Residency Determination

Residency for admission and tuition purposes at a public college or university in Texas is not the same as residency for voting or tax purposes. The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board and the Texas Legislature established the rules that govern Texas residency for tuition purposes.

Students and applicants are assigned a residency status based on the answers provided on the admission application. Classifications will be either Texas resident (in-state) or nonresident (out-of-state).

A United States citizen or permanent resident who does not meet the required criteria will be classified as a nonresident for tuition purposes. A non-citizen who is not a permanent resident of the United States and has not been permitted by U.S. Congress to adopt the United States as their domicile while in this country will be classified as a foreign (international) student.

Out-of-state residency change

If you live in Texas solely to attend school and reside out-of-state for the rest of the year, you are a resident of that state and are not eligible for Texas residency for tuition purposes.

Individuals or parent/court-appointed legal guardians attempting to establish their residency in Texas must physically reside in the state and establish domicile in Texas, by one of the four factors listed below, at least 12 months prior to the semester requested. It is the student’s responsibility to provide documentation in support of their claim of domicile.

Criteria for Establishing Domicile

The following factors occurring throughout at least 12 consecutive months immediately preceding your term of enrollment may lend support to your claim of establishing and maintaining a domicile:

1. Sole or joint marital ownership of residential real property in Texas; having established and maintained principal, permanent residence at that address.
2. Ownership and customary management of a business while residing in Texas which is regularly operated without the intent of liquidation in the foreseeable future.
3. Gainful employment that provides for at least one-half of the individual’s expenses or employment of at least twenty hours per week. Employment conditioned upon your status as a student such as work-study, student assistant employment, receipt of stipends, financial aid refunds, fellowships, teaching assistantships, etc. does not qualify as gainful employment.
4. Marriage to a person who has established and maintained a domicile by one of the above three methods. The marriage must have taken place at least 12 months prior to the term of enrollment.

The cost of attendance benchmark for gainful employment is based on the undergraduate cost to attend. We take the total undergraduate Texas Resident tuition and divide it in half.  

Refer to the Rules and Regulations on the College for All Texans website for additional information.

Additional Pathways to Residency

Non-Citizens Who Attend a Texas High School

In order to qualify as a Texas resident for tuition purposes, ALL of the following criteria must be met:

• Graduated or will graduate from a public or private high school in Texas or received the equivalent of a high school diploma in the state
• Lived in Texas for the 36 months immediately preceding the date of high school graduation (10th, 11th, and 12th grades)
• Lived in Texas the 12 months preceding the census date of the academic semester in which the student enrolls Tarleton State University