. Our hope is that we will retire in AL by summer of 2019. Our dd will be attending college in AL fall of 2019. We know we will have to pay out of state tuition her first year. Here is the twist. My mother in law is 93 yo. My husband says that he will not move away from her until she passes. The plan is that I will be moving to establish residency and to help take care of my aging mother who lives in AL. He “may” continue working while I live in AL. Will I be able to establish residency if my husband is still working and drawing a paycheck in IL while I’ll be living permanently in AL if our situation works out this way? Can we file sep state income taxes even though I’m not working? Any input would be greatly appreciated by anyone with knowledge. Tyia!
If your daughter is a junior, how do you know she’ll be attending college in AL? I’d look carefully at the residency requirements of any college she’s interested in to see if they allow kids who start as OOS students to change their status. Some don’t at all and others make the process really difficult. If you move when your daughter enrolls in college I think it’s going to look like you’re moving there for educational purposes. That may make it a challenge to get classified as a state resident.
@mom2collegekids seems like you might know the answer.
Or help her get the stats needed for full tuition at UAH and make it a moot point 
Yes, if she has high stats, automatic merit scholarships at various schools in Alabama may make it less necessary to get in state residency there.
We thought we would be moving to MD when our daughter was a high school junior. She applied to a lot of schools in PA, MD and NY. We already had a residence in MD because my husband was working there 1/2 the year but our residency was in another state where we filed our taxes. We still would have had to wait 2 years of paying taxes to be considered citizens of MD. During DD’s senior year, my husband suddenly lost his job and we moved to IL. Thankfully that was before college decision time, and her top choice was in the midwest anyway. Just wanted to caution you that life has a funny way of getting in the way of the best laid plans!
Here are some scholarship listings at Alabama public universities:
http://www.alasu.edu/cost-aid/types-of-aid/asu-scholarships/asu-academic-scholarships/index.aspx
http://www.aamu.edu/admissions/fincialaid/documents/academicscholarshipbrochure1819x.pdf
https://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.php
https://www.uah.edu/admissions/undergraduate/financial-aid/scholarships/merit-tuition-scholarships
http://www.uab.edu/students/paying-for-college/scholarships/act-gpa-based-scholarships-out-of-state
https://admissions.illinois.edu/FAQ/in-state-tuition says that:
I.e. depending on the timing of your move out of Illinois, she may be able to retain Illinois residency for tuition purposes.
Here is some information about Alabama residency for tuition purposes from the University of Alabama:
https://registrar.ua.edu/academics-policies/residency-for-tuition-purposes/
Alabama establishes in/out of state at the time of admission. It is difficult to change it later (you have to provide evidence that the move is genuine, permanent & unrelated to attending university).
Relevant info from the UA website (https://registrar.ua.edu/academics-policies/residency-for-tuition-purposes/):
Long story short, although your specific reasons may be unique, most state universities have similar provisions to ensure that students don’t venue shop.
It seems like sending Illinois kids to college in Alabama is the thing to do!
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-illinois-students-brain-drain-20180405-story.html
I don’t see anything “unique” about your daughter’s situation at all. Your family has made a decision to relocate…but only one parent will be doing so at this time. This is hardly unique. There are lots of cases where one parent relocates for a job, and another stays behind to sell a house, or have a kid finish HS.
There will be some hurdles you will need to deal with in terms of gaining Alabama residency.
- Your daughter will be graduating from an Illinois high school. That doesn’t support AL residency.
- Your residency her senior year in high school will be Illinois...not Alabama.
- If you complete financial aid forms, you will need to include prior prior year tax return information...and either link to the IRS DRT for the FAFSA or get a tax transcript. If your daughter is going to start college in fall 2020, then she would be completing a 2020-2021 financial aid application form...and your 2018 tax year would be used. Your tax return would reflect an Illinois residence in 2018, and filing as an instate resident...in Illinois which wouldn’t exactly support residency in Alabama.
In 2021-2022, you would use 2019 tax return info…still Illinois residents on the taxes.
In 2022-2023 you would use the 2020 taxes…and it sounds like you would still be Illinois residents on that one too.
- @BelknapPoint for tax purposes...what would this look like if these parents filed jointly? If father was an Illinois resident, but mom was living in Alabama? Dad is the only one working.
- Will you have two residences? One in Illinois and another in Alabama? Will you buy a home in Alabama? Do you own one and will you continue to do so in Illinois? This could affect need based aid...if you needed that.
The University of Alabama auto merit awards would really be the way to go. Your daughter would need to be at the top of her academic game…but an auto merit award from Alabama could being the cost of attendance below UIUC, and very close to what instate students pay to attend Alabama…@mom2collegekids
For federal or state taxes? Or both? Too many unknowns to say anything of intelligence.
People who are married can file a joint tax return even if they do not live together or in the same state. Happens all the time. People file state returns for states where they do not live because they have income from that state. Where you file state taxes if a factor in determining residency, but not the only one.
In this case, the mother living in Alabama might not have any need to file in Alabama if she has no income. She could still be an Alabama resident if she lives there, registers her car, registers to vote, gets a library card, or does whatever else the checklist requests. She’d have to check what the requirements are for residency for tuition purposes. Those might be different than being a resident.
States can set any rules they want. My nephew had instate residency in 3 states. Colorado gives instate rates if one parent live in Colorado, and for my nephew his father does; no requirement to claim him on taxes or show support. He had instate in Florida because he graduated from high school there. His mother moved to CT, and after a year he gained residency there.
Other states set much stricter rules and students can gain residency only after 2 years or may never gain it.
@BelknapPoint I was thinking federal taxes as that is what the schools will be wanting info about for financial aid purposes…
Yes @twoinanddone they can file a joint return. BUT if the dad is living and working in Illinois…seems to me that the federal income tax address would be his residence in Illinois…since he doesn’t plan to relocate to Alabama.
Maybe this doesn’t matter if they use the IRS DRT…but seems to me that the tax transcript has the place of residence on it…and if that is Illinois…that won’t support this student’s claim for residency in Alabama.
But maybe I’m missing something…
And anyway…the mom doesn’t even plan to move until the daughter finishes HS.
Really…wouldn’t this all be easier if the mom and daughter relocated now to Alabama…and the daughter did two years of HS there…and graduated from an Alabama HS? Then surely she would be an AL resident.
But maybe they aren’t totally positive this is going to happen. And it does sound like the relocation is so,the kiddo can attend college in Alabama.
Perhaps the OP can clarify why they are moving to Alabama.
You wrote…
If your daughter is currently a junior (the 2018-2019 school year) in Illinois, how would she be graduating in 2019? That’s 10 months from now.
If she has just started her junior year…she would be completing HS in 2020…right?
Or is she planning to graduate early?
Alabama residency rules: