I’m sitting on my sixth flight in 3 days, headed back to Mérida, Yucatán after spending 36 hours in South Dakota. That’s quite a long distance for such a short trip! Here’s why it was worth it.
What’s your domicile?
When you move abroad, you remain a citizen of the U.S. of course unless you renounce your citizenship. So you still need a home state to get your driver’s license or ID, pay your taxes, and vote (and yes, please vote!).
There are cases though where it’s worthwhile to move your domicile to another state, since you’re not living there anyway. Often, people choose based on taxes. For examples, these states have no state income tax: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming. One of these also makes it incredibly easy to establish residency in. You guessed it: that state is South Dakota.
More benefits to South Dakota
There are other perks of moving your residency to South Dakota besides just low taxes. The state makes it easy to renew driver’s licenses and car tags online. This is great for us because we drive our U.S. plated vehicle in Mexico. You see a ton of SD plates in Mexico! If you’d never visited the U.S., you’d think it had the population of California!
Another big benefit is the ability to vote in a state with a very small population: there are only 540,000 active voters. (There are guidelines to this, so be sure to follow them.)
The biggest benefit, though, is just how easy it is to establish residency there. You only have to spend one night in the state to qualify, and it doesn’t have to be at a permanent address. You can also register your car there without bringing it into the state. So here’s how you do it.
1. Open a mailbox
The first thing you need is an address. We used Anytime Mailbox (partnership link) to establish ours, and we chose Spearfish, South Dakota as our address location. To open the account, you have to complete a form called USPS form 1583, which authorizes them to pick up your mail. The form has to be notarized, but they have virtual notaries to make it easy. You can also add family members to the account.
When mail arrives, they’ll send you a text or email, and you can choose to have them store it, shred it, open it and send you a scan of it, or forward it. Each option other than shredding it has a small cost.
Note: we tried to forward our mail from Alabama to our new mailbox by using the USPS’s online form. Unfortunately, even though we paid to confirm our identities, the post office denied our forwarding and required us to appear in person at our choice of five local post offices in Alabama. It was too late — we were already en route to Mérida, 18 hours from these offices.
2. Spend the night in South Dakota
We chose to work with South Dakota Residency Center. They sent us helpful info and made it really easy, and they have a lovely KOA campground where you can spend your one night. Because they’re pros, they know exactly how to get you the documents you need.
3. Get your driver’s license
You can get your driver’s license anywhere in the state, but be warned: they don’t keep business hours. The largest office near the campground wasn’t open on Mondays, so we rope-dropped the location at 7 am on Tuesday to make our 8:51 am flight time. ? Thankfully, they were quick, friendly, and efficient. Here’s what you need:
- Completed driver’s license form
- Passport or birth certificate
- Current driver’s license (no license = driving test)
- Receipt of one-night stay
- Receipt of Anytime Mailbox agreement
- Proof of Social Security number (SS card, W2, 1099, pay stub)
- Any name change documents
4. Get your car tag (if you need)
You need to get your car tag in the county you “live” in, which for us meant Lawrence County. The treasurer’s office is right in the heart of Deadwood, South Dakota, which made for an awesome side quest through the old-timey western town.
We were in and out of this office with fresh car tags in 15 minutes, thanks to how easy they are to work with. It’s best to call ahead to make sure you bring everything you need, and South Dakota Residency Center will also help with that. Note: it’s OK to do this before you get your local license! We had to since the driver’s license office was closed, as I mentioned.
Here’s what we brought:
- Car title (you may have to pay taxes on your car; we didn’t because of the issue date on the title and the taxes we paid in Alabama)
- Passport or birth certificate
- Current driver’s license (no license = driving test)
- Receipt of one-night stay
- Receipt of Anytime Mailbox agreement
- Proof of Social Security number (SS card, W2, 1099, pay stub)
Now we’re Dakotans!
That’s all there was to it. Six flights, lots of paperwork, and a couple of nights in a small cabin. We also managed to see Mount Rushmore, Deadwood, and the city of Sturgis setting up for the annual bike rally. We also stocked up on American treats at Target. All-in-all an amazing and productive three days!
