What Kind Of Attorney Would When A University’s Residency Person Refuses To Classify Me As In-state Even Though I Live In State (and Have For 15 Solid Years) And Submitted Rock Solid Proof Of It?

Location: Washington State

I live in Washington State, and have for 15 years, in Vancouver, which is on the border next to Portland, Oregon. Vancouver is a part of the Portland metro area. My community college is about 25 minutes away in traffic. It’s local. It’s not a big deal here, and that CC even gives us in-state rates because we are literally local to that CC.

My CC just happens to be on the Oregon side of the border. The border is literally about 5 minutes from where I live. It’s literally closer to me than any other city. There are no cities between Vancouver and Portland.

I’m transferring (well, might have to pull out at this point) to a state university here in Washington to finish a BA. There’s a satellite campus here in Vancouver. The person in charge of residency is at the main campus five hours away. To get in-state tuition, you’ve got to live in Washington State for a year. I’ve lived here for 15 years, and in this house since I bought it in 2015. I thought it would be no problem.

The person in charge wanted me to verify my residency with an affidavit, which I submitted. Then she wanted evidence of me being a Washington resident. I submitted my ID, issued to the address I live at in 2022, and my pilot license issued in 2023 (my address isn’t on the card, but you can use it to check the FAA Airmen registry online to see what address they’ve had on file for me), and federal tax returns. All with this address where I’ve been living for over 10 years. She decided I’m still an out-of-state resident. I’ve literally lived nowhere else but Vancouver, Washington for 15 years!!! LITERALLY NOWHERE ELSE. I submitted an appeal affidavit, and am still considered to be out of state. I’ve sent emails to a few people I thought would be over her head, but have had no replies.

The tuition is about $20k per year. So I can’t just decide to suck it up and pay out-of-state tuition despite living in this state at this exact address for over a decade. I can’t afford that. So I need to start submitting magazines that show this address? Get a copy of a speeding ticket from last summer (I successfully fought it, but it still exists)? Have my neighbors write statements? Have the local police verify where I live and submit a letter? If she’ll reply and contact my current community college, they’re willing to confirm with her directly that the address I registered with is this one here in Washington because this is where I live. (Fun fact: Though I get Oregon resident rates since Vancouver is part of the Portland metro area, which encompasses where my CC is, I don’t quality for Oregon grants because I don’t live in Oregon, I live in Washington State). I’ve even got a couple of my instructors willing to write letters for me about how I live in Washington. But I don’t know what I can really do when even my license and tax returns aren’t enough to her to believe that I live exactly where I’ve lived for over a goddamned decade.

So I need to know what kind of attorney can help with this. I want to know where the fuck she thinks I live and why the actual fuck even my tax returns aren’t enough to show that I live here. I don’t know what to do at this point aside from an attorney. I don’t exactly have the money for it, but I can put a few hours on my credit card a lot easier than I can get an additional $40k in loans. I don’t want to have to drop out of school, which I will have to do if that idiot can’t be reasoned with, and maybe an attorney can help.