Registration

If you are an American then you are legally required to register in your State and pay the state tax on your purchase. Some people start an LLC (private company) in Montana as there is then 0% tax! Be aware of other annual high costs though in Montana! Other State investigators do check on stored RV’s at home to see if they are illegal out of State registered and then heavy fines are given!

Non US owners – We use Florida to register our vehicle as they allow the use of myrvmail.com as a legal address for people which has an actual street address. There are also a few other states that allow this and Americans that are full timers use these facilities.

Also  be aware that as each State reviews it’s annual cover requirements some companies suddenly can not give you a new policy cover, likewise ones before that could not, can now. An example is Bluesky insurance that in 2015 quoted and then could not cover when we were  about to take the policy out, but in 2016 we managed to get good cover from them.

Drivers licences

We have UK drivers licences that allow us to drive in the US and you can also get a annual International licence from your own country which some places may require.

Insurance

As a non US citizen you will have to hunt around for insurance with your foreign drivers licence. When filling out online enquires make sure you can enter that your licence is foreign and if not ensure they know and list in the quote! You will pay more with a foreign licence and expect to get quotes of up to 100% difference.

Each State has it’s own bare minimum requirements for cover and Florida for instance allows you to have less medical cover than required if you sign a form. If after taking out insurance the correct documents are not returned signed then the insurance company will cancel on you which may be 30 days or so into your first trip when you have no email or mobile contact!

There is a separate page in our book explaining about insurance because if you are non US it is very different and the terms and conditions do not mean the same as European. Take care and make sure you understand, “comprehensive” for instance does NOT mean you are covered for everything.