Questions on legal residence

[PenguinGal]

Last week I commissioned. Unfortunately there was a bit of a screw up with my commissioning documents. First, despite having told the recruiter for 18 months who I wanted to swear me in, they put the wrong person. Second, they had my address for establishing legal residence as my current residence. Thanks to the Military Spouse Residency Relief Act under the SCRA, I have been maintaining my 'citizenship' in FL since my husband got PCS orders over 2 years ago and dragging me to CA. The recruiter present said that it was an easy fix to change this. The more I am looking the more I am beginning to doubt the ease of this fix.

I did a bit of digging around here and found some threads from 2010/2011 about residency. The only relevant information I could find specified that I need to file the "State of Legal Residence Certificate". This seems as though it should be relatively easy, but I technically don't meet all of the criteria:

The formula for changing your State of legal residence/domicile is simply stated as follows: physical presence in the new State with the simultaneous intent of making it your permanent home and abandonment of the old State of legal residence/domicile. In most cases, you must actually reside in the new State at the time you form the intent to make it your permanent home. Such intentmust be clearly indicated. Your intent to make the new State your permanent home may be indicated by certain actions such as: (1) registering to vote; (2) purchasing residential property or an unimproved residential lot; (3) titling and registering your automobile(s); (4) notifying the State of your previous legal residence/domicile of the change in your State of legal residence/domicile; and (5) preparing a new last will and testament which indicates your new State of legal residence/domicile.Finally, you must comply with the applicable tax laws of the State which is your new legal residence/domicile

Taking them step by step-I do not have a physical presence in the state as I currently reside in CA. Then there are the following. 1. I am registered (and do!) vote in FL. 2. I don't own property in any state. 3. My car is titled/registered in FL. 4. I informed CT of my change in residency to FL about 4.5 years ago and never established residency in CA. 5. I don't yet have a will. Beyond all of that, up until now I have complied with applicable tax laws for the state. (Yay for no income tax!)

Based upon all of this, I feel as though I will have an uphill battle in getting this corrected. With whom should I be talking to get this corrected? I should mention that because I commissioned last week I have not yet had my INDOC drills yet. Is this something that I can clear up then? Will I have issues changing the residency since I am not physically living there right now but am legally a resident?

Thanks.

 

[CAVU]

Seen a few folks go down this road before. Two important words on the certificate are "intent" and "may". You do not have to be in compliance with all 5. You are making a correction due to an administrative error. The only thing you have to comply with is the last sentence in the certificate. Once you file the certificate you need to make sure PSD updates your state of residency with DFAS. No one at PSD should you give you the third degree. THey do this all the time.

 

[PenguinGal]

Awesome. Thank you!

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 4

 

[CAVU]

It's only awesome if it works. Now you have to comeback and let us know if it did! Oh yea, keep copies of everything, thank the clerk by name and jot their name down on the copy, date and time. Then ask how long before it can be viewed via your online record. That usually sends several very polite and professional messages all in one exchange.

 

[BigBadBoJenkins]

Somewhat related, I'm getting a house in CA. I can maintain my Minnesota residency right?

 

[Brett327]

Somewhat related, I'm getting a house in CA. I can maintain my Minnesota residency right?

Yes. Read up on how CA deals with military and residency. Bottom line, unless you intend to have CA be your legal state of residence post-military service, they can't make you be a CA resident just because you're stationed there. They may try to come after you for state taxes (as happened to me), but there's a form you can fill out in that case to tell the state of your military status.

 

[BigBadBoJenkins]

Yes. Read up on how CA deals with military and residency. Bottom line, unless you intend to have CA be your legal state of residence post-military service, they can't make you be a CA resident just because you're stationed there. They may try to come after you for state taxes (as happened to me), but there's a form you can fill out in that case to tell the state of your military status.

The state taxes thing happened to me too. It took a few weeks to clear that up. Thankfully they didn't put a lien on my bank accounts like they did to a buddy of mine.

 

[Brett327]

They're pretty aggressive. I had to send the forms in twice on the first year, then get on the phone to explain my status to some mindless state worker who was oblivious about the military rules.