We are married and live in New Hampshire. Husband works in MA and wife
does not work at this time. Our seventeen (17) yers old son is in
junior class attending public High school in NH. He will be graduating
from school in New Hampshire in June 2006.

Question: 

We want to know what do we need to do to meet the "California
Residence" requirements that will enable our son to attend
undergraduate school in California as a "resident" to insure admission
in CA school with minimum tuition. In addition, we want to know the
following:

1. Can only one of parents move to CA to meet the residency
requirement while the son will live with other parent in NH to attend
the school?  This is necessary due to the time and logistics required
to move for both parents.

2. Does one of the parents who move to CA needs to work there?

3. Can we keep our existing house in NH and claim mortgage deduction
in tax as ?primary residence? or second house? We could file tax
separately (NH and CA).

4. What is the best way to file taxes for CA residency (CA, NH or
both?   Status .. Joint or separately)?

5. Does CA residency insure gauranteed admission to CA public colleges?


I have already looked into 'CA Education Codes' and related
information on web. I am aware of general residency requirements (i.e
366 days presence, Physical presence VS intent to stay in CA, Driver
licence, car registration, address in CA, voting resistration etc.)

I have found the answers regarding CA residency for parents moving out
of CA to other states and how does ot affect minors residency.
However, I have not found information about parents moving from other
states to CA. This is the prome focus of my question.

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/cgi-bin/displaycode?section=edc&group=68001-69000&file=68070-68084

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Clarification of Question by sam_1-ga on 13 Feb 2005 18:26 PST

Reference:: Comment from: hedgie-ga on 13 Feb 2005 09:21 PST 

In order to response from hedgie-ga on 13 Feb 2005 09:21 PST, see
following clarification:

1. There is no "fuzziness" in question. The reality is that we need to
and we want to move to CA because of transfer of job responsibly as
well as of our desire / intent to live in CA, however issue is of
"timing". The prime focus of the questions is to determine "what must
be done" in a timely manner to insure that our son, if possible do not
need to transfer from his current school and still be able to attend
his undergraduate education as a 'resident'.

Actions may include:

1. Moving of one of the parent to CA and other parent to remain in NH
and continue to support the son in the present environment and school
without disrupting his school life.

  OR

2. Other alternative could be to move both parents and son to CA and
disturb son's school as well as his personal life.

Our preference is obviously is not to disrupt our son's school
education as well as if possible avoid disrupting his personal life
until he has to go to college at what time school life will be changed
any way.

I just want to comment:

5. Does CA residency insure guaranteed admission to CA public colleges?
No. It is very easy to get into a community college- but there is no
great advantage of getting there. Prize is UC and to a degree CSU.

 CU is very competitive:
http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/admissions/undergraduate.html
     state system is easier - but still selective:
http://www.csumentor.edu/

Your question is reasonably priced, but may not get an answer. Reason is
that criteria are fuzzy, I suspect intentionaly fuzzy, to allow officials
to weed out cases which look like abuse of the system.

I recommend to work with a counselor, local one, and perhaps with admission
office in CA school. It is a complex, fuzzy system system, in which grades,
motivation and other factors play a role.There is no algorithm, at
least no publicly known algorithm.
Do not forget that California state is not rich any more. To pay
non-residential tuition and apply for tuition aid may be a better way
they  to go then trying to be clever. Think about reasons why discount
for residents was put in. It was to reward those who pay taxes which
pay the schools, not to attract parents from other states to move
temporarily into the state.

Feb 13, 2005  9:40 PM

In response to the comments by hedgie-ga 13 Feb 2005, see
clarification section of the question. Thanks.

Your question is clear and well defined.

  The criteria for residency are fuzzy.

The additional detail you provided may be relevant
- which is while individual situations are evaluated,
 rather then few parameters.
Sorry about the confusion.

should be

which is why  individual


sorry about a typo