State to state transferability?

[OnceFired]

Hi all

I understand the basics on state to state reciprocity. Fundamentally, it allows you to carry while traveling through from one state to another while your permanent home is back somewhere else.

I have a more interesting & thorny problem. I live in my motorhome. I call wherever I currently am as "home." I am changing my postal mail address rapidly, and want to take steps to ensure my CHL is not impacted.

I left Texas about 35 days ago. I now am at what I would expect to be my "semi-permanent" home for a while. Hopefully.

I know I have 60 days to advise the state of Texas of my new postal address. But, since I am effectively traveling constantly, I do not want to rescind my TX license for any other state's license quite yet. That would pose many different CHL training programs, a bunch of paperwork rendered moot each time, etc. And, I honestly do not yet know where I will end up permanently quite yet.

What advice can the community offer?

ZA

[bayouhazard]

You are required to change your address if you move. If your new address is not in Texas, you don't lose your CHL, it just becomes a nonresident license. I think the drivers license is a bigger potential problem.

[RoyGBiv]

Let's think about this pragmatically.

You're on the move.
Where are your bills (credit card statement, etc) being sent?
Where do you expect to settle?
If you had/have any income, in what state would you file a tax return?

If I was in your situation, I would set up a PO box for my bills and if a TX DL would not accept a PO box as an address I would ask a friend to use his address. Then, when I find the place where I plan to put down some roots, I make the move officially. The notion of having to change your DL every time you park your motorhome in a new state is quaint, in a man-without-a-country sort of way... but... unnecessary.

This is just my opinion. I am not a lawyer or a tax expert. I did not even sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[Av8rtx]

Full time RV'ers may have better answers than us to tell the truth. The deal with establishing residency and issues surrounding a PO box vs a street address. Perhaps check out one of their forums or contact the Goodsams club

[srothstein]

One of the most interesting things I have ever found in the law is the lack of the definition of the term "legal residence". I have found things like residence address (the address of one's residence - not much help) and non-resident (a person who is not a resident of this state - again, not much help). But I have never found a definition of what is your residence. Obviously, I could be missing something somewhere.

But, according to the Code Construction Act, a term that is not defined takes on its normal meaning. My understanding of the normal definition is the place you intend to return to when you say you are going home. That may or may not be much help to a person on the road. But I have found that I always have some place I consider home. I would ask you if you would still think of yourself as a Texan when you are traveling. If so, I would say that Texas is your home and therefore, your residence.

I would take some of the already given advice and rent a P.O. box, probably at a store that offers mail forwarding services, and leave my DL, car registration, voter registration, and CHL all at that address. That would make it easier and you could still get your mail when you plan on being at one location for more than a few days.

And even with this, I would also second the motion to check on an RV forum and see how other permanent RVers have solved this problem.

[chasfm11]

Full time RV'ers may have better answers than us to tell the truth. The deal with establishing residency and issues surrounding a PO box vs a street address. Perhaps check out one of their forums or contact the Goodsams club

This. RV.NET and IRV2.COM have posts by Full Timers and they may be a lot more useful. I know that a lot of Full Timers carry and I'm not sure that they all do it legally. I suspect that you would be governed by your "residency" State and whatever reciprocity it has.

I haven't been on RV.NET recently but IRV2.COM has pretty much banned new discussions on firearms. Your best bet would be to search the older threads, find the names of Full Timers and PM them if they look like they understand firearms in their lifestye..

[RottenApple]

When I was an OTR trucker, I had no home address of my own. All my worldly possessions (except my hockey gear) traveled with me in my rig. So I used my dad's address as my permanent address (with his permission, of course).

You might look not doing the same.

[chasfm11]

Something that you might want to consider is how States handle tax laws. When I was still employed, any time that I worked in another city for more than 30 days, I was taxed by that city and State. The reason that I mention this in your case is that Texas does not have an income tax and many others do. You have already been gone long enough out of Texas that another State could "claim" you. At the least, you would have to file their income tax forms. At worst, you may be liable for their taxes, too. No matter how small your income, some States find a way to take a piece of it.

Many Full TIme RVers use Texas and Florida and, I think, SD as their "home" States. It matters for things like vehicle registration and inspection as well as taxes. Our motorhome registration in Texas ia $134 per year but I know some other States where that can be over $1,000. Last but not least of your challenges may be the IRS. They don't seem to do well with nomadic people.

[OnceFired]

Thanks for the pointers. I do have a presence on a few RV forums (helped me modify my RV over the years, some repairs, etc) so I will check with them.

Thanks again,
ZA