Travel clarifications Part 2

Dear Janice and Chance:

My name is Bruce a.k.a. Atwo Zee, Registered Traveler.  I am writing again to offer clarifications to a couple of things you have been saying about domestic travel on your monthly ACSOL zoom meetings, most recently on September 17, 2022.  

Janice, when you give the introductory presentation at each monthly zoom meeting you usually talk about which states have the shortest and longest time periods available to visitors without triggering an obligation to register.  You correctly point out that the objective of every registered traveler should be to never stay in any state long enough to be required to register because it complicates one’s life enough to be registered at all, why would you want to find yourself registered in multiple states?

I completely agree with that logic.  However, you have often mentioned Hawaii as a state having one of, if not the longest, visitor grace periods at 10 consecutive days or 30 per calendar year.  About that you are mistaken.  Actually several states have this 10 consecutive day standard, including Montana, North Dakota (where I traveled earlier this month), Washington, Wisconsin, New York, Vermont and South Carolina.  Several more states have an even longer 14 or 15 day grace period, including Colorado, Minnesota, Kentucky, West Virginia and North Carolina.

Of all these states, some also impose an overall limit of 30 cumulative days per calendar year, but others do not.

During the September 17 zoom call a man raised his hand to say he had spoken to the Oregon SOR office and they said they had no specific time period, just don’t make your visit permanent.  I am here to tell you that’s what the Oregon SOR office told me too – on two separate occasions.  That’s because Oregon’s registry law is silent on the subject of visitors and unlike some other states the SOR office has chosen not to impose a limit by fiat.

Oregon is not the only state completely lacking a visitor time limit.  Pennsylvania, for all that it has been in the news lately for having its entire registry found unconstitutional, never had any limit either.  I even visited a PA registration office to talk to an officer in person to confirm this, which he did.  However, they do define “residence” as being a place where a person is domiciled for more than 30 days per calendar year, so there’s that.  U.S. territories having no specific time limit include the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and American Samoa.

Of the remaining 48 states and two territories with consecutive day time limits, the longest is 30 days.  This generous time limit applies in Virginia, Guam and the US Virgin Islands.  By the way, none of these three places has a limit per year, so you can leave and return to re-start the clock if you need to or want to.