I Became A NY Resident (Again): Real ID, Voting, Libraries, Healthcare and Taxes

It finally happened 🙂 . After 10 years as a resident of Washington State, I am once again a New York resident. I previously lived in NYC from 2011 to 2015 and now I’m back baby!

As a result of semi-settling down with my Partner and getting an apartment in Upstate NY as well as a car, I had to become a New York resident to get my new car title and start paying taxes for the roads I’m now driving on 🙂 .

• I Got A Homebase! (But Will Still Travel 1/3 Of The Year)
• I Bought A Car! What I Learned As A First-Time Car Buyer

So let’s dive into that process! I was confused and intimidated by it before I started, but I think I have a better grasp of how NY State operates now so I hope this helps if you’re looking to change residency or are curious about what goes into this process.

Transferring Residency

Before going to the DMV, I should have filled out and printed these forms:

• Application for Permit, Driver License, or Non-Driver ID Card (MV-44)
• Certification of Residency (MV-44NYR)

And brought these documents:

• Old State ID
• US Passport
• Social Security Card
• Lease Agreement (or other proof of residency)
• Rental Insurance Agreement (or other proof of residency)

DMV

(Note: If you read my Car Buying post, the following description of my experience in the DMV is basically the same as in that post so feel free to skip to the next section. I wanted to include what happened here as well so this post would show the complete process on its own.)

I went to the Albany DMV to register my car, change my state of residency, and get a REAL ID. I rolled up to the DMV on a Monday, about an hour before they were set to close.

When I entered the building, there was an orderly line of four people in front of me. Not bad! Two DMV employees at the front were checking that people had the correct forms and documents, and then sending them into another room to continue the process with (I assumed) other employees.

When I got to the front, I handed over my printed forms and all of my documents. They asked what I was trying to do and I said register a car and change my state of residency. They asked if I wanted REAL ID and I said sure, but I thought I didn’t have all the documents needed and they said I did so we went ahead with that. They also complimented my organization of the paperwork and documents I did have, which I appreciated 😉 .

The employee took my new REAL ID picture right there, and then I was asked to quickly fill out the Application for Permit, Driver License, or Non-Driver ID Card (MV-44) and Certification of Residency (MV-44NYR) listed above. Luckily after that initial interaction, there’s a “chill out” area with tables and chairs for people to fill out forms before going to the next step in the process.

After I had filled out those forms, I entered the final line. This one was longer with six people in front of me, but it moved quickly because instead of two employees at the front there were several.

When I reached the front of the line, I was directed to move forward and the DMV employee once again asked for all of my forms and documents. The employee then walked me through everything, which involved answering their questions verbally and answering prompts on a digital pad, which included registering to vote and becoming an organ donor.

I was also asked to read the first line on a Vision Chart on the wall, which was super easy (I was expecting a further down line 🙂 ). I then paid $51.75 for my new license, was given a Temporary NY License and surrendered my WA license. This entire process took a little less than a full hour, which I was very surprised and impressed by!

Getting A Real ID

While waiting for my REAL ID to be mailed to me, I checked out the NY DMV License Mailing Status page, which later showed that my ID was shipping 9 days after I visited the DMV and it finally arrived 12 days after I visited the DMV.

Voter’s Registration

I signed up to vote as a part of my DMV process to get my REAL ID. They had a button on the screen that I selected “yes” on and that was it.

When I got home I did a little digging and confirmed that I was registered to vote in NY now and also signed up for an Early Mail Ballot, which is supposed to mail you your ballot in advance of elections so you don’t have to stand in line. I’ll let you know if that works out 🙂 . They claim that this process will send me my ballot 46 days before federal, state, county, city and town elections.

Libraries

I’ve been using Libby for many years now because that’s the main eBook app that works with Seattle Public Libraries. But now I’m part of the New York Public Library system again, which is actually really cool because I learned that they’re the 2nd largest public library in the US (after the Library of Congress) and the 5th largest public library in the world!!!

That’s awesome and has seriously decreased the amount of time I’m on hold for new books. However, I also learned that as a part of NY State, I can join a BUNCH of different sister library systems to expand the number of books I have access to as well as the number of loans and holds I can have. Mwahaha! It feels illegal, but it’s all above board 🙂 .

So in addition to NYPL, I just googled around to see what other libraries I’m allowed to add to my Libby app and ended up adding a total of 5 sister library systems. I might write a whole post about the hidden benefits of libraries that we currently have and how to legally join multiple library systems if that’s of interest.

In addition to awesome free books, these libraries also offer free museum passes and a NY Times subscription! Maybe I’ll finally try out Wordle! (When my Editor aka my Mom read this she added a comment “No you won’t lol.” Fair, Mom. Fair🤣.)

Health Insurance

When I started looking for healthcare in NY, I expected the offerings to be worse and more expensive than my options in WA, but I was surprised to see that isn’t the case at the time of writing.

If you don’t qualify for Medicaid, but make below $39,125 per person in NY, right now you qualify for what they call their “Essential Plans.” I estimated my income this year will be about $27,000 so I qualified for their Essential Plan 1, which is for anyone that makes between $23,476 and $31,300.00.

These Essential Plans shockingly all have a $0 monthly premium and no deductible. They also include dental and vision, which none of my WA health insurance plans did.

I then had to choose which specific health insurance provider I wanted within this plan. I chose the one with the highest quality rating in my area since they all had the same benefits. In the end, I chose CDPHP (Capital District Physicians Health Plan).

I applied for coverage on June 21, 2025 expecting that it would start July 1, but got a message almost immediately that I was approved and that coverage would retroactively start on June 1. Alrighty then.

The other interesting thing is that I was expecting to have to pick another plan during open enrollment this fall that would then kick in January 2026, but was told on my health insurance documents that this plan will be for 12 months. Sweet!

I then received my health insurance card in the mail 7 days later so I could login to their website and start looking for providers that accept my insurance through their search tools. I was also able to see what drugs are approved for my plan and what pharmacies are in-network.

NY State Taxes 

Ah yes – more taxes. I knew this was coming when I decided to leave the no income tax state of WA so now it’s time. Here are the tax rates for NY state. Sadly, they also tax investment income as regular income:

So if I hit my goal of having ‘income’ of about $27,000, after subtracting the $8K NY State standard deduction I’m going to pay about $880 in NY State taxes on that money. So far I’ve paid $0 of federal or state taxes on my retirement money, so I guess that’s fair. Let’s fund those roads I’m driving on.

Conclusion

And that’s how I went about changing my state of residency from Washington State to New York. It’s interesting to be back and as I suspected, this change is going to be an expensive one, but it’s worth it to me to be close to family.

Personal finance is personal and money isn’t my only consideration anymore 🙂 . I hope outlining these steps was helpful if you’re looking to change your state of residency or just interested in the process.