zlacker

It's very interesting to me that there's such a formal official residence type system in other countries (not sure what else to call it).

In the US it matters too to some extent, eligibility for elections if you want to hold office, your tax burden for states that tax property and so on. But there's not a super official universal office you need to declare it at with lots of paperwork or validation outside of say the given situation it applies to. If I ran for office I'd provide my address and there you go, no complex validation, or if I wanted to pay lower taxes because it is my primary residence ... I just say that's where I live. Those given processes are left to validate it if they wish.

Bureaucracy is a strange thing. We get comfortable with what we know and we can't think of it any other way and it becomes a bit of a revelation when we realize maybe we don't have to do all that ...

>>duxup+(OP)
Basically, in the US, if you have a mailing address that can be where you "live." It may not be able to be a PO Box and, if you're a politician or otherwise high profile, someone may look into it. But if you're an ordinary Joe and you have a trusted relative/friend who will keep an eye out for important mail, that's mostly fine. A state could get cranky if they think you owe them taxes but mostly they'd have no way of knowing. You may need to do the odd thing in person but it's mostly very informal.