Moving to Mexico … but first … moving to South Dakota (part 2)
So, yet again, some of my social media posts have caused some confusion.
Allow me to explain …
As you all know, I’m moving to La Paz, Mexico, in January 2025. However, I can’t uproot everything in my life and transfer it to Mexico. I need to maintain certain things, such as my business and bank accounts, in the United States. As such, I began researching the most advantageous way to do this and quickly recalled what I had learned from the full-time RV community—move your “residence” to South Dakota.
Many RV’ers are fully remote; they don’t have a sticks and bricks home base anywhere in the country, BUT they also still need an address for their bank accounts, utilities, etc. There are services in likely every state that can provide this address for you (keeping in mind it must give the appearance of a physical address, as many institutions do not accept PO boxes as home addresses). However, because an RV’er doesn’t technically have a “home” state, as they don’t have a “home” (well, they do, it’s just on wheels), they can essentially pick their state of residence. If you have the option of setting up residence in any of the 50 states - choosing a financially advantageous state to set down roots in just makes sense. Queue South Dakota. As South Dakota has 0% individual income tax, it would make sense for someone to “live” there if they had to choose to live anywhere, as they’ll be able to save on taxes. And that’s why I chose it.
I love California (like, LOOOOOOVE California). We all know that. But California has a state income tax of over 10%, which is a lot, especially if I live abroad and cannot take advantage of the services that 10% pays for. So, moving my residence from California to South Dakota before I left made sense to avoid having to be on the hook for those taxes.
It’s as simple as that.
South Dakota appears to both allow and encourage this arrangement. They only require a one-night stay in the state to qualify to move your residency to their state (which is essentially done by switching your driver's license from your current state to their state). The hypothesis is that the more residents South Dakota can report, the more federal funding their state can get. And as their state only has a population of just over 900,000, I could see why they would encourage this.
There are many websites that explain the process, but I’ll break down the steps I took:
View from hotel room for my one night stay in Rapid City, SD
Obtain a South Dakota address via a service provider. I used ‘Anytime Mailbox’ out of Spearfish, SD, so now I have an address that appears to be a physical location in Spearfish, SD. When updating my address with all my banks, credit cards, etc., only one institution (Bank of America) balked at it, stating they knew it was not a physical location. For that, I left the “physical address” the same and updated my mailing address to the new Spearfish address - they appeared good with that. Any mail I receive there, Anytime Mailbox scans (the exterior of the envelope), sends it to me and then asks what I’d like to do with it. 99.9% of the time, I’m sure I’ll have them simply recycle it (but they can also open it and scan it, shred it, etc). If there is something in the mail that I do need, we can then arrange for it to be couriered to me anywhere in the world.
Register your vehicle in South Dakota. This is not necessary, but it is a step I took to make renewing my vehicle tags every year easier than had I maintained my California registration (South Dakota vehicle registration is also far less expensive than California). I have another blog about the process, so be sure to check that out. I completed the vehicle registration process via email, phone, and snail mail without stepping foot in South Dakota.
Spend one night in South Dakota. Knowing it was recommended to obtain your driver's license in the same county where you registered your vehicle, I determined I needed to spend one night in Lawrence County. The “major” airport there was Rapid City, so I decided to tack a stopover in Rapid City onto the backend of a trip back home for Canadian Thanksgiving/quality time with the nephews. I flew from Toronto to Minneapolis and then Minneapolis to Rapid City. I arrived at around 10 pm on a Tuesday, grabbed a Lyft to the Baymont by Wyndham Hotel, and then satisfied the requirement of spending the night.
NOTE: Before departing for the trip, I made an appointment at the DMV in Rapid City for the next day (Wednesday) at 10 am. While appointments aren’t necessary, they are recommended, and having an appointment had me seen quickly.
ANOTHER NOTE: When I made my hotel reservation, I ensured that the address reflected on the reservation was my Spearfish, SD address, as you’ll need to show this to the DMV.Apply for Driver’s License/Residency at DMV. I woke early, anxious about the DMV visit, as I had only known trauma and long waits from dealing with the DMVs in Los Angeles. I was concerned I wouldn’t have the correct documents, even though I had reviewed the list about a billion times, had compiled everything, and had checked it a thousand times. I was concerned the wait would be long, was concerned I couldn’t find a ride to get me there, was concerned it would take all day and I’d miss my flight home … stress, stress, stress! (The stress was all for not. Isn’t it almost always?)
The first step I took that morning was obtaining a copy of my hotel folio that showed I had indeed stayed the night (I wasn’t checking out yet, as I didn’t want to shlep my luggage with me to the DMV, so I didn’t have a receipt for my stay yet). The hotel easily provided the document. I then grabbed a quick complimentary breakfast while Fox News played in the background. That’s all Imma say about that.
I then requested a ride from the hotel to the DMV, which is about a 10-minute drive away. As Lyft and Uber drivers are less frequent in Rapid City than in larger areas, I wasn’t sure if I’d have to wait 10 or 60 minutes for a ride, so I ordered it early. I got a ride in about 10 minutes and arrived at the DMV around 9:30 am. It was a solitary building standing alone in the middle of the South Dakota grasslands - a far cry from the DMV offices here in Los Angeles. lol.
As soon as I walked in, I was greeted by someone. I advised that I had an appointment, and she told me to just fill out the application and then she’d give me a number. I filled out the application quickly, and she gave me number A16. They were currently serving A14. Los Angeles DMV could NEVER.
I sat down for about five minutes and waited to be called. My number was called, and I was helped by the same woman who greeted me. She had clearly seen someone swapping their residency before. She went through the process like a well-oiled machine. She got my old license from me, took scans of my passport, my social security card, proof of one night’s stay, and a copy of the receipt I had received from Anytime Mailbox when I had signed up for my address. I had brought a bunch of bank and credit statements that also showed my new SD address, but she didn’t need them. I completed and signed a “Residency Affidavit” (which they notarized for me), and then she processed everything in about three minutes. She processed my payment of $27.00, took my photo, printed my new license, and BOOM - I was now a resident of South Dakota. The wait for the Lyft to get there was longer than the actual process!
I then ordered an Uber (Lyfts were not available at the time) back to my hotel. I arrived back at my hotel at just after 10 am, checked out at 1 pm, and was on my flight heading home by 3:30 pm.
VOTING IN SOUTH DAKOTA AS A RESIDENT
It’s worth noting that your voter registration follows your residency (which makes sense). Some of the ride-share drivers I spoke with (one in particular) were “concerned” about this (I guess they’re thinking that a whole bunch of democrats are going to fraudulently change their states of residence to try and influence the election in South Dakota). There are so many reasons why I cannot see this happening. Here are but a few.
When you move your residence, you’re giving up any benefits you could receive in the state you actually reside in. If you’re on any social service from the state you physically inhabit, or wish to be in the future, you will lose access to that service as a result of changing your residency.
South Dakota only has three electoral votes. No matter which way they vote, they are never going to be an influential swing state. Sadly for them, they are too small to likely be any type of factor (I say “likely” as stranger things have happened).
When you apply for your driver’s license in South Dakota, you sign a ‘Residency Affidavit’ under oath, attesting to the fact that you do not have a physical permanent residence in any other state in the country. So, one would have to perjure oneself to participate in this facade. Maybe a tiny handful of people are willing to do that (there are extremists in every group, after all), but I think you would be hard-pressed to find enough to actually affect an entire election (especially, again, for all three of their electoral votes).
In 2020, 411,514 people voted in South Dakota in the Presidential election. Trump received 261,043 of those votes, and Biden received 150,471. Using those numbers, that would mean to swing the state (for, again, all of its three electoral votes), over 110,000 people would have to move their residency to South Dakota fraudulently. I can’t see that happening. The risk versus reward just doesn’t add up.
Rapid City, SD DMV Office.
Anywho, I hope this clears up the social media confusion about why I now have a South Dakota driver’s license (and why I was even there in the first place)!
Oh, and I also wanted to note that I had originally planned to take a quick trip to Deadwood while I was out there, as I’m a Western history fanatic. However, ground transportation is a bit of a mess there, and it became quite clear that I may end up stranded in Deadwood on the day I had to return to the Rapid City airport, so I decided to bail on the entire thing and fly home a day early. Huge bummer, but hey, I got home a day early!
Cutest photo of the nephews!
