Registering in California

[jamman]

Originally Posted by Floating Cloud

Generally need to register a vehicle where it is garaged. You have an unusual situation though. You can ask the Oregon DMV and probably need to ask more than once to get a correct answer from someone who knows. This is assuming you would fly into Oregon instead of Washington. Other Alaskans may have done this so you might look for some of them to find out their set-up.

Oregon only allows (and requires) residents to register a vehicle: Oregon DMV Oregon Residency & Domicile

[P&L]

We made an appointment and are taking our trailer to DMV today. I had no idea how complex this could be! Geez! We'll keep our fingers crossed and hope for a smooth transaction!

[Dave Walter]

Guess we are lucky. Went in to a local registrar, showed my paperwork from Escape, paid my fee (for perpetual plates), and was out of there all in about 5 min. Can't believe the hoops people are forced to jump through in other jurisdictions. At the end of the day, it's only a camper trailer being registered.

[craiginpetaluma]

My registration went smooth yesterday. Made an appointment the week before, filled out one form, went outside got "verified" came back inside. Handed ETI paper work to clerk, wrote a check and was told all CA DMV international imports needs to go through DMV HQ in Sacramento so here is your temporary permit and your plates will be mailed. One hour total, and this place was a ZOO!!! There was no talk of conversion rates….I just enterd a number on the form?

[float5]

Originally Posted by jamman

Oregon only allows (and requires) residents to register a vehicle: Oregon DMV Oregon Residency & Domicile

A person who has a second home is usually required to register the vehicle where garaged. If such a person is a resident (domiciled) in the state where their primary home is located, not where the second home is located, they are still required to register the vehicle at the second home if it is garaged there. That is common around the country.

What you seem to be referring to is simply the basic requirement that you register your vehicle if you move to Oregon but I don't know. I have not looked at Oregon but he will need to look into it. His agent will not give him insurance because the vehicle will be in another state and it may have to be registered where it is kept.

[bdornbush]

When I got the paperwork from Escape, I went to the DMV office in Santa Rosa. They said they needed to inspect the trailer to verify the VIN. I asked how to transport the trailer back from Canada, and they sold me a $20 "one trip permit." I took that with me to Escape but no one asked to see it during my trip home. Once home, I went to the DMV office without a reservation, and spent about 2 hours there. First the trailer was inspected and I got the needed form. Then a clerk looked through my papers and said she thought I needed more. After two discussions with supervisors, she agreed she had enough. I showed her my bill of sale and credit card receipts to show how much I had actually paid in USD, and she had me put that on a form. She took the original paperwork and copied it twice, once for me and once for her, and said she would send it to Sacramento and would check to see the progress. She gave me a temp permit and said if I didn't get plates by the time it expired, come back and they would issue a new temp. But the plates arrived in about a month so no issue. To my surprise, she called to let me know that the process had completed and I should receive my plates shortly.

[P&L]

After reading about some of the horror stories, I had some trepidations, but everything went smooth as glass!

We returned to California on 10/26 and went to DMV today, 11/5. We missed our 10:30 appointment by an hour but they gave us the paperwork at 11:45 to complete. While completing the paperwork, they looked at the trailer and verified the details. Once inside we were seen immediately because we did have an initial appointment. We were out of there in less than an hour.

[santacruzer]

I registered my first Escape trailer (17) at the small office in Mt Shasta, CA. I was in and out in 20 minutes with plates. I took the second Escape (19) to Capitola, and it took me two trips and about 3hours to even get out of the building. Even then, I had to be placed "In suspension" because they didn't like the paperwork. I made the mistake of telling Johnny Clodhopper of my previous 20 minute great experience at the Mt. Shasta office, and could see in his eyes that retribution was about to be exacted!! Ended up with a temp plate, and had to wait about a month to get everything else out of Sacramento.