We are planning on going full time in two years. Want to establish domicile in TX before we physically leave CA. I think we can do this, but want verification: can we arrive in Livingston to establish domicile and register our vehicles if they aren’t in the state yet? I understand that you can renew registration and have the inspection handled when the vehicle comes into the state, but it’s unclear to me if you can do that when you first register your RV and car in TX. It would be a lot easier to fly in and handle all this and deal with the inspections at a different time. Thanks for all your advice. 

We registered our one car that was out of state, no problem. No inspection is necessary if your car is out of state. Do you have a Texas address via a mail service? That should be your first step.

You're going to remain in California for the next two years, but you want to establish domicile in another state now? 

While Texas won't care, California will.  If you drive around with Texas plates for the next two years in California, someone is bound to notice.  If someone reports you, or law enforcement notices, you can be subject to fines and penalties. 

I'd suggest waiting until just before you leave California to do what you want to do.  You can set up your mail forwarding address with the Escapees about 6 months prior to leaving, start the process of making address changes, and then just drive to Livingston once you leave California and get everything done...it takes about half a day to register, get driver's licenses, etc.  The only thing you might have to wait a bit for is if you need a non-CDL Class A or Class B driver's license...it requires a driving test which you may have to wait a day or so to take depending on how busy they are.

Edited April 7 by LindaH

I will be using Escapees for the mailing service and address. Thanks. And I won’t change domicile until 2 months before I leave and intend to pay CA taxes until I’m physically out of the state. One of the big reasons is that I retire at the end of June 2021 and don’t want to drive to Texas through the desert at that time. Much rather come in April to do this. But since I’ll still be working, I’d prefer even more to just take a few days off and fly in rather than a couple of weeks to drive in and back. Hope this makes sense. 

Welcome to the Escapee forums!

Here is a link to a listing of the things that you need to do in order to establish Texas as your domicile. If you have additional questions, call the office at Polk Co. DMV and they will be very helpful.

Polk County Tax Office

416 N Washington Ave, Livingston, TX 77351

(936) 327-6801

Makes perfect sense to me.   I would plan on starting the mail service in Jan of 2021.   Change the address on your phones and/or satellite TV so that you will have a couple of months of bills (just print them off ) to show you are now a resident and it shouldn't take more than a day in Livingston to get it all done.  The people there know about fulltime RVers and couldn't be nicer to work with - we just went through buying a new car out of state and once they had the paperwork in hand, it took about 5 days to get our new plates!

If you go to Livingston all you need is your Escapees Mail Service card, if that. No need for any bills.

Your pre-planning will pay off, I would start making a list now of every address you need to change. A lot more than you think.

You'll need more than that.   Best look at the new list of requirements.    Dave just renewed his by mail (we have Class A licenses) and had to include a copies of his passport or birth certificate,  voters registration cards,  at least one bill showing we were residents (used Direct TV Bill and Verizon bills),  copy of his current DL.   Plus, if you have any type of vision correction that makes reading letters in the little box machine (astigmatism, different lenses in each eye, etc) then have your ophthalmologist fill out the form to supplement their vision testing.   Since Dave has retinal damage in one eye (20/20 in the other eye) we have it filled out a head of time so that we just hand it to them, makes things go so much smoother.

Texas DMV will require a DOT safety inspection of the vehicle prior to allowing "registration only" plates. The title can remain in your home state. 

That is not true.  We just bought a new car in AZ, registered in Texas and it has never had an inspection done.

New cars/first registration only usually don't need inspection--next year it will.

Edited April 8 by jblo

Not if we don’t go into Texas.  Last time they were inspected was before they dropped the inspection sticker in addition to the registration sticker.

I just called and asked about a vehicle that’s out of state for a new registration/new resident. My situation is that I’m solo and have 2 autos as well as the trailer. I’m not going to sell the second car right away, I’ll leave it at my sisters, which is out of my current home state. I asked if I could still register it at the same time as I did the truck and trailer which I will take to Texas and was told I could (subject to vehicle inspection when I do bring it into the state). 

I could potentially have another issue in that I will be selling it in the fall. Do I get Texas registration only and leave the title as California? I don’t know if I would sell it in Nevada or California but probably not in Texas. Or do I change the title to Texas?