Do I no longer need the physical address once I get a DL?

Van Living Forum

Help Support Van Living Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
California is not Texas. Homeless people cannot get drivers licenses in California only ID cards. And they will send mail to your DL address including government mail which you don’t want floating around homeless shelters. Homeless shelters are packed and overwhelmed and won’t know you much less provide addresses they can’t afford to do anything illegal or lose their funding. I have friends from church who run a men’s shelter. I will say it again no problem with my mailbox address in California. The DMV only has that address for me.
 
Bump...

Well, it looks like my friend is perfectly OK with letting me use his home address as my own.
He said I don't have to pay for the favor, but I want to. I don't feel right asking for something that isn't his responsibility to provide, especially over a long period of time.
I also worry that if done for free, over time it could create resentment or regret if the arrangement requires further or periodic action.

So what else do I or he need to do? Are there more hoops to jump through?
I read something about an affidavit, but I can't remember the details.

Since the DMV's Real-ID Act (& possibly other agencies) requires proof of residency in the form of things like a lease, phone or utility bill, to prove you live somewhere, do I need to make sure those things/bills are mailed to his address so it looks like I live there?

I figure I can't just tell the DMV I live there, I have to prove it somehow, just like I would if I lived in my own house, so those required forms of proof have to have my name and his address on them, right?

If I don't get the Real-ID at all, ever, do I still need as much documentation? From what I'm reading, it sounds like I don't need to get the Real-ID at all if I have a passport, which I do.

I apologize if I'm repeating questions already asked, but my reading comprehension sucks. Everyone learns in different ways, and I'm terrible at learning things from the written word. I'm a visual learner, preferring to be shown how to do things, but I understand how that might be difficult on a Internet forum.
 
Passport works for most everything as long as you remember to renew it! Having a copy of a letter from an employer or rent receipt that has that address is useful, maybe have him rent you a room for a month and give you a receipt. Things pop up like Covid and many states other than Arizona need proof of residency before they will vaccinate you presently. You may need a loan or need to deal with an insurance company or possibly getting a new driver’s license as some places require at least 2 forms of proof.
 
Almost There said:
Simple answer - you don't. The world as we know it requires a legal residence. The federal government, banks, insurance companies etc, etc all want to know where to find you.

If you absolutely have to have your residence in a state that doesn't offer something that is more suitable for a nomadic life (Florida, Texas, South Dakota come to mind) then one has to find a workable solution. This most often is finding a friend or a relative that is comfortable helping you meet the state requirements. If that is not feasible then some other source of a legal address will have to be found.

This is exactly what I'm trying to do.  I just need someone with infinite amounts of patience to explain how it works, as if they were talking to a small child.  :p

I have a friend who will let me use their address as my own.  I just don't know what the steps are to make it happen so that it looks legit.  

I doubt very much that I can just tell people (Fed gov, banks, insurance companies, etc.) that I live at 12345, 6th Street, I have to be able to prove it.  

I apologize in advance for being dim.   :D
 
BigT said:
I have a friend who will let me use their address as my own.  I just don't know what the steps are to make it happen so that it looks legit.  

I was hoping that I could just have my cell phone account changed to the new address, and use that to prove where I live, should I be asked to show documentation.  
I have a valid passport, and those don't show a home address, so I think I'm good there.

Would that be sufficient?
 
The banks and credit card issuers shouldn't be a problem. They will mail to an alternate address. Don't write bad checks and do pay your bills, they won't care where you are.

The Federal govt doesn't come into play, except through the RealId program, which is performed at the state level.

For example, Nevada requires a one month's receipt for a trailer park, and you do not need to stay the month nor ever return again. There are alternate documents that can substitute, such as a bank statement, you would have to be able to receive mail at that address. NV does require a non commercial mailbox mailing address, and the DMV keeps a list.

Other states, except for the few nomad friendly states mentioned previously, have more stringent requirements.
 
BigT said:
I have a friend who will let me use their address as my own.  I just don't know what the steps are to make it happen so that it looks legit. 

When I first moved to AZ I had a friend that let me use his address. For the DMV I showed them a month-to-month lease form we both signed and that's all I needed to establish residency. My DL from the previous state and my passport was used as ID.  You can get a free sample lease form in PDF that you can print (see below link):

https://www.carrolllibrary.org/Forms/TenantLandlord/RentalAgreement-MonthtoMonth.pdf

With that address I ordered new checks and switched addresses for car insurance,credit unions,etc.

I do almost everything online so I get very little mail but some things will still be mailed like car titles, tag decals,voter cards or whatever.

The main thing is that you need to trust your friend to forward your mail. To make it less hassle, you can buy a bunch of 6x9 envelopes and prefill them out with your my name and "General Delivery" in bold print. Then when on the road, you can let him know by email what post office you're at and he fills in the last line of the address. Of course you may need to hang around several days for the mail to get to you:

John Doe
General Delivery
Abcdefg, WY 12345

When going into a post office I would hold up one of those envelopes so the clerk knew how my name is spelled and what type of item to look for.

You should insist on paying your friend so he hopefully would be more likely to follow through.

Also maybe pay some postage in advance.

When I traveled it was easy to reimburse my friend with PayPal.
 
slow2day said:
The main thing is that you need to trust your friend to forward your mail. To make it less hassle, you can buy a bunch of 6x9 envelopes and prefill them out with your my name and "General Delivery" in bold print. Then when on the road, you can let him know by email what post office you're at and he fills in the last line of the address. Of course you may need to hang around several days for the mail to get to you:

Trust is not an issue.  This guy has been one (if not the #1) of my best friends ever, for the last 15 years.  :cool:

Oh, and I won't be on the road.  I still have to work full-time (if we ever get past this pandemic stuff), so I figured I'd just get a PO box and have my bills sent there.  You can have a physical address AND a PO box, I assume? 

Funny.  I guess I never grasped the fact that you don't actually have to get the Real-ID, if you don't want to.   The last time I was on a commercial airplane was back in January of 2007.  Before that it was the early 1990's.   :p

From what I understand, you can use your passport to get into federal buildings and courthouses.  
And here I was, hoping not having my Real-ID would get me out of jury duty.  

.
 
Oh, I didn't read back, I thought you were mobile. If you have the lease form, passport, old DL and SS card, you should be good to go.

Actually the PO checks to make sure you receive mail at the physical address before they will rent you a PO box.

In my experience most are diligent and will check but some were lax and didn't. That's over many years though. Things are probably tighter now.
 
Thanks, but if I move out of my apartment, I'm not going to have the lease form anymore.   :s

Given so many people are being forced out of their homes, for a variety of reasons, and moving into their vehicles as a last resort to stay out of homeless encampments, it's too bad the government won't come up with a system to help support them better, instead of criminalizing them.   :mad:

Rant off.
 
BigT said:
Thanks, but if I move out of my apartment, I'm not going to have the lease form anymore.   :s

The month-to-month lease form would be to prove that you lived at your friend's address.

That's what you want to do, right?
 
RVTravel said:
A cpa told me the big three for domicile state were mailing address, drivers license, and voter registration.
vehicle registration can be used but some may have more than one car in more than one state.
 

Latest posts

Top