Establishing California Residency

This is only a concern for out-of-state US Citizens entering a graduate program at UCSD. If you do not want to have to pay out-of-state tuition in your second year at UCSD, you have to apply to change your residency status. You should have received a sheet of instructions shortly upon being admitted and arriving at UCSD which lists all the things which you need to do to prove that you are a resident. You must have lived in California for one full year in order to have California residency status, so basically you’re trying to prove that you moved here during or before September of the year you began graduate school. You don’t have to have all the things on their list, but if you are missing any of their many many requirements for proof of residency, you have to write letters to justify why you don’t have that particular form of proof. Here are some of the things you’ll need:

Receipts from moving companies/U-haul to prove the date you moved to California
Phone and utility bills in your name
Rent receipts in your name or a letter from your landlord
California voter registration (see voting), drivers' license, car registration
Banking information to prove you've "financially" moved to California

During Spring Quarter of your first year, most departments will remind you that you need to submit your application for California residency, and then you’ll have to turn in copies of all your documentation to the registrar’s office. This is critically important as most students can not afford the extra $4000/quarter difference between resident and non-resident tuition their second year and beyond. While rare, they have been known to reject students who did not complete the forms or complete them on time— so be careful.

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