Can you be a U.S. citizen without state/territory residency status?

You're a citizen as long as you were born in the US.

Being a resident is a horse of a different color.

Found some info here:

http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq13.html

http://www.newcitizen.us/losing.html

I think the short answer is yes, you're state-less...

Whoops—question was worded poorly. You'd think there would be a law about this, and I'd be guaranteed residency status in SOME state as a U.S. citizen, in the same way that everyone has a right to a nationality in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Ok...Maybe not the same thing.

I think residency is mostly a tax thing anyway. You can register to vote pretty much immediately when you move somewhere.

If I'm a resident I'll end up paying approximately $22,500 less in tuition than if I'm not (in-state vs out-of-state costs). I think Washington has pretty stringent residency requirements, though I may be wrong about this. I know in California, even if you're in the state primarily for higher education, you can apply for residency after your first year. I think you have to prove you're not a student (or at least working pretty much full-time in addition to being a student) to qualify for residency in WA. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

residency for state school purposes is defined by each state. in texas, you can't gain residency by being in school. sounds like WA is the same. i was able to still be a resident a year after being out of school (5 years living out of state) because i could still be a resident while in undergrad, and then there was also a rule that said if you were a resdient for 5+ years and then not for less than a year, you could still claim residency. so check the rules for your WA state school.

since you lived there before you left for peace corps i think you can just use your pasrents address in as your home add and still be a resident