Forum Discussion

proxima's avatar
proxima
Explorer
Feb 06, 2016

Washington State Residency

I am looking to make the move to Washington State later this year in my RV, and I am curious how I should set up residency there since I do not have a "Domicile." I've always loved the area and I want to stick around for a while.

What will be a good way to set up residency in Washington? Also anyone know of a mail forwarding service there?

25 Replies

  • coolmom42 wrote:
    Check the tax situation first.


    We do not have any income tax, we pay a state and local sales tax, plus a land tax.
  • To the OP:
    rent a Private Mail Box (PMB) at a UPS store or other parcel store that rents mailboxes. You can not do this at a Post Office.

    The legal street address will be something like:

    1234 Main St PMB 5678

    (where 5678 is your box number)

    The WA Dept of Licensing (DOL) computer system cannot handle "PMB" (at least not in 2011), so do the following:

    Change the address on a credit card bill and cell phone bill (or bills of your choice) to be:

    1234 Main St Apt 5678

    or

    1234 Main St # 5678

    If you have paperless billing, turn it off so that you'll receive a paper copy at you new mailbox address. Then take the bills to a DOL office and change you license and/or address.

    The UPS store or parcel store where you are renting the mailbox will tell you that they don't care what is listed on the street address as long as you box number is on the address label - so that they won't have to look you up on their computer. It can say SUITE, APT, FLOOR, BLDG, UNIT, #, PMB - they don't care.

    I used the # sign instead of PMB for the address on my license.

    I have found that for all of my change of addresses, I start with PMB on the street address or separate line. If that gets rejected as invalid syntax I use APT. If that gets rejected I use #. etc., etc.

    ** EDIT **
    One last thing... Rent you mailbox in a county in WA that does not require emissions testing in order to register a vehicle. For RVs it is pretty much a joke and a pain in the butt. Avoid making your domicile in the counties in this link:
    http://www.emissiontestwa.com/E/Findlisting.aspx
  • Google up mail forwarders in the area you are looking for.

    Be careful on where you choose...we had some friends that moved to a county that has fed, county and some other court system. She (not he) kept getting called to jury duty over about a 3 year period. They let her off twice, then on third time they said "be here". They were in MO. at the time. They came back.

    Mail service. We have a P.O. box at a UPS store type thing. Each one is a franchise I think. The one we are currently with I can't wait to get away from. Previous mail forwarder was great except for its location.

    And for what's it worth we'd be out of WA except for our medical insurance.

    Here is some info that might help.

    http://access.wa.gov/topics/living/becomeresident
  • About any community of any size will have a UPS store where you can rent a PO box with a real address. There always available to foreword your stuff once in a while.