Getting my birth certificate was a piece of cake. We went to the MN Department of Health and got three copies for $30 in five minutes. A ten minute drive to the MN Secretary of State and we had the documents apostilled in another 15 minutes. Forty-five minutes in Saint Paul and we had another check mark off of our list. On to South Dakota!
South Dakota residency is a critical step in our migration process. It will be our permanent US residence once we're in Ecuador, and that state (along with Texas, Nevada, Florida, et al.) does not charge personal income tax on income earned. Offshore earnings are exempt up to $90,000, and we want guard against any amounts above that.
One difference between South Dakota and the other states mentioned is that residency can be established in a single day; Texas, on the other hand, requires that you live in the state for six months to be considered a resident. Nothing against the fine folks in Texas, but it's not my cup of tea.
On Wednesday, we checked into a Super 8 in Sioux Falls (cost effective - no luxury). On checking in, we told the manager that we needed both of our names on the receipt. "Oh, this is for the DMV", he said. Apparently, we aren't the first people to do this.
The DMV opened at 7:00a the next morning and we showed up at 7:10a. After giving the clerks our current CA id's, the hotel receipt and the residency application, the only test we needed to take was a vision test. (Currently licensed drivers do not need to take a written or driving test.) We walked out ten minutes later with freshly printed driver licenses.
Fifteen minutes later, we were at the county registrar's office to change the registration on the truck and to change voter registration. We were told that these needed to be changed in the county where our "home" address was. Since we're using a mailbox forwarding service, this meant driving to Lake county and our "residence" in Madison, SD - about an hour away. Once there, things couldn't have gone faster.
(This is the Lake county courthouse.)
The county treasurer for Lake county took our old registration and application form. She entered the form into to PC and printed new registration forms for the truck. She then reached into her desk drawer and pulled out two new license plates for the truck - no waiting eight weeks for them to arrive in the mail! Ten minutes later, we were done.
Down the hall to voter registration. Five minutes to complete the form and we were done there.
In both cases (truck and voter registration), the clerks mentioned that when renewal notices were to be sent that they would be sent to our current address. From there, "Terri will forward them to us". Terri Lund runs the mailbox forwarding service "My Dakota Address", so the clerks at the county in Madison are also familiar with people doing what we're doing. I think that's part of what makes the process so efficient.
Here is a picture of "My Dakota Address", our new "home":
Even with the one hour detour to Madison, we had South Dakota residency and new registration for the truck before 10:00a. That's how government should work!
Last note: on the way back to Minneapolis, we stopped at Lange's restaurant in Pipestone, MN. If you're in the area, eat here; they have an excellent cream of bacon soup! (Don't doubt it until you try it!)
Hi neighbor! I've lived at that same address since 2007 when I started out full-time RVing. Did you get to meet Terri? Isn't she the best!!
ReplyDeleteTickled to find your blog...still reading to figure out where in EC you plan to move. We're heading to Cuenca in mid-December.
Hi Donna - just saw your comment. I did get to meet Terri, and she's awesome! She explained her location: next door to the courthouse, across the street from the post office. Her operation is pretty humble looking - a lot of sorting boxes to handle the mail - but it was fun to talk with her.
DeleteOnce we get our cedula, we're going to the coast. We have friends in Curia and Manglaralto, so that's the area we're targeting.