US residence for cruiser with no ties to land?

[Training Wheels]

Yeah, just not sure about that whole hurricane thing.......


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[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Training Wheels

You're killing me. I just mailed my $1400/yr. check for the privilege of having a boat in CA.


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Everyone I've ever talked to about life in California seems to not realize how badly they're getting screwed.

Hurricanes aren't bad at all, you know they're confused and you know what they can do.......completely different than your states government.


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[mgstich]

Does anyone know if I can use St. Brendan's Isle as my mail forwarding service but keep my TX residency and driver's license? (I will still own a commercial property but no residence in TX)

When I spoke w/ SBI today they said that now in FL if I want a driver's license I have to register my boat or my RV in Florida.

I don't have an RV and I don't want to register my boat in FL.

Only way around it is to have a friend allow me to use his address for a FL driver's license. But that seems confusing and I don't want to have 2 addresses: a mailing address and a driver's license address in FL.

I tried to call TX DOT, but can only get a recording....

Can anyone help?

[meridian28]

You register your boat where you do your most cruising, not necessarily where you reside. Also remember that when you register your boat in any state you will have to pay a one time sales or use tax. In Florida if bring a boat into the state that you have owned for at least 6 months, no use tax is due.

[hellosailor]

"Does anyone know if I can use St. Brendan's Isle as my mail forwarding service but keep my TX residency and driver's license? (I will still own a commercial property but no residence in TX)"
SBI is first and foremost a mail forwarding service. You can pay them for that service and use that service, regardless of your residency and driver's license. Whatever gets mailed to them, gets forwarded to you, even if you're a Martian and just visiting Planet Earth. Well, assuming you don't need it physically forwarded off[planet, they don't do that yet except by internet.


"When I spoke w/ SBI today they said that now in FL if I want a driver's license I have to register my boat or my RV in Florida."
Somebody was drunk or didn't speak Inglish. Go to the Florida DMV web site and you'll see what you need for a Florida driver's license. You don't need to own a boat or rv or even a car to get one. You will need a Florida mailing address and some other proof of possible residency, like a utility bill in your name that was mailed to your supposed residence. In Florida, each state agency is allowed to define "residence" for their own purposes, by their own requirements. The definition is specifically not binding on any other agency for any other purposes. Flexible, huh?(G)

When I spoke w/ SBI today they said that now in FL if I want a driver's license I have to register my boat or my RV in Florida."

[zengirl]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

"Does anyone know if I can use St. Brendan's Isle as my mail forwarding service but keep my TX residency and driver's license? (I will still own a commercial property but no residence in TX)"
SBI is first and foremost a mail forwarding service. You can pay them for that service and use that service, regardless of your residency and driver's license. Whatever gets mailed to them, gets forwarded to you, even if you're a Martian and just visiting Planet Earth. Well, assuming you don't need it physically forwarded off[planet, they don't do that yet except by internet.


"When I spoke w/ SBI today they said that now in FL if I want a driver's license I have to register my boat or my RV in Florida."
Somebody was drunk or didn't speak Inglish. Go to the Florida DMV web site and you'll see what you need for a Florida driver's license. You don't need to own a boat or rv or even a car to get one. You will need a Florida mailing address and some other proof of possible residency, like a utility bill in your name that was mailed to your supposed residence. In Florida, each state agency is allowed to define "residence" for their own purposes, by their own requirements. The definition is specifically not binding on any other agency for any other purposes. Flexible, huh?(G)

When I spoke w/ SBI today they said that now in FL if I want a driver's license I have to register my boat or my RV in Florida."

You can keep your Tx license. When renewal comes up make sure they mail it to Fl address. Tell them you're there for business purposes for the next couple of months, unless you have it mailed to Tx. business address. You can do whatever you want to do. But, if you have to physically go into a DMV to renew your license, I believe they want proof of address like electric bill, phone bill etc.
Most license expiration dates are 5 to ten years so it shouldn't be a problem.

[Russ]

Re Driver's licence-- ALL states I know of require you to hand in existing (Non FL) licence to get local i.e FL licence.
In FL you MUST have FL driver's licence to work according to policeman who issued me a warning in 2011 cause my car didn't have FL plates. To the guy who "cruised " Caribbean and said I was wrong. How many years ago. Try that now with a bank and NO land address (I mean NO land address) see how far you'll get.

All that has little todo wiht your quesiotn re SBI who exist for the express purpose of forwarding mail to folks with exisitng "land addresses "

PS Always ready to learn. R

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by farm sail

Starting to research about setting up/maintaining a US state of residence if icut all my ties to land and cruise full time.

The thought of this is new to me and would love to hear thoughts recommendations references or suggestions regarding such things as...

What state to set up residency in and how to do that without living or having a job there.

Boat is USCG documented so at a minimum i guess i need an address for them to send renewals? How do i get it, if i am not there?

I imagine there are many other things i should ask about but dont know i need to know

Thanks

I can add to the numerous endorsements for SBI. I consider them to be a mail handling service... [Forwarding is just one way of handling snail mail... We prefer shredding after reading the scanned image, and receive few items that need to be forwarded each year- USCG Vessel Documentation among them...]

SBI can absolutely be your only mailing address, and all of our financial and insurance institutions, Federal and State Government, etc. accept and use it without question even though we maintain residency [but not on land...] in the state of Alaska.

One service not often mentioned that SBI provides cruisers is their Discount Marine Supply Program. If you have ever tried to find, acquire, and ship boat parts to some remote location you chose for fixing your vessel, this service is worth its weight in gold...

Cheers!

[ReMetau]

Originally Posted by Russ

Re Driver's licence-- ALL states I know of require you to hand in existing (Non FL) licence to get local i.e FL licence.
In FL you MUST have FL driver's licence to work according to policeman who issued me a warning in 2011 cause my car didn't have FL plates. To the guy who "cruised " Caribbean and said I was wrong. How many years ago. Try that now with a bank and NO land address (I mean NO land address) see how far you'll get.

All that has little todo wiht your quesiotn re SBI who exist for the express purpose of forwarding mail to folks with exisitng "land addresses "

PS Always ready to learn. R

I experienced the same thing. Banking has been getting more difficult to work around a physical address. My current bank which is BofA uses my address as SBI, but when attempting to open a new Merrill Edge account through BofA, they wouldn't accept the SBI address without a utility bill using that address.

Florida driver's license is suppose to have a physical address. I know of many people who use SBI for their drivers license. When I went to renew, I did it in Marathon and explained to the ladie that I didn't have a physical address, I lived on my boat in the harbor. She explained that since my boat is document and reqistered in the state, that I could use it as my physical address. My address on my license is now my boat document number.

[Robin3]

SBI are still our listed address for All things banking (US AND UK banks) and our boat's (Federal) documentation as well as our two cars, from when we lived on board, but we now live back on dirt after I had a stroke 3 years back. Our Florida driver licenses are linked to our actual physical (Florida) land address, as Officer Dibble and his buddies prefer that I believe. My green card immigration was originally registered to SBI when we lived and cruised aboard but has since been transferred to my physical land address ( I do not want to attract the men in black!) We have to file federal taxes with the IRS, insisted on when I ( I'm a Brit married to a yank) got my green card. We pay florida State tax on our property ( IE HOME) but not on our boat which did attract sales tax on purchase but that was partially offset against the property tax liability IIRC as was the sales tax paid on our cars Don't ask me how or why because that is what we, (wisely) paid a tax Accountant for and to avoid double taxation UK/USA, all taxes are now paid to the USA, aren't I kind!.


Heartily endorse SB! for efficient and friendly service. They even intercept and renew the boat documentation when the reminders arrive. These days our mail packet from SBI is only forwarded every other week as mostly it is only non -routine but legally required bank stuff or pension stuff from the old UK days and I can/do access it all on line anyway. I think if we ever moved State we would choose to retain the SBI address and thereby Florida residency for convenience sake and lower tax costs as a pair of impoverished pensioners

[hellosailor]

"In FL you MUST have FL driver's licence [sic] to work according to policeman who issued me a warning in 2011 cause my car didn't have FL plates. "


The warning about FL plates probably was right, but for the wrong reason. When a vehicle is brought into FL or bought in FL, you have 90 days to pay the extortionate (easily $500+) title fee and have the vehicle titled and registered in FL. However, if you are also employed in Florida, I believe that's when the 90 days drops to "within ten days of employment".


Florida finds the most absurd ways to make things both simple and complex at the same time. $500 for title? No front plates, under any circumstances? Even the sheriff's office agrees that one is a real PITA, it makes their job way harder. No annual safety inspections at all? (Well, who cares, all those flashing lights on the back are just distracting anyway.) (sigh.)


And Florida posts new laws twice yearly, January and July, at which time ALL of this is subject to change. And then, perversely, they post it all on the internet so IF you know where and how to look, you can sometimes get the facts.


Florida used to issue "snowbird" licenses, good as a driver's license within the state of Florida only, so visiting snowbirds didn't have to surrender their real ones. No more, couple of years ago they stopped that when all Florida licenses became DHS security compliant as federal identification.


Like most former Spanish colonies (and French Louisiana) Florida just doesn't follow the British heritage that most of the US states do.

[Russ]

A Reference from a different cruising blog/list serv

T&T: physical address question

Here's what is says:
Our recent experience in the state of WA, for what it's worth:

We left the States aboard our boat in 2009 to cruise full time internationally. Until a few months ago we did not maintain any physical home in the U.S. For residency purposes, and addresses for our bank and credit card addresses etc we have used a mail forwarding service like others who have posted on this thread. Ours is Earth Class Mail and it gave us a street address in the state of Washington (PO box was not adequate for credit card companies.)

Our checking account which is several years old was no problem using our Earth Class Mail address. But in the past 12 months we have opened several accounts at different banks such as Barclay's, Ally Bank and others. All have insisted on proof of a physical residence to open the account, meaning a utility bill or mortgage statement or the like.

2 weeks ago we both received letters from WA state dept of licensing, saying our WA state drivers' licenses (which use the Earth Class Mail street address) would be revoked unless we produced proof of a physical residence in the state of WA like a utility bill or mortgage statement. Luckily for us, we had decided not to renew with our tenant in a Seattle condo we have owned but never lived in (got tired of living out of suitcases during cyclone seasons) so we were able to provide the documentation. Otherwise would have been s-o-l. The official told us they have gotten wise to the (rampant) fraudulent use of non-residence addresses like mail services, using your brother-in-law's home address for purposes of residency etc and are aggressively pursuing it. Sounds like they are putting the data pieces together from different departments and are able to tell in many cases when a physical address is probably not being used legitimately.

I'm sure if you live aboard a boat a marina address could be used; the problem comes for us full time cruisers who do not maintain a marina contract in the States or any physical residence. Assuming the vigilance becomes more widespread, it will become difficult to, say, rent a car on a stateside visit if you can't get a driver's license. Maybe it will only ever be an issue in states like WA which are desirable for residency due to lack of state income taxes, who knows?

Valerie Creighton
m/v Buffalo Nickel
currently lying Vuda Point, Fiji Islands

[zengirl]

Originally Posted by Russ

Re Driver's licence-- ALL states I know of require you to hand in existing (Non FL) licence to get local i.e FL licence.
In FL you MUST have FL driver's licence to work according to policeman who issued me a warning in 2011 cause my car didn't have FL plates. To the guy who "cruised " Caribbean and said I was wrong. How many years ago. Try that now with a bank and NO land address (I mean NO land address) see how far you'll get.

All that has little todo wiht your quesiotn re SBI who exist for the express purpose of forwarding mail to folks with exisitng "land addresses "

PS Always ready to learn. R

All states require same license as plates. However, if this gentleman wants to keep his Tx license and use SBI for residence and mail, he can do so.

[hellosailor]

Valerie-
Each state has the right to set their own "residency" rules. MOST states try to make that a real residency, and most states also have taken the effort (fairly easy database comparison & match) to flag the addresses of "box" businesses and exclude them from valid residencies. Many of those businesses were willing to let customers use their street address and say "Unit 123" instead of "Box 123" for years now, but when a state has minimal brains and computer skills--that no longer flies.
Of course some states don't care, if you declare residency they get taxes and other benefits, so they tolerate it. And in these post-9/11 Homeland Insecurity days with the fed asking everyone to use the "SecureID" program...the game is still changing.


Bottom line, every state is different, and *eventually* they may or may not all come around to being honest about what is and isn't real residency, following the legal (not just departmental self-serving) definitions. Hasn't happened yet though.


A bogus residency in Florida, still provides income for the voters who own and work at the business supplying it. Which, to a good ol' boy, who needs votes, sounds like a very good reason to keep things that way.


Zengirl-
Don't think so. You must have a license in one state, and only one license. But if you keep cars at multiple state homes...yes, you can do that too, with your out of state license.

[Russ]

More re FL
From FL DMV Site:

When registering your vehicle in the state of Florida, you must show proof of ownership, verify the VIN number, and show proof of Florida insurance requirements.

Out of State Vehicle Registration
If you are moving to Florida, the state's law requires that you register a vehicle within 10 days after engaging in an occupation in Florida or enter a child in a Florida school. You need to first obtain a Florida drivers license. Next you need to obtain auto insurance from a company licensed in Florida. Many auto insurance companies licensed in Florida provide online services. At the DMV you'll also need your original out-of-state title and VIN verification.
When you are issued a motor vehicle registration you will receive a license plate, vehicle registration certificate, and validation decal.