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GETTING A SOUTH DAKOTA FULL TIME TRAVELER ID USING TRAVELING MAILBOX

 1. TechSparx
 2. Living and Breathing in the modern world
 3. Traveling the modern world
 4. Online Identification while Traveling the modern world
 5. Getting a South Dakota full time traveler ID using Traveling Mailbox



By David Herron
; Date: Sat Oct 14 2023



Tags: Digital Nomad

States like South Dakota allow full time travelers, who do not have a fixed
residence, to get a drivers license or ID card based on a form of residency.
This program is ideal for digital nomads, traveling nurses, traveling salesmen,
and others who do not maintain a home, because they travel full time.



For most, normal life is to have a fixed residence or address, whether it's an
apartment or home. This norm is enforced by many things in society. There is the
stigma against homelessness, as well as financial tasks like paying taxes or
maintaining bank accounts. For some, their life requires living in an abnormal
ways including not having a fixed address. Some examples are traveling nurses,
traveling salesmen, migrant laborers, digital nomads, travelers living in RVs
full time, and others, who find it convenient or necessary to not have a fixed
address.

For those who travel every day of every year, it is an unreasonable burden to be
forced to maintain a fixed address that goes unused. The retired people who've
sold their house, bought an RV, and are driving around the country full time,
have no use for a home.



In other words, whole some people are homeless because of not having an income,
others are homeless because their life and/or work requires them to not have a
home. For anyone who lacks a home, and a fixed address, participating in normal
financial matters requires having a mailing address which is recognized by tax
authorities or financial institutions.

This means having an address which functions as a residence address, even though
the person does not live at that location.

In the USA, three states have programs tailored for such people. Instead of
requiring a fixed residence address, these states allow such people to use a
mail forwarding address as their residence. These states are Florida, Texas and
South Dakota. I only know the South Dakota program, because I'm using that
program while traveling in Europe. What follows is based on that program. I
understand the programs in Florida and Texas are similar.

In September 2022 a YouTube channel, Gringos R US, published a pair of videos
reviewing Traveling Mailbox, one of the larger mail forwarding services in the
USA. This channel seems to focus on the combination of full-time RV living while
traveling in Mexico. They'd intended to use the Traveling Mailbox location in
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, as their mail forwarding residence address for South
Dakota's program. But, when it came time to file the papers they were denied,
unable to use Traveling Mailbox, and instead went to another service. In my
case, I was able to get South Dakota to recognize Traveling Mailbox as a
legitimate mail forwarding service which I could use as my residence address.



Since that last paragraph probably went over most peoples heads, we need to
explain a few things.


SOUTH DAKOTA'S "FULL TIME TRAVELERS" PROGRAM

South Dakota offers a drivers license program for full time travelers in which
people can get a fully legal state-issued drivers license, or ID card, while
using a mail forwarding service as the residence address. To get this drivers
license, or identity card, one must not have a fixed address, and fill out an
affidavit saying so.

The affidavit requires that one agree to these conditions:

 1. I am a South Dakota resident, and I live in a RV/camper/hotel, or I travel
    full time for work.
    
 2. South Dakota is my state of residence, and I will return after being absent.
 3. I do not stay, live in, or maintain a residence in any another state.
 4. My personal mailbox service (PMB) is a mail forwarding service, and not a
    virtual only mail service.

Private Mail Boxes (PMBs) are roughly similar to Post Office Boxes (POBs). POBs
are offered solely by US Postal Service locations, and are the walls of locked
cubby-holes you see at post offices. PMBs are offered solely by Commercial Mail
Receiving Agencies (CMRAs).

A CMRA is a business where one function is to receive mail from the US Postal
Service on behalf of their customer. To sign up for service with a CMRA, the
customer must fill out USPS form 1583, and to have it notarized. This form
authorizes the CMRA to receive mail on behalf of the customer.

A PMB address looks like this:

John Smith
4242 S. Mary Ave, PMB 12345
Anytown, MA  01234


The first part of the 2nd line is the physical address, in this case 4242 S.
Mary Ave. Typically this will be a mailbox store, such as PostalAnnex or
POSTNET. The portion starting with PMB is the mailbox number at the location.
Therefore anyone looking up the address on a map application will see a store
typically in a strip mall.

A lot of people use these services because it's more convenient, or safer, for
mail or packages to not be delivered to their home address. These people do not
need the PMB address as their residence. They're simply looking to have an
address where neighbors will not steal their mail, or maybe they're running a
small business and want business mail to not arrive at their home.



In the Full Time Traveler program, such an address acts as a persons residence
address. This is different from simply renting a mailbox as just described. For
a full time traveler, using South Dakota's program, these mailboxes are their
residence. Their financial accounts, tax filings, and other important mail will
arrive at the mail forwarding service. As described earlier, these people do not
have a home, and the mail forwarding service acts as their fixed residence
address.

I do not undersand the distinction that South Dakota makes between virtual mail
service and mail forwarding service. As you'll see later, this distinction
almost ruined my plan to use Traveling Mailbox as my residence address.

The other requirements are fairly straightforward. A full time traveler cannot
have a residence anywhere, because they're traveling full time. The intention to
return to South Dakota is part of the definition of a residence address. Namely,
your residence is the location you wish to return to. At the minimum, one is
required to return to South Dakota every five years to renew the drivers licence
or identity card.


IS A FULL TIME TRAVELERS DRIVERS LICENSE ANY DIFFERENT FROM REGULAR DRIVERS
LICENSES?

No. The South Dakota drivers license I received is just like any other drivers
license. The address shown on my license is for the Traveling Mailbox location
in Sioux Falls. It has all the digital identity markings on the back, all the
security features, and even includes Real ID features.


HOW DOES SOMEONE GET A SOUTH DAKOTA FULL TIME TRAVELER DRIVERS LICENSE

The process is much more involved than simply showing up at a South Dakota
Department of Public Safety office and filling out the forms. Setting this up
requires a couple months of preparation, which in turn requires the
determination to stop living at a fixed address.

The steps I followed are:

 * Sign up with a mail forwarding service in South Dakota which you know is
   valid for the full time traveler program. The key form is the USPS form 1583
   which allow the mailbox service to accept your mail - as a Certified Mail
   Receiving Agency. Any virtual mailbox or mail forwarding service is required
   to get this certification from the US Postal Service, and then to receive a
   form 1583 from anyone who signs up with their service.
 * Change your financial accounts (bank accounts, credit cards, etc) to that
   address. It's necessary to wait for the financial institutions to issue a new
   statement showing your new address. In other words, it's not enough to change
   the address, but the financial institution must acknowledge the address by
   using it on an account statement.
 * Make sure you have documentation lined up including your Social Security
   card, US passport, bills or statements from one or more banks, and the
   receipt from your mailbox service describing the service plan.
 * Travel to South Dakota, to the city containing your mailbox service.
 * Stay overnight in a hotel, making sure the hotel knows you're doing so for
   the full time traveler ID.
 * Ensuring having a receipt from the hotel has the address for your mailbox.
   Most hotels in South Dakota know about the program, and know how to add your
   PMB address to the receipt. It'll help you to call the hotel before booking
   your trip to make sure it understands the program.
 * Register at the DPS office for the South Dakota drivers license or ID. The
   DPS office gives you a number of forms, including the affidavit mentioned
   earlier.
 * If you have vehicles to reregister, do so at the county tax office,

The first step is a little tricky. It must be a mail forwarding service, and not
a virtual mail service. Again, I do not understand what's the distinction
between the two. The service must be recognized by South Dakota, but South
Dakota does not publish a list of services it recognizes.

There are a few companies who make a big splash of offering mail fowarding
service compatible with the full time travelers program. These companies promise
to assist customers with getting set up in South Dakota's program. I was turned
off by most of those companies and wanted to avoid them.



One alternative is the PostalAnnex location at 5013 S Louise Ave, in Sioux
Falls. They offer mailbox services, along with other services, and know exactly
how to get folks set up with South Dakota's program. The store owner is a nice
man, and will guide customers through the process.

I instead chose to use Traveling Mailbox at their Sioux Falls location. It
seemed like a better choice for features and pricing. That was almost a
disaster, since the DPS initially rejected my application, but I was able to
pull it off and get my full time travelers drivers license.


GRINGOS R US FAILS WITH TRAVELING MAILBOX, WHILE I SUCCEED

The Gringos R US channel seems to be a middle aged US couple whose schtick is
traveling around Mexico. They wanted to do so full time, and decided to use the
South Dakota full time travelers program. Their research, like mine, led them to
signing up with Traveling Mailbox. They published two videos about their
experience:

 * Gringos R US review of Traveling Mailbox -- This is an excellent review of
   Traveling Mailbox, recorded before they attempted to get registered with the
   DPS. The followon video was supposed to be them celebrating getting their
   full time travelers drivers licenses.
 * Gringos R US fail when using Traveling Mailbox to get South Dakota ID's, and
   instead turn to Dakota Post -- Their followon video instead documented their
   failure to use Traveling Mailbox address as their full time travelers
   residence, and how they ended up with Dakota Post instead. Dakota Post is
   based in Sioux Falls, and is one of the companies that loudly promotes the
   full time travelers program.

If I had seen the Gringos R US videos, I would not have signed up with Traveling
Mailbox. They made it look like a disaster only to be rescued by Dakota Post.

Their review of Traveling Mailbox is very good, and as a Traveling Mailbox
customer I agree with everything they say. However, their attempt to get the
full tim travelers drivers license was an utter failure. Seeing that failure,
I'd have turned to another service, which would either be Dakota Post or else
the PostalAnnex location on South Louise Ave.

I think the Gringos R US couple failed to do sufficient research. In my case, I
overprepared and over-researched. I knew the requirements very well, and
understood the issue raised by the DPS examiner. That enabled me to provide the
proof required to get a full time traveler drivers license. However, the DPS
examiner admonished me to carefully read the affidavit, and to understand that
the service I have with Traveling Mailbox might not stand up to an audit.



First issue named by Gringos R US was that their DPS examiner demanded that they
must have a "Lease?" on their mail forwarding service. That's what Gringos R US
described it as, a Lease. This doesn't make sense, since the DPS website does
not say anything about a lease, and neither did either of the DPS examiners I
talked with. There is a requirement to pay for the mailbox service on a yearly
basis, rather than monthly basis. Maybe the Gringos R US people took that to
mean lease?

I already knew from dealing with the PostalAnnex location on South Louise Ave
that it's required to have a 1 year term of service. Therefore, I signed up with
Traveling Mailbox with a 1 year term of service.

The next issue named by Gringos R US is whether Traveling Mailbox offers a
virtual mailbox service, or a mail forwarding service. The full time traveler ID
program requires the latter, a mail forwarding service. My DPS examiner
explained that the receipt did not include the phrase "Mail Forwarding" and
therefore they assume it is a "Virtual Mailbox" service. Based on that
assumption, my DPS examiner was ready to deny my application for a full time
traveler drivers license.

Can anyone explain to me the difference between virtual mailbox and mail
forwarding services? Both kinds of services scan the outside of the envelopes,
allow you to choose different actions for each piece of mail, and those actions
include the ability to ship selected mail items to the address of your choosing.
As the Gringos R US couple told their DPS examiner -- all these services are
virtual mailbox services.

Look at the service descriptions for Dakota Post, iPostal1, Anytime Mailbox, or
Traveling Mailbox, and tell me what is the difference. They all offer
approximately the same services, yet the South Dakota DPS makes a distinction
between them.

Getting back to the moment where the DPS examiner rejected my application. I was
at that time very stressed out, since we had just moved out of our house in
California, handed the keys over to the landlord, I had sold my car and bicycle,
had gotten a second cell phone to contain a SIM card for a South Dakota phone
number, had switched my banks etc to the Traveling Mailbox address, had no fixed
address, and we were due to fly to Europe in a couple days for an extended trip.

I understand the Gringos R US couple had a freak-out moment like mine. But, what
each of us did was different. They got on their phone and searched for an
alternate service. That led them to Dakota Post, who got them set up with a
different address, and upon returning to the DPS office they were able to get
their full time travelers drivers licenses. I don't understand how that worked,
because the DPS wants to see official mail from a financial institution to
verify the address. That cannot be arranged in a couple of hours.

I made a different choice, starting with going back to the hotel room. I called
the Traveling Mailbox support line, and they claimed most of their customers
showed the USPS form 1583 to the DPS examiner. That didn't make sense to me, so
I called the DPS headquarters to ask for advice. I'd noticed that the Traveling
Mailbox website has multiple pages talking about their mail forwarding service,
and the DPS headquarters thought that would be sufficient proof for the DPS
examiner.

I got the hotel front desk to print both the Form 1583, and website pages
showing that Traveling Mailbox offers mail forwarding services. With that proof
in hand, I returned to the DPS office.

As expected, the DPS examiner immediately rejected the USPS form 1583. As a USPS
form, the DPS office does not recognize it as having any meaning to them. The
form 1583 is solely for use with the US Postal Service. Why did the Traveling
Mailbox support line suggest using this form? I don't know.



Fortunately, the printouts from the Traveling Mailbox website made all the
difference. The DPS examiner took the printout to her manager, and after a few
moments she returned saying they would accept this proof. But there was an air
of strictness as she proceeded. The process includes signing an Affidavit
swearing that you do not have any address elsewhere, and some other things,
which she warned me to read very carefully. She then warned me that this proof
might not stand up to an audit but she did not say what agency would be auditing
me.

A few moments later, I walked out of the DPS office as a South Dakota resident
holding a South Dakota drivers license. She took my California drivers license,
which I knew would happen, but after living 33 years in California that was
jarring.

After arriving in Europe, and settling in, I did contact Traveling Mailbox to
suggest they look into ensuring their service is accepted in South Dakota for
the full time travelers program. We had a long in-depth exchange of information,
and I hope they have rectified things.


WHY USE TRAVELING MAILBOX OVER IPOSTAL1, ANYTIME MAILBOX OR OTHERS?

In South Dakota, approximately 5 companies specialize in serving the full time
traveler market. For a reason I can't quite explain, I did not want to use any
of those services.

One issue was to have the mailing address in Sioux Falls. As the largest city in
South Dakota, it has the best equipped airport and most flights in/out of the
city. Hence, for any trip to South Dakota it is best to travel in and out of
Sioux Falls. That immediately ruled out some of the services located in more
remote parts of the state. Dakota Post is a potential alternative since they are
located in Sioux Falls, but I'd already ruled it out.

The decision was then between Traveling Mailbox, or the PostalAnnex store on S.
Louise Avenue. Those are the only two locations in Sioux Falls, other than
Dakota Post, offering service compatible with the full time travelers program.

The PostalAnnex store is an affiliate of iPostal1, Anytime Mailbox and one other
service whose name I've forgotten. While the owner of that store is a nice
high-integrity man, I do not like the fee structure of those two services.

For the Anytime Mailbox service plan on S. Louise Ave, they charge $0.15 for
shredding mail items, $1 per visit to the store to pick up mail, and there is a
storage fee for items held longer than 5 days. iPostal1 has similar add-on fees
at the S. Louise location. In other words, iPostal1 and Anytime Mailbox
nickle-and-dime their customers with fees.

By contrast, Traveling Mailbox includes a lot of those services in the plan. The
fee for the basic plan is $19.99/month in Sioux Falls. By signing up for yearly
billing (as required by South Dakota), the fee is $199/year, which equates to
$16.58/month. The equivalent Anytime Mailbox gold plan, a certain number of
content scans are included in the plan, but you're still paying a storage fee.

Further, there is an interesting security angle to consider. All Traveling
Mailbox locations are secured, and customers cannot visit the facility. Stores
like PostalAnnex are not secured in the same way, because they're open to the
public offering a range of services. In theory that makes Traveling Mailbox more
secure. But, does anyone ever break into a store like PostalAnnex to steal the
mail stored for customers?

Of these three, iPostal1 is the only one with an explicit business plan. This
includes the ability to register a business using the PMB address, and one can
add a toll-free phone number and FAX support. Traveling Mailbox says you can add
business names to your account, but it does not offer the toll-free phone number
or FAX support.



Dakota Post offers two plans, and the cheaper does not allow scanning the
content of your mail, nor shredding unwanted mail items. The more expensive
plan, at $249/year, offers those services. Additionally, Dakota Post offers
business service, including acting as a Registered Agent which is required by
South Dakota law.


SUMMARY

Technically a person who travels full time, and does not have a normal home
address, is homeless. Whether the homeless person is forced into this by not
having any money, or whether it is a lifestyle choice, or whether it is a
consequence of their career choices, any "homeless" person needs to be able to
conduct normal financial business, and therefore have an address which can be
recognized as their residence.

Fortunately, South Dakota, Texas and Florida offer programs serving such people.

Before taking this step it is recommended to understand whether you need the
full time traveler status, and how to attain it. Traveling full time is not for
the faint-hearted, since most of us prefer to live in a nest of our own making.

I carefully watched many videos describing the South Dakota program. It was
harder to find videos or blog posts about the programs in other states. I also
carefully read the DPS website, and called their customer service line several
times with clarification questions. Having done this prepared me to talk
knowledgably with DPS about the process.

Good luck with your choices whatever they are.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

David Herron : David Herron is a writer and software engineer focusing on the
wise use of technology. He is especially interested in clean energy technologies
like solar power, wind power, and electric cars. David worked for nearly 30
years in Silicon Valley on software ranging from electronic mail systems, to
video streaming, to the Java programming language, and has published several
books on Node.js programming and electric vehicles.
Mounting APFS file systems on Ubuntu 22.04 Using Podman to run MongoDB on MacOS
mounting data directory from MacOS host



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