It will be up to the judge to decide if my intent is to make the new state a "fixed and permanent" residence, not the DMV. How do I get to see a judge? It must be some situation that I get a ticket.
I just checked the reciprocal agreement of California - it does not have such thing. So I figure I can not get away with it.
I don't think so. Residency determinations are really made based on facts, and the rules of the state. For example, I was a Michigan resident for 20 years when I married my wife, who was a grad student at a noted public university. This university for decades did everything possible to keep non-residents just that so they could pay out of state tuition. My new bride had lived in state for 3 years, I owned a business in the state, real property and rental property. Michigan law mandates residency follow the spouse. She filed all the paperwork to get her non-resident status changed to resident. What did the noble institution say? Your husband might just decide to leave the state next year, so not only will we not classify you as a resident, we'll change his classification to non-resident too. The next conversation with the registrar was humorous to say the least. She got reclassified and I remained a resident. She was from California.
California rules for define residency as:
--every individual who is in the state for
other than a temporary or transitory purpose
--every individual who is domiciled in this state who is outside the state for a temporary or transient purpose
--presence in California for more than nine months of a taxable year creates
a rebuttable presumption of California residence.
So, here is a typical residency situation:
You are matched into a California residency from say, Michigan (or where-ever).
You own a home and your family (including your child) will not be moving to California from your home in Michigan, but you yourself will rent an apartment or buy a cheap crash pad in Riverside where your residency is, and stay there for the 3 - 7 years of your residency, while commuting home at every opportunity, which clearly won't be much.
You have no plans to remain in California after residency, you have not relinquished your residence in the other state, and you have no plans to make California your permanent home.
You are there for training and training alone and when you are done, you will abandon your crash pad and return to your home. Period.
The facts would not necessarily support California's presumption that you have domiciled in California, after you have been there for 9 months, even though your residency (a temporary condition with a clear endpoint, as described by the RRC/ACGME) will last longer than 9 months, and California requires a permanent medical license, thus you can rebut California's presumption by showing them payments to support a household in the other state, your child's school records, etc. Likely you will not be considered a resident of California for legal purposes/tax purposes, if you can show that you are in a training program with defined goals and an endpoint, and you have a place to go home to when you are done.
Facts that would fully support your claim to be a non-resident (even after you'd been there for years) would be property ownership in another state, children being educated in the other state, you maintain close contacts with people and business in the other state.
Another way to look at it is this: You are a resident of Maryland. You attended the Naval Academy and now you are a Naval Officer recently graduated from Annapolis. As a commissioned ensign, you are given orders to report to CINC/San Diego, and your assignment to San Diego is for a 3 year tour. You will be reassigned after that the pleasure of the navy and you have little say in the matter. You are there for a specific, transient and temporary purpose. Just like residency, where you have little to say in the matter, as the NRMP has bonded you over to your program, where you must stay until you are free. (ie completed the program).
Use good judgement. If you came to California for residency, bought a house in Malibu, signed a letter of intent to go to work in California after residency to get the down payment, there is no way you could rebut California's 9 month presumption of residency. But, if you signed a residency contract on a year to year basis with the goal of completing residency, you could be completely off the hook.
The path of least resistance is, of course, to become a California resident until you complete residency, but that can be an expensive proposition, especially if you come from a place like North Dakota.
