Going Full-time: Texas domicile--do I need to change counties?

[JuryDuty]

We're going full time in about 45 days. House is up for sale in about a week!

I currently live in Fort Worth, Texas (Tarrant County), where we've lived for a long time.

From what I understand, we need to:

• Get a new domicile/mail forwarding address
• Update our driver's license
• Update our voter registration

I was going to use the Escapees mail service, but from reading their FAQ it sounds like I'd have to change everything to that county, establish professional and social connections, etc, requiring us to drive down there for some things. I'm imagining it would be easiest to use a Fort Worth virtual mailbox and mail forwarding address...but I could be wrong.

Can we just get a mail service anywhere and have it understood that Tarrant County, Fort Worth, Texas is our domicile since this was the last place we lived? Or does it not work like that?

I'm a bit confused at to how this might work since we already are established in the State, but not the County.

I apologize for being another person on this forum likely making this more difficult than it actually is! 

[Barbaraok]

Are you going to travel or stay put in Ft Worth?  If travel, make Esacapees your official address and have mail forwarded to where ever you are.  It will just make life so much easier for you.  Everyone in Livingston understands what full timers are and will work with you.   What do you think you have to drive to Livingston for?    As for physicians, etc., we  whomever you want wherever you are as long as insurance agrees.  Again, are you traveling or stationary?

If you are staying in Ft Worth then use the address of your RV park as that will be easier for you.

[Kirk W]

12 hours ago, JuryDuty said:

I was going to use the Escapees mail service, but from reading their FAQ it sounds like I'd have to change everything to that county, establish professional and social connections, etc, requiring us to drive down there for some things. I'm imagining it would be easiest to use a Fort Worth virtual mailbox and mail forwarding address...but I could be wrong.

 

We "moved" from Ft. Worth to an Escapee address just as you are contemplating, back in 2000. It really is very easy to do when you are already a TX resident. What you are reading is about those who change domicile from another state but since most legal questions of domicile come from state-related issues, it is actually quite simple to be fully legal for those of us who aren't changing states, only the address. I strongly recommend the use of Escapee mail and remember that your Escapee membership has many advantages beyond the ability to use their mail service. Many of our members choose to use other mail services, but there is no reason for you to worry about a Ft. Worth mail service unless you for some reason wish to be able to vote there, if you plan to travel. All that you need to do is to change your address for your driver's license, your vehicle registrations, insurance, and voter registration and that is it. Of course, you will need to give all correspondents your new address but you don't need to move anything more if you don't wish to. 

We moved our address by phone and mail and were actually Polk County residents for nearly 3 years before we set foot in that area. 

 

[JuryDuty]

8 hours ago, Barbaraok said:

Are you going to travel or stay put in Ft Worth?

We'll be traveling the country for a year.

9 minutes ago, Kirk Wood said:

We "moved" from Ft. Worth to an Escapee address just as you are contemplating, back in 2000. It really is very easy to do when you are already a TX resident. What you are reading is about those who change domicile from another state but since most legal questions of domicile come from state-related issues, it is actually quite simple to be fully legal for those of us who aren't changing states, only the address. I strongly recommend the use of Escapee mail and remember that your Escapee membership has many advantages beyond the ability to use their mail service. Many of our members choose to use other mail services, but there is no reason for you to worry about a Ft. Worth mail service unless you for some reason wish to be able to vote there, if you plan to travel. All that you need to do is to change your address for your driver's license, your vehicle registrations, insurance, and voter registration and that is it. Of course, you will need to give all correspondents your new address but you don't need to move anything more if you don't wish to. 

We moved our address by phone and mail and were actually Polk County residents for nearly 3 years before we set foot in that area. 

 

Well, that's very encouraging to hear. So just driver's license, vehicle registration, voter registration and insurance--I wonder if I can do all that online? I was thinking I'd have to enter Polk county to get my inspection, etc, but can I just change my address since I've already got the Texas inspection? That wouldn't be so bad...

[LindaH]

12 minutes ago, JuryDuty said:

I was thinking I'd have to enter Polk county to get my inspection,

You can have the inspection done at any place in the state.  Polk county does not have emissions testing like, I assume, Tarrant county does, but that doesn't mean you can't have your inspection done in Tarrant county...or any other place in the state.

[bigjim]

I changed from Dallas in 1997 to Polk County without going there. An upside is you will most likly have lower premiums on vehicle insurance.  I sure did.

[JuryDuty]

4 minutes ago, bigjim said:

I changed from Dallas in 1997 to Polk County without going there. An upside is you will most likly have lower premiums on vehicle insurance.  I sure did.

Nice! Didn't even think about that!

[Barbaraok]

Yes, you can do address changes for DL and vehicles online, as well as voting. Jury duty, just call when you get a notice and tell them you are traveling, you are excused and asked to call when you are in the area and volunteer, which I have done.   You can also change voting address online.

[JuryDuty]

21 minutes ago, Barbaraok said:

Yes, you can do address changes for DL and vehicles online, as well as voting. Jury duty, just call when you get a notice and tell them you are traveling, you are excused and asked to call when you are in the area and volunteer, which I have done.   You can also change voting address online.

Nice! I'll do that for sure. How did we get by without the Internet??

[Kirk W]

3 hours ago, JuryDuty said:

I was thinking I'd have to enter Polk county to get my inspection,

If you mean your vehicle inspections, as long as your current inspection is still valid there is no need for an inspection to make the address change. As Barb pointed out, after the address change you won't need the smog part any longer but that will need to be done in one of the counties that don't have smog requirement. 

[JuryDuty]

1 hour ago, Kirk Wood said:

If you mean your vehicle inspections, as long as your current inspection is still valid there is no need for an inspection to make the address change. As Barb pointed out, after the address change you won't need the smog part any longer but that will need to be done in one of the counties that don't have smog requirement. 

Excellent! Thx for the clarification. As I figured, this process will be much easier than I thought it would be!