Exceptions to One-Year Domicile Requirement

Four-Year Rule

If you are not a qualified individual and your parents had Colorado domicile for four or more years and then moved to another state after your junior year of high school and you enroll at a Colorado public college or university within three years and six months after your parents left Colorado you may be eligible for Colorado residency.

Economic Incentive Program

Employees whose employer moved their company operations to Colorado as a result of receiving an incentive from the Colorado Office of Economic Development are eligible for Colorado residency for tuition purposes. The employee must have been employed by the employer prior to the relocation.

New Faculty at a State-Supported College

The child of a new faculty member (but NOT the faculty member or the spouse) at a state-supported institution of higher education is eligibile for Colorado residency for tuition purposes. A faculty member is defined as academic faculty with regular and special appointments of 50% time or greater.

Attended Colorado High School for Three Years

The student is a U.S. citizen, Colorado high school graduate, attended high school in Colorado 3 years immediately preceding enrollment in a Colorado institution of higher education or GED and resides in Colorado.

GI Promise

All honorably discharged veterans and their dependents that show established domicile in CO regardless of length of time shall be granted in-state tuition status.

All members of the armed forces of the United State on active duty in Colorado or the member’s spouse or dependent shall not lose his or her eligibility for in-state tuition status if the member retires or separates from the military and remains in Colorado.   

Colorado Employment and relocation by parents of dependent student

Granting in-state student status to a child who moves to Colorado during the child’s senior year of high school as the result of the child’s parent or legal guardian taking a job in the state that requires relocating to Colorado. 

1.  Child’s parent or legal guardian moved their family to CO for the purpose of accepting a job in the state during the child’s senior yr of high school.
2. Child moved with their parent or legal guardian to CO during the child’s senior yr of high school and they graduated from a CO public high school.
3. Must be a legal resident of the US.