How the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act helps military spouses

I don't get excited about much, but I am very excited about this. I no longer have to do all the paperwork and go through the hassle of changing my residency every time we PCS (move). Plus, now I get to keep my residency with a tax-free state. BONUS!

Military spouses need to check out the following article. It gives more details about the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act (MSRRA). Also, keep in mind that this makes voting easier for military spouses!

Residency and Military PCS Moves

At the time of this post, our family has moved eight (8) times so far. In all except this last move, I had to change my residency to the new location. My voter registration, drivers license and professional business license changed as well.

My biggest frustration with all of this wasn't having to change residency. The problem I had was that the rules seemed to change from state to state.

Quick story:

We had just arrived at our new location. A few days later, a state trooper pulledme over and informed me that I had expired tags. In the whole PCS process, I completely forgot about this. He asked where I was coming from and I told him I was coming from the Air Force Base. He gave me a warning and explained that I had 30 days to change my residency over to the new state. In this case, changing residency included changing vehicle registration/tags.

My point is that there is a lot tied to residency that we don't think about until we encounter a law (via law enforcement officer). The military PCS can be very stressful without having to know the residency requirements of the state you're going to.

The Relief for Military Spouses

Where is the Relief?

Soon after the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act, we were on vacation in my hometown. We took that opportunity to change our residency to that state. The clerks were great and helped us change our vehicle registration, too. We had one of our vehicles present at that time. We were able to change the other vehicle via mail.

So, now we have driver licenses from our home state of record with the address of our current physical residence. (This throws people sometimes when they see the address is different from the state.)

More about the Military Spouses Residency Relief Act

President signs bill, aids military spouses: Military Spouses Residency Relief Act

Military Spouse Act – Residency Relief (MSRRA)

Leave a Tip!

Help us help another civilian male military spouse. Leave a tip in the comments section about changing residency and the Military Residency Relief Act.

Taurus M. James Male Military Spouse Taurus James is the 2016 Armed Forces Insurance Military Spouse of the Year from Wright Patterson Air Force Base. Taurus is a 20-year civilian male military spouse and stay-at-home-dad. He is also a minister and composer of Moody instruMental Music. Taurus is a professional IT Consultant and Web Developer, and he built and maintains the Machospouse.com website for free. Find out more about Taurus through his blog: