<p>My daughter, a Florida resident, will go to college in California. She plans on taking her car with her. Can she keep her Florida tag and Florida driver's license?</p>
<p>Yes. She is still a Florida resident as long as she is an undergraduate (I don’t know whether this its true for grad school). Unless she changes her residency by registering to vote in California and getting her driver’s license there, she will stay a Florida resident.</p>
<p>Overall, yes, but California requires special thought. Be sure the insurance is recognized in California and there are places that will honor it but find them. Your insurance company in Florida may have issues with her having the car exclusively in California at her use. If she calls attention to herself in California as a driver, that could raise your premiums significantly. </p>
<p>Home state inspections become hugely problematic due to difficulty of driving the car inspected in Cali to meet another state’s standards. Although, there IS a recognized intrastate service (can’t recalll the name) which MAY have an office somewhere in California to facilitate this. We’re currently waiting on our own son’s answers on how to do the far-away car inspection re: New York State, so are working on this piece ourselves right now. </p>
<p>The best and easiest solution if you expect she’ll have the car there a long time is to insure and register it in California. But…California is hugely expensive even by NYS insurance standards. We have a male, not a female driver which makes insurance costs worse due to gender. Either way, it’s worth looking into carefully.</p>
<p>Also we knew from the outset at age 18 our S would prefer to live in Cali once he graduates college, due to his chosen field of work. You may or may not know what that future is re: your daughter right now.</p>
<p>I hope some of our experience on this helps you a bit.</p>
<p>Be aware that if she registers the car and gets a driver’s license in California, she will likely be called for jury duty almost immediately. This happened to my son when he moved to California for graduate school.</p>