Guidelines for Determining Residency

To determine whether a person is a resident of Tennessee, the registrar must consider the following factors:

1. The residence of a person is the place where the person’s habitation is fixed and is where, during periods of absence, the person definitely intends to return.
2. A person can have only one residence.
3. A change of residence is made not only by relocation, but also by intent to remain in the new location permanently, and by demonstrating actions consistent with that intention.
4. The following factors may be considered:
   
   
   • The person’s possession, acquisition or surrender of inhabitable property;
   • Location of the person’s occupation;
   • Place of licensing or registration of the person’s personal property;
   • Place of payment of taxes which are governed by residence;
   • Purpose for a person’s presence in a particular place; and
   • Place of the person’s licensing for activities such as driving.
     
     
5. The place where a married person’s spouse and family live is presumed to be that person’s residence, unless that person takes up or continues abode with the intention of remaining in a place other than where the spouse and family reside.
6. No person gains or loses residency solely by presence in or absence from the state while employed in the service of the United States or this state, or while a student at an institution of higher learning, or while kept in an institution at public expense.