Hi, I'm Bette Hochberger, CPA, CGMA, and today we're going to talk about how long does it take to become a #Florida resident? Hmm, well, people are still leaving California and New York and many of these various distorted high-tech states, and they're still coming to Florida. So thank you all. We appreciate it. Our property values love it. So you guys might not like it when you're coming here and trying to rent or buy, but for those of us who were here before, we're delighted. So thank you. Now, if you want to establish residency in a state, the general rule is 183 days. Hmm, sounds like a random number, except if you take 365, the number of days in a year, divide by two, you get 182 and a half. So round that up because they're not going to count a half a day, and you have 183. So they want you to be there for more than half the year. Right? Okay. So does that mean you can just count backward, 183 days, and boom, just move by then? Eh, maybe technically, possibly. But as we know, nothing really goes that smoothly and when you're trying to establish your residency, you're dealing with a lot of government agencies. So we know, even before COVID, we know government agencies do not move that fast. So I would say if you're trying to establish residency in Florida, you want to move in the first half of the year. Right? You could do June. You're going to be pushing it. You might run into some snags. But if you can do it earlier in the year or do it at the very end of the year before the next year starts, it's even better. It's not good for that year that it's the end of, but you'll be able to establish residency for the following year. So things you're going to need to do. Find a place to live, get a lease, buy a house, something like that. Those things can take a long time. If you're lucky, if you're maybe not so picky, and perhaps you have a lot of money, you could possibly get them done quickly. But you got to give yourself a little bit of time, especially if you're buying because that closing process isn't that fast. You're going to need to move your driver's license. Holy crap, does anyone enjoy going to the DMV? No, it's never fun. We had an appointment system for a while. I believe we stopped in Florida. So now you got to get up at 2:00 o'clock in the morning and get in line to get to the DMV. It's not a fast process by any means, so there's that. Basically, anything you're doing with the government to establish your residency here, it's going to take you a hot minute, maybe a few weeks even, it depends, but it's going to take you a while. So I would say at the very latest, if you're trying to be a resident for the gear, come before July. So if you're trying to move here now, I don't think it's going to work. You're not even going to hit the days. But if anyone's planning for next year, beginning of the year, for sure, or come here at the end of this year and you should be all set. You'll be able to get all those documents in order and prove your residency. So I hope you found that helpful. Keep moving to Florida. We love it. It's even sunny sometimes right now, which is excellent in summer. But that's it, and we'll see you next time.
