<p>I have a question regarding my SLR for UC Berkeley. I have been a california resident my whole life. Gone to HS here and CCC as well. But I worked out of state for six months last year. One of the questions on the SLR is "Have you been physically present in California for the last 3 years, excluding brief absences for vacation purposes?
If you attended school or accepted employment outside California during the last three years, answer "no "."</p>
<p>Does working out of state like I did disqualify me for in-state tuition?</p>
<p>All may not be lost. For instance, there are some European kids working around Washington DC for the summer and no one is calling them residents of the U.S. </p>
<p>Because you attended high school in CA and (hopefully) your parents are and have been residents, you may qualify as a dependent of your parents (who have been in CA this last year, I hope). </p>
<p>I think I’d call the Admissions Department and innocently ask – and I’d ask in a way that would tend to get me the answer I wanted. Not “I worked out of state, am I screwed?” but something like “I had an opportunity for an internship in MA” or “I explored hamburger wrapping as an art form in OR” – while making it clear that my parents were and had been residents during that time. </p>
<p>If “Suzy” or “Jamal” in Admissions says “Go ahead and apply as a Resident” then I’d make a note of her/his name in my files and go for it. </p>
<p>You never want to lie about where you were when. It is too easy to get busted (besides lying is not what you want to do anytime) – but you can give a view that leans your way in this particular case. Good luck!</p>
<p>Be honest and select “no”. I went through this same process with UCSC recently and received classification as an in-state resident. I was NOT classified as a dependent on my CA resident parents and received in-state tuition at an OOS institution but recently (two days ago) received CA residency classification. Question- Will you have been physically present in CA for 365 consecutive days prior to enrolling at UCB this fall?</p>
<p>If you’re a dependent on your parents, you’ll be fine. If not, then they will look to your own physical presence/intent to stay in CA. If you aren’t it might be in your best interest to send along additional information (scanned images of license, voter’s registration, car registration, pink slip, etc) to prove your intent, but be sure and omit any sensitive information (SSN, etc) from these documents otherwise they will trash them.</p>
<p>I know they take residency as a case by case thing, but I’m pretty confident that if I could receive residency, you probably could too seeing as you were only gone for 6 months because you had a job. Being that my case was more extreme than yours and I still received resident classification, you’ll probably be alright.</p>
<p>If you’re still having doubts, contact UCB’s residency deputy and ask them. I had plenty of correspondence with UCSC’s and she gave me an idea of what to expect/send along with the SLR. Be advised that they can’t tell you anything specific until they have your SLR in hand. If you have any questions feel free to shoot me a message. I know this process can be stressful as I just went through the same thing as you with the SLR. Best of luck, OP! :)</p>