This is one of those classic aspects of travel nursing that no one seems to be able to give you a straight answer about. If you’re travel nursing and bringing your own car from place to place, you may run into the issue of having to re-register your car wherever you’re stationed. Each state has their own particular rules about who is required to register their car or after how long of living and/or working there do you have to register your car. I have done hours of research over the past six months or so (pretty much since we started travel nursing) trying to find a simple answer to the question: “do I ever need to register my car where I’m working as a travel nurse?” I have a simple answer for you and then a complicated, but more comprehensive answer.

First, the simple answer. I will not advise you to do something illegal. This is the simple answer that I’ve seen pretty much every other blog or website give and I am merely reporting what I’ve read. It seems that the general consensus on this issue is that the only time it would matter if you do not register your car in another state when you’re supposed to is if you get pulled over or reported. Depending how long you’re staying in another state (different from where your car is registered), it is probably unlikely to be an issue. If you catch my drift.

However, Dan and I have an anecdote from our time in South Carolina that relates to this topic. It seems that somewhere in the development that we lived in, or possibly elsewhere in town, there lived a neighbourhood busybody. Somebody actually reported to the state auditor’s office that a New Hampshire plated car had been around for a while, so we received a nice warning letter explaining the laws in South Carolina about how long you can reside there before needing to change your plates/registration. We were within the limits the whole time we were in South Carolina so we responded to the auditor with that information and it all amounted to nothing. That just goes to show that you never know if it could end up being an issue whether you’re pulled over or not.

My thought is that most people enforcing this rule would be understanding and either not enforce it in your case or be forgiving if you went past the deadline, assuming you then followed the rules after being notified. It’s a decision you have to make for yourself, but I would recommend knowing the laws of whichever state you’re going to. During my research, I wanted a quick and easy overview of each state, but couldn’t for the life of me find one. So, I thought I would make that resource for those who want to know the relevant laws state by state. Keep an eye out for Part Two of Registering Your Car While Travel Nursing coming very soon!

P.S. Sorry for the splitting of this post into two parts, but the research for each state has been taking forever and it’s Christmas so I’m going to finish it after that 😉