In terms of Florida vs South Dakota: Florida is going to be a much better fit in almost any case for a number of reasons. Most importantly, if you are a W-2 employee (or may be one in the future), you will not be able to use your South Dakota address for payroll. The state will block you from participating in their unemployment system, which means you would need a different address for employment. Moreover, South Dakota let's you "live" at a mailbox address, but financial institutions do not allow that (as required by the Patriot Act). Given this, you would not be able to use your South Dakota address for banking, investments, payroll, voting, and many other important items. With SavvyNomad, we provide you with a true residential address (a place of abode that, importantly, is NOT a CMRA address), which can be used for all of those purposes. Finally, given that South Dakota has such a sparse population (fewer than one million residents), the voters were worried that a large influx of full-time RVers, nomads, and expats could say their voting -- so they have also made it much harder for these populations to register to vote, which is an important part of building strong ties to your new state (and breaking ties to your old state).
When it comes to choosing Florida vs. South Dakota, Florida is almost always the smarter move for nomads and expats. Here’s why:
Banking & Compliance: South Dakota allows you to “live” at a CMRA (mailbox) address, but financial institutions won’t accept it under the Patriot Act. That means no banking or investment platforms will take your address and, if they do, this could lead to suddenly frozen and inaccessible bank accounts or even liquidated investment accounts. SavvyNomad solves this by giving you a true residential address (a legitimate place of abode, not a CMRA), so you can seamlessly handle banking, taxes, voting, and employment.
W-2 Employment: If you’re working (or may work) as a W-2 employee, South Dakota won’t function for your purposes. The state blocks nomad/expat addresses from payroll and unemployment systems, forcing you to maintain a second, “real” address elsewhere. With SavvyNomad, choosing Florida avoids this headache.
Voting Rights: With fewer than one million residents, South Dakota grew wary of full-time RVers, nomads, and expats influencing election outcomes. The result is that voter registration has become far tougher for these population segments. Florida, by contrast, has been the long-term home of full-time RVers and sailors for decades and has established precedent on accommodating these populations. Registering to vote is a very important step in building strong ties to your new state (and cutting ties with your old state).
Accessibility & Location: Florida is more practical geographically. It’s a major travel hub with dozens of international airports and direct flight connections worldwide. South Dakota, by contrast, is remote and harder to reach, which can make everything from renewing a license to visiting your home state unnecessarily complicated. Florida is also located much closer to common expat destinations, like Europe or Mexico.
Bottom line: If you want an address that works for employment, banking, investments, taxes, and voting, Florida outperforms South Dakota in all regards.