What criteria do I need to fulfill to meet the in-state residency requirements for UNC?

Question

I'm a transfer student from Pennsylvania. My dad grew-up in NC, owns property here, which he's been paying taxes on for over 15 yrs, along with filing in-state income tax over that period of time. He now lives/works in Shanghai in an international school. Please advise... thanks in advance.

Answer 1

To be very honest with you, you are describing the perfect sort of "exceptional" circumstances that make your situation unpredictable.

When the North Carolina statutes speak of residency, they focus on the concept of domicile, which is not the same as the concept of property ownership. The process of determining an applicant's legal residence begins with the parent's "domicile" and a rebuttable presumption that the applicant shares the domicile of his/her parent (interestingly, this is regardless of the applicant's age). Because the presumption is "rebuttable", the applicant is able to present certain forms of evidence to demonstrate that the presumption is incorrect.

Clearly, that your father pays state income taxes and is a landowner within the state is somewhat of an influence in assessing your residency, but neither of those things, alone, is sufficient.

To be very honest, the only people who can accurately answer this question for you is the admissions department at UNC. Because there is no rule that directly applies to your circumstances, I suspect that there will be a certain amount of subjectivity involved in the determination. Obviously, there's no predicting someone's interpretative judgment.

I wish you the very best of luck with your quest!