TOMPKINS COUNTY RESIDENTS: You may call with questions or concerns regarding your Tompkins County
residence application at 607-274-5545.
If you have been a legal resident of New York State for one (1) year AND a resident of Tompkins County for
the past six (6) months, fill out this application and click submit. It will be forwarded to the Tompkins County Finance Office, 125 E. Court
Street, Ithaca New York 14850.
In order to file for this certificate online the following proof is required:
1) NEW YORK STATE ISSUED ID
2) ONE YEARS PROOF IN NEW YORK STATE PLUS 6 MONTHS PROOF
IN TOMPKINS COUNTY PRIOR TO DATE OF APPLICATION (Example: Apply June 2024: 1 item dated June/July 2023 and 1 item dated December 23/January 2024). (NO POST OFFICE BOXES) EXAMPLE: utility bill, lease agreement, bank statement, medical bill, Postmarked envelope/mail, pay stub, email confirmation of a shipped item.
Immigrants must have held permanent resident status for one year prior to student registration to be eligible for
resident tuition. Immigrants must also bring in the above proof, PLUS their permanent resident alien card.
Military personnel who have been stationed at a base outside New York State who were residents of New York
State prior to enlisting ARE considered to be residents of the State providing upon discharge from the military they
return immediately to New York State. (Must provide military proof, plus current proof of return to Tompkins
County)
Any person who is a member of the armed forces of the United States on full-time active duty and stationed in
this state, whether or not a resident of the state. (Must show full-time active duty card and proof of residence)
NON-NEW YORK STATE RESIDENTS:
Double tuition is charged to all students who have not been legal, permanent residents of New York State for the
past year. This includes the following:
1. Dependents of a person who lives outside of New York State.
2. International Students (holding an F-1 Visa).
3. Temporary residents (short-term job assignments or living here while attending college)
4. Non-immigrant aliens who are in the United States on a temporary basis.
***Please note this is only the application for a certificate of residency and it needs to be
submitted to your local County Government Office (Finance/Treasury) to be processed for the
actual certificate. ***
Education Law, section 6305, provides “The Chief Fiscal Officer of each county, as defined in Section 2.00 of the
Local Finance Law, shall, upon application and submission to him of satisfactory evidence, issue to any person
desiring to enroll in a community college as a non-resident student, a certificate of residence showing that said
person is a resident of said county…. Such person shall, upon registration for each college year, file with the college
such a certificate of residence issued not earlier than two months prior thereto, and such certificate of residence
shall be valid for one year from date of issuance."
Education Law, Section 6301, paragraph 5, defines: “Resident.” A person who has resided in the state for a period of at least one year and in the county, city, town, intermediate school district, school district or community college region, as the case may be, for a period of at least six months, both immediately preceding the date of such person's registration in a community college or, for the purposes of section sixty-three hundred five of this article, his or her application for a certificate of residence; provided, however, that this term shall include any student who is not a resident of New York state, other than a non-immigrant alien within the meaning of paragraph (15) of subsection (a) of section 1101 of title 8 of the United States Code, if such student:
(i) attended an approved New York high school for two or more years, graduated from an approved New York high school and applied for attendance at an institution or educational unit of the state university within five years of receiving a New York state high school diploma; or
(ii) attended an approved New York state program for general equivalency diploma exam preparation, received a general equivalency diploma issued within New York state and applied for attendance at an institution or educational unit of the state university within five years of receiving a general equivalency diploma issued within New York state; or
(iii) was enrolled in an institution or educational unit of the state university in the fall semester or quarter of the two thousand one-two thousand two academic year and was authorized by such institution or educational unit to pay tuition at the rate or charge imposed for students who are residents of the state.
Provided, further, that a student without lawful immigration status shall also be required to file an affidavit with such institution or educational unit stating that the student has filed an application to legalize his or her immigration status, or will file such an application as soon as he or she is eligible to do so.
<>In the event that a person qualified as above for state residence, but has been a resident of two or more counties in the state during the six months immediately preceding his application for a certificate of residence pursuant to section sixty-three hundred five of this chapter, the charges to the counties of residence shall be allocated among the several counties proportional to the number of months, or major fraction thereof, of residence in each county.