Residency???(Multiple States??))

[michmaki]

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OK, so I am an undergrad from Michigan, but have been going to school for the last 3 and 1/2 years in Illinois. During that time, I have worked at multiple places, paying Illinois state taxes. Now, my pre-med advisor told me that he is "pretty sure" that I am then a resident in BOTH Michigan, and Illinois, because I pay taxes in Illinois, and permanently live in Michigan(with my parents paying taxes on me).....Does anyone have an idea if this is true????? Can someone give me some direction????

Lost in Illinois

 

[LoneCoyote]

You have to pick one state for your residency. I have gone through a very confusing residency situation myself due to leaving the state for school and found that in the end you must pick one. From what I have heard, and from my own experience, it seems that you can always be a resident of the state your parents live in and that you grew up in. I would check the rules on becoming a resident of the state you are a student in. I know for example here, in Arizona, you cannot become a state resident while you are in school, you must work a year first without being a student. If you do not do that you keep the residency of the state you came from. Another thing you could try to find out is if you were able to keep IL residency, if Michigan might give you some sort of preference in admission because you had strong ties to the state. If I were in your position I would talk to the schools, find out the rules, and then decide which state would give you the best position for admission, and which you would rather be in for med school. And be careful about listening to pre-med advisors who may not know all the technical rules about this... the one here was very well intentioned and created a huge residency mess that I had to later sort out. Good luck.

 

[michmaki]

If I had to choose, I would choose IL residency simply because there are 7 schools in IL, and only 3 in MI.

 

[Mutterkuchen]

I don't think that you can be an Illinois resident. AZpremed is right, you have to work full-time for at least a year.

To prove that I was a resident of Missouri, I had to send in my tax returns for the last year and a copy of my MO drivers license.


Check this out. Illinois Residency Provisions

 

[doepug]

I think you're a Michigan resident, if that's where your permanent (i.e. parents') residence is.

Where do you have your driver's licence? Where is your car registered? Where do you vote?

If you do have a choice (doubt it, though), take the Michigan residency! Go to U of M for med school... everyone and their mother wishes they had a state school like Michigan.

Good luck,

doepug
MS III, Johns Hopkins

 

[katemonster]

what if my permanent address is in Ohio, i'm claimed as a dependent on my parents' tax returns in Ohio, and my drivers' license is from Ohio, but I work and pay taxes in Illinois (but as a student) and am registered to vote in Illinois?

 

[Mutterkuchen]

Probably Ohio. Look at the link that I posted above. It stated that you have to live in IL for over a year doing non-student related activities.

With a plethera of med schools, I don't know why you would want to be an IL resident for med school purposes anyway. And doepug is right about Michigan.

 

[Neuronix]

Originally posted by katemonster
what if my permanent address is in Ohio, i'm claimed as a dependent on my parents' tax returns in Ohio, and my drivers' license is from Ohio, but I work and pay taxes in Illinois (but as a student) and am registered to vote in Illinois?

You're likely to be a resident of no state. That's what happened to me. Except in my case change Ohio to Maryland and Illinois to Delaware. My father moved to Maryland about 5 years ago and I lived there for awhile. My driver's license and car registration are both in Maryland. However, because I didn't pay taxes the past couple years (because I didn't make hardly anything) and because I left my voter registration in Delaware (I haven't voted), Maryland will not consider me a resident. Of course Delaware has no med school, so even if Delaware would consider me a resident it wouldn't help anyway.

This only helped my decision to go MSTP...

 

[XCanadianRagwee]

For everyone else check your state and local laws.

The best place to find out this information is at your currently attend college or university admissions office. I found out all the information I needed from the undergraduate admissions offices regarding residency status in my two states.

 

[pwrpfgrl]

a quick way that you might be able to get your residency changed is for your parents to no longer claim you as a dependant. if you (actually, they) are willing to claim you as independant on your 2002 taxes, i think you will be considered a resident wherever you work and spend the most time. but you should check with the schools to see what their specific requirements are (like for UMass, you have to be a resident for 5 years before they will consider you instate).

good luck!
🙂

 

[LoneCoyote]

Originally posted by katemonster
what if my permanent address is in Ohio, i'm claimed as a dependent on my parents' tax returns in Ohio, and my drivers' license is from Ohio, but I work and pay taxes in Illinois (but as a student) and am registered to vote in Illinois?

Katemonster,

The no state thing that Neuronix mentioned can definitely happen. That was the mess I was getting into with Arizona and California when I came to AZ for school. But I believe as long as your parents claim you a dependent you should be okay in Ohio even if you are working as a student in Illinois. You could also look into filing a non-resident form to get the Illinois money back. And if there is no option of easily getting IL residency, or you don't really want it, I would change back that voter registration to Ohio asap. These states can be really anal about this and I think I learned that it is better off to just be consistent in one state and save lots of headache later on. Definitely call the state school in both states and find out what the deal is. Good luck.

 

[Mutterkuchen]

Originally posted by pwrpfgrl
a quick way that you might be able to get your residency changed is for your parents to no longer claim you as a dependant. if you (actually, they) are willing to claim you as independant on your 2002 taxes, i think you will be considered a resident wherever you work and spend the most time. but you should check with the schools to see what their specific requirements are (like for UMass, you have to be a resident for 5 years before they will consider you instate).

good luck!
🙂

This is not good advice. Your status as an "independent" student is only one small piece of the puzzle. The general criteria that states use to determine residency are usually revolve around demonstrating that you want to stay in the state. In Texas I think that it means that own property. In Missouri it means that you have lived in the state as a non student, supporting your self. In Colorado, I think that it means that you have lived there one year, regardless of employment status. It is generally not easy to change your state of residence, an you almost certainly cannot have two states where you consider yourself a resident.

 

[conure]

As we are seeing residency can be very tricky, especially with states like Massachusetts. I applied as a resident of Mass. and a non resident at Utah. For Utah any non resident applicants must show long term ties.

Some keys I have found in trying to sort all this out.

1) Where do your parents live?
2) Where did you graduate from high school?
3) What state is your drivers license?
4) Where are you currently paying taxes? Your parents can still claim you as a dependent even if you file your own return.
5) Where are you registered to vote?
6) How long have you lived in the state you are currently in?
7) Do you have another tie to the state? eg own property, spouse works in the state, or you have active bank accounts at local banks.

Simply changing your drivers license does not make you a resident of that state, there must be a combination of work (ie taxes), license, and voting, plus time. Therefore you are still a resident of the state you came from (ie went to high school, and parent/s live).

You can always vote absentee to maintain voting records in your "home" state.

 

[Angeliqua]

Keep in mind that residency for tuition purposes is generally much more difficult to obtain than residency for other purposes. This will vary from state-to-state of course. All of the factors Conure mentioned are great to keep in mind when attempting to maintain residency. I have lived in Boston for the last year and a half, while bending over backwards to maintain my Colorado residency for tuition purposes...even so I will have to be "approved" for resident status by UCHSC if I am accepted.

Basically, I pay taxes to Colorado for all income earned in MA (in addition to paying MA taxes), I absentee vote, have active bank accounts and a drivers license in CO, my parents and myself are native Coloradoans (parents still live there), graduated from a Colorado high school and college...etc. Even with all of this I am still worried about my in-state status for tuition purposes.

I found out what I had to do to maintain residency by contacting the school I was interested in and they sent me a very thorough packet of information detailing the legalities of residency determination. I suggest doing this if anyone is concerned about residency status, get the information direct from the source!

Good Luck! 🙂

 

[applejuice1979]

Originally posted by michmaki
OK, so I am an undergrad from Michigan, but have been going to school for the last 3 and 1/2 years in Illinois. During that time, I have worked at multiple places, paying Illinois state taxes. Now, my pre-med advisor told me that he is "pretty sure" that I am then a resident in BOTH Michigan, and Illinois, because I pay taxes in Illinois, and permanently live in Michigan(with my parents paying taxes on me).....Does anyone have an idea if this is true????? Can someone give me some direction????

Lost in Illinois

There is a way around this michmaki. Pm me for details

 

[Katie]

Originally posted by JBJ
This is not good advice. Your status as an "independent" student is only one small piece of the puzzle. The general criteria that states use to determine residency are usually revolve around demonstrating that you want to stay in the state. In Texas I think that it means that own property. In Missouri it means that you have lived in the state as a non student, supporting your self. In Colorado, I think that it means that you have lived there one year, regardless of employment status. It is generally not easy to change your state of residence, an you almost certainly cannot have two states where you consider yourself a resident.

some of this information is totally incorrect. There were several students on SDN from Missouri last year who went to undergrad out-of-state and were admitted directly from college as MO residents to Mizzou. Many other applicants (like Starflyr) were admitted in previous years to the UT schools as TX residents without owning property and with going to school as out of state residents. As far as demonstrating that you want to stay in the state, I received my notification that I qualified for state resident tuition at the U of Maryland med school before I even wrote a letter of interest and was granted an interview. The application for MD residency that I had to fill out never asked me of my intention to practice medicine or to do my internship and residency in Maryland.

 

[lotanna]

University of Michigan is very anal about residency!!!!! Extremely, so much so it sucks!!!!!🙁

 

[Angeliqua]

Originally posted by Katie
some of this information is totally incorrect. There were several students on SDN from Missouri last year who went to undergrad out-of-state and were admitted directly from college as MO residents to Mizzou. Many other applicants (like Starflyr) were admitted in previous years to the UT schools as TX residents without owning property and with going to school as out of state residents. As far as demonstrating that you want to stay in the state, I received my notification that I qualified for state resident tuition at the U of Maryland med school before I even wrote a letter of interest and was granted an interview. The application for MD residency that I had to fill out never asked me of my intention to practice medicine or to do my internship and residency in Maryland.

As I mentioned before, it really depends on the state. I think the other poster's info on Missouri pertains to individuals not from Missouri who wish to establish residency, I believe you are refering to SDN accounts of people who were MO residents and went to school out-of-state, therefore *retaining* residency, not necessarily establishing it.

Anyone who has a question on residency requirements, contact the school of interest to get accurate info! Residency is very important for most state schools! Just get in touch with the financial aid department and they will let you know who to contact.