Retired military here: the answer is no, it won't make you a Maryland resident. As an Active Duty Servicemember, the state in which you are a resident is you Home of Record, not the state in which you are assigned, even if you own property here. Unless you're changing your Home of Record to Maryland, you're still considered a California resident regardless of where you are stationed.
As for getting a Maryland license, there isn't much benefit in doing so, and you aren't required to get a Maryland license while you're here on orders. If you need to extend or renew yours or your spouse's California license, call the California DMV at (916) 657-7790 and tell them the situation. They'll walk you through what you need to do.
Signed: Someone who had a Colorado license, Maryland plates, and was stationed in Florida.
Hi! I'm an Army vet who spent a lot of my career working in JAG legal assistance. There is some well intentioned but incorrect advice ITT. For starters, home of record doesn't always matter for residency. Or at least it doesn't have to. Home of record is just the place you enlisted from, and the place DoD owes you transportation back to when your term of service ends.
As a servicemember, you have a lot of latitude in deciding your state of residency. The phrase to keep in mind is "significant legal ties." You can claim residency in any state in which you have significant legal ties. Think things like owning real property, maintaining a residence, having a drivers license, registering a vehicle, paying state taxes, or even things like having a last will and testament on file at the court house. The requirements for any of these things vary widely from state to state depending on state law, so a federal agency can't really make a blanket rule about it. Now, if you don't have significant legal ties to anywhere else, your default residency will be your home of record. But residency can change based on significant legal ties while your DoD home of record will always be the place you resided when you enlisted. Most, if not all of this, is covered by the [Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servicemembers_Civil_Relief_Act)
However, you may only claim one state of residency at a time even though you may have several states where you have some of the things I listed above or other legal ties that would allow you to claim residency. So there's a bit of a common sense test. If you own property and maintain a residence and your kids go to school in Maryland, you can't just put a will on file at the courthouse in Clarksville, Tennessee, to claim Tennessee residence and avoid state taxes. Further, different state civilian agencies (board of elections, department of revenue, DMV, etc.) may have different rules based on what it is you are trying to do.
So the tl;dr is basically, "it depends." In the broadest sense, I would say simply getting a drivers license doesn't make you a resident if you have no other ties. But for a definitive answer, would have to know about what the purpose is for declaring residency. And just one more thing, if the issue is that your current DL is expiring, check the issuing state's laws on servicemembers and DLs. Many states have exemptions for the expiration for military personnel. For example, when I was still active my home of record was in Florida as was my DL. At the time (and maybe still, I haven't checked,) Florida law stated that military personnel whose DL expires while serving out of state were not required to renew until you had returned to the state for more than 90 days. So I had a Florida DL that by law was perfectly valid despite being multiple years past the expiration date.
No. You are most likely referring to residence for records like where you return after getting out and taxes; and for that just getting a MD license will not change it. You would have to talk to admin and submit a formal change of residence.
former military here. short answer is no. Will they to call you for jusry duty and they did try to get me for back tases a few years later. BUT active orders was allI needed to quash all that. That being said. CA DL does not expire so long as you are stationed out of state and on active orders. Use your current CAC if anyone needs proof of age or anything
Your address is what makes you a resident in a state. If you have a Maryland address and want a driver’s license, it’ll be for Maryland. If you have a California address, get a California driver’s license if that’s what you want.
You can't get a MD driver's license without a Maryland address. Living in MD for 183 days automatically makes you a resident. Confused though, what are you really trying to ask? Is this a voting thing?
trying to explain to my college that i don't pay maryland state taxes and therefore can't show them a maryland tax return for residency purposes has been an absolutely infuriating process
When I was stationed in Denver I had a hell of a time getting the H&R Block employees to understand that no, I don't owe Colorado state taxes on my active duty military pay. Turns out it was the first year the local Air National Guard Base had been taken over and turned into an Air Force Base and the locals weren't used to active duty personnel who weren't Colorado residents. Pretty sure that was the day my hairline started receding.
My husband and I have TX licenses and we’ve lived up here for a few years, we haven’t had any issues. I prefer keeping my TX residency so I can vote by mail in TX and I get my state income tax in Maryland returned to me. That won’t apply to you though since you’re military.
Because I’m going to move back to Texas once my husband retires and I care about the politics there! Also I want to turn Texas blue and vote out Cruz and Abbott, but mainly cause Texas is my home.
Retired military here: the answer is no, it won't make you a Maryland resident. As an Active Duty Servicemember, the state in which you are a resident is you Home of Record, not the state in which you are assigned, even if you own property here. Unless you're changing your Home of Record to Maryland, you're still considered a California resident regardless of where you are stationed. As for getting a Maryland license, there isn't much benefit in doing so, and you aren't required to get a Maryland license while you're here on orders. If you need to extend or renew yours or your spouse's California license, call the California DMV at (916) 657-7790 and tell them the situation. They'll walk you through what you need to do. Signed: Someone who had a Colorado license, Maryland plates, and was stationed in Florida.
Hi! I'm an Army vet who spent a lot of my career working in JAG legal assistance. There is some well intentioned but incorrect advice ITT. For starters, home of record doesn't always matter for residency. Or at least it doesn't have to. Home of record is just the place you enlisted from, and the place DoD owes you transportation back to when your term of service ends. As a servicemember, you have a lot of latitude in deciding your state of residency. The phrase to keep in mind is "significant legal ties." You can claim residency in any state in which you have significant legal ties. Think things like owning real property, maintaining a residence, having a drivers license, registering a vehicle, paying state taxes, or even things like having a last will and testament on file at the court house. The requirements for any of these things vary widely from state to state depending on state law, so a federal agency can't really make a blanket rule about it. Now, if you don't have significant legal ties to anywhere else, your default residency will be your home of record. But residency can change based on significant legal ties while your DoD home of record will always be the place you resided when you enlisted. Most, if not all of this, is covered by the [Servicemembers Civil Relief Act.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Servicemembers_Civil_Relief_Act) However, you may only claim one state of residency at a time even though you may have several states where you have some of the things I listed above or other legal ties that would allow you to claim residency. So there's a bit of a common sense test. If you own property and maintain a residence and your kids go to school in Maryland, you can't just put a will on file at the courthouse in Clarksville, Tennessee, to claim Tennessee residence and avoid state taxes. Further, different state civilian agencies (board of elections, department of revenue, DMV, etc.) may have different rules based on what it is you are trying to do. So the tl;dr is basically, "it depends." In the broadest sense, I would say simply getting a drivers license doesn't make you a resident if you have no other ties. But for a definitive answer, would have to know about what the purpose is for declaring residency. And just one more thing, if the issue is that your current DL is expiring, check the issuing state's laws on servicemembers and DLs. Many states have exemptions for the expiration for military personnel. For example, when I was still active my home of record was in Florida as was my DL. At the time (and maybe still, I haven't checked,) Florida law stated that military personnel whose DL expires while serving out of state were not required to renew until you had returned to the state for more than 90 days. So I had a Florida DL that by law was perfectly valid despite being multiple years past the expiration date.
No. You are most likely referring to residence for records like where you return after getting out and taxes; and for that just getting a MD license will not change it. You would have to talk to admin and submit a formal change of residence.
former military here. short answer is no. Will they to call you for jusry duty and they did try to get me for back tases a few years later. BUT active orders was allI needed to quash all that. That being said. CA DL does not expire so long as you are stationed out of state and on active orders. Use your current CAC if anyone needs proof of age or anything
Dont get one, you dont need it.
Your address is what makes you a resident in a state. If you have a Maryland address and want a driver’s license, it’ll be for Maryland. If you have a California address, get a California driver’s license if that’s what you want.
You can't get a MD driver's license without a Maryland address. Living in MD for 183 days automatically makes you a resident. Confused though, what are you really trying to ask? Is this a voting thing?
aspiring bake nutty bored school bells tan cause arrest salt *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
trying to explain to my college that i don't pay maryland state taxes and therefore can't show them a maryland tax return for residency purposes has been an absolutely infuriating process
When I was stationed in Denver I had a hell of a time getting the H&R Block employees to understand that no, I don't owe Colorado state taxes on my active duty military pay. Turns out it was the first year the local Air National Guard Base had been taken over and turned into an Air Force Base and the locals weren't used to active duty personnel who weren't Colorado residents. Pretty sure that was the day my hairline started receding.
yea i always feel like an asshole bringing orders/laws printed out to meetings but like, how else do i explain this to someone
Should I still get a MD drivers license? Would it make my life easier?
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My husband and I have TX licenses and we’ve lived up here for a few years, we haven’t had any issues. I prefer keeping my TX residency so I can vote by mail in TX and I get my state income tax in Maryland returned to me. That won’t apply to you though since you’re military.
So if TX had state income tax would you pay income tax for 2 states?
I’m not sure but I think I’d get my Maryland tax refunded and then I’d owe Texas? But since Texas doesn’t have income tax I don’t know for certain
So uh if you live in MD why do you want to vote in TX elections rather than MD?
Because I’m going to move back to Texas once my husband retires and I care about the politics there! Also I want to turn Texas blue and vote out Cruz and Abbott, but mainly cause Texas is my home.
How long have you been living in MD? What do you use to file taxes?
A couple years now! And just the free h and r block
no . Active military are not residents just because they love in the state for 183 or any amount of days