Residence Status

Residence Status

Determining Texas Residency

Under state statutes pursuant to Title 3 Texas Education Code and the Rules and Regulations for Determining Residence Status made known by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) which interpret those statutes, an individual will be classified as a resident or nonresident. Residency rules are adopted and amended by legislative action.

Your residence status for tuition purposes will be determined by the Office of Admissions and Student Recruitment prior to your enrollment. Students may contact the Office of Admissions and Student Recruitment and Student Recruitment for help in determining correct residence status for tuition purposes or for steps to complete in order to change residence status.

You must be prepared to pay tuition and other required fees by specified due dates or become subject to the penalties applied by the Coordinating Board rules. If you have knowledge of an error in your residency status for tuition purposes, it is your responsibility to notify the Office of Admissions and Student Recruitment immediately. These rules are subject to change. For current Residency Information, view the Coordinating Board’s College for All Texans website. Enter “Residency Information” in the search box to find the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Rules on Determining Residency.

An individual who has lived in the state under circumstances specified in these rules will be eligible for classification as a resident. An individual who does not meet resident criteria will be classified as a non-resident and must pay tuition and fees required of non-resident students. An individual classified as a non-resident may qualify to pay resident tuition rates and other charges while continuing to be classified as a non-resident under certain exceptions specified in these rules.

If you believe that you qualify based on the State statutes, you may request the Core Residency Questionnaire from the Admissions and Student Recruitment Office, or print the form from the link and attach the supporting documents for proof of your claim to Texas residency.  You can provide any of the documents listed as Supporting Documents as proof of physical residence in Texas.   

Initial Residency Information

To ensure proper resident classification upon admission to University of Houston-Victoria, students must make sure they answer all questions related to Texas resident status that appear on the ApplyTexas electronic application for admission. It is the student’s responsibility to provide correct information to the Office of Admissions and Student Recruitment so that resident status may be correctly determined at the time of enrollment. UHV may request that a person provide documentation to support or clarify the answers to residency questions previously submitted.

Errors in Residency Classification

Errors in residency classification may occur. However, the university will respond to questions upon notification by students. If you believe your resident status to be incorrect prior to or during your enrollment at UHV, you may contact the Office of Admissions and Student Recruitment to determine the proper steps to take to address your concerns.

If UHV, in spite of information to the contrary that is provided by the student by the census date of a given semester, fails to classify an otherwise eligible student as a resident when the are entitled to resident tuition for that semester, UHV will refund the difference in resident and nonresident tuition for each semester in which the student was erroneously classified and paid the nonresident tuition rate. An appeal form must be submitted to the Student Billing and Card Services stating the reason the student was charged in error and requesting the refund.

If UHV erroneously permits a person to pay resident tuition and the person is not entitled or permitted to pay resident tuition under the rules stated on the THECB website, UHV shall charge nonresident tuition to the person beginning with the semester following the date that the error is discovered.

UHV may notify the student before the first day of the following semester that he or she must pay the difference between resident and nonresident tuition for each previous semester in which the student should not have paid resident tuition if the person: 1) failed to provide to UHV, in a timely manner after the information becomes available or on request by UHV, any information that the person reasonably should know would be relevant to an accurate classification by the institution under this subchapter information; or 2) the person provided false information to the institution n that the person reasonable should know could lead to an error in classification by UHV under this rule.

Reclassification Based on Additional or Changed Information

If a person is initially classified as a nonresident based on information provided, the person may request reclassification by providing UHV Admissions and Student Recruitment office with supporting documentation as described in the residency rules on the THECB website.