New Jersey

I love New Jersey's train system!

From the 50 State Visitor Guide :

N.J. Stat. 2019 §§2C:7-1 through 2C:7-23

Registration Triggers and Deadlines:

10 days for initial registration; updates to address due 10 days prior to move; updates to employment and school enrollment within 5 days.  Statute only applies to residents, students, and non-resident employees. 

Visitors: Residence is apparently established by presence in the state for 10 days. §2C:7-2c.(3).

Residency/Presence and Other Restrictions:

None.

Duration & updates:

Life. Petition to remove – 15 years, exceptions. §2C:7-2f. Updates for “compulsive or repeat” offenders quarterly; others annually, §2C:7-2

 Most recent visit: April 2024

Latin Jazzercise on the Jersey City riverfront.

For a registered visitor, New Jersey is a pretty easy state to get along with.  As with a number of other states, its statutes don’t specifically address visitors.  However, you should assume that the same ten day registration grace period that applies to new residents applies to visitors too.  There appears to be no limit on return visits per month or year. Beyond that there are no statewide residency separation or presence requirements, although you should be careful about any local rules that might apply to you.  

It so happens that I travel to New Jersey at least once per year because I was born and raised in the sprawling suburbs of the Garden State and still have family there. Most states’ registry procedures require your local sheriff’s department to report your “temporary address” and dates of travel to your own state’s SOR office, who will then send that info to the SOR office of the state you’re going to.  

Then it’s that state’s (in this case New Jersey) SOR office’s responsibility to pass the word along.  Whether any of that actually happens I have no idea.  I always adhere to my travel schedule and show up at the temporary address I have provided to my local sheriff’s department on the day I said I would, but I don’t go report to the local police, nor have they ever shown up anywhere I’ve ever gone to check on me.

In May 2023 a somber occasion brought me back to New Jersey.  My eldest brother died the previous fall and my sister-in-law decided to hold off his interment and celebration of life until spring when the weather would be nice.  It was therefore her home address that I reported as my “temporary address” to my local sheriff’s department – this time in Iowa but in the past it’s been in Florida.  

My brother & sister-in-law’s farm abuts a state park.  If it was in Florida I wouldn’t be allowed to stay there because I can’t “reside” within 1000 feet of a state or local park (as measured from property line to property line).  But Florida’s rules – and whatever rules apply to you in your home state – no longer apply as soon as you cross the state line.  New Jersey has no such restriction so you can stay wherever you want.

Portuguese Bakery in Newark's Ironbound neighborhood. Yummmmmm!

Whenever I come to New Jersey I like to make at least one side trip and have some fun.  This time I went to Newark where I spent my college years (Rutgers-Newark) just to see how it’s doing.  The answer is that Newark has come a long way since the dark days of the 1970’s and now has much to offer any visitor.  Whenever I go to Newark I especially like to head for the Ironbound neighborhood (a.k.a. “Down Neck”) and have lunch at a Portuguese (or on this occasion Brazilian) restaurant, followed up by a drool-worthy stop at a Portuguese bakery. Yum! 

As any reader of my travel blogs knows, I’m a sucker for a train ride.  New Jersey has some of the best rail transit in the U.S.  I grew up only a couple of blocks from a commuter rail line, all the kids in the neighborhood played at the railroad tracks, and I became a railroad geek at an early age.  Did you know that you can walk up to the ticket vending kiosk at any rail station in the New York metro area and buy a ticket to any other rail station? So you can buy a ticket from Port Jervis, NY to Atlantic City, or Philadelphia, or Islip, LI.

In April 2024 I traveled with my now ex-wife but still Best Friend Forever to attend a wedding in New Jersey, but with a side trip to Long Island to check in on relatives.  In the way back to the Garden State I enticed my BFF to stop at Liberty State Park in Jersey City to see its commanding view of the Statue of Liberty and the Liberty Science Center (very nice!).  

Then I managed to get her onto the Hudson-Bergen Light Rail to see the New Jersey riverfront in Hoboken and Jersey City.  Yes they are amazing places that have spectacular front row seat views of Lower Manhattan.  We got off the light rail at Exchange Place to take in that view.  My BFF was so impressed she insisted on going for a walk along the riverfront to see more, especially the 9-11 memorials.  It was a sunny morning and there was a Latin Jazzercise class going on one of Jersey City’s riverfront boardwalk plazas.  My BFF said, “I’m always glad I go with you to these places – This is great!”

New Jersey, the land of my birth, “The Crossroads of the Revolution,” is a great place to visit.