Definition
A non resident is a person who does not reside within a particular place, jurisdiction, or legal district. The term is relational — it identifies status by reference to a specific location, not in absolute terms. A person is a non resident of State A while simultaneously being a resident of State B.
The term operates across multiple legal contexts with consistent core meaning but varying legal consequences:
1. Civil procedure: A non resident defendant may be subject to different service of process rules, including substituted service or constructive notice by publication. Courts may lack personal jurisdiction over non residents unless minimum contacts are established.
2. Domestic relations: Residency requirements for divorce and related proceedings are jurisdictional prerequisites. A petitioner who is a non resident of the forum state may be barred from filing, or the resulting decree may be vulnerable to collateral attack.
3. Tax law: Non resident status determines tax liability, withholding obligations, and treaty eligibility. The federal distinction between resident alien and non resident alien carries significant consequences for income sourcing and rates.
4. Property and probate: Non resident owners of real property situated in another jurisdiction may be subject to that state's laws for purposes of taxation, descent, and administration, regardless of their domicile.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A person who does not live in a particular place, such as a country, region, or institution.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Not residing in a particular place; as, a non-resident clergyman or proprietor of lands.
The common meaning is simply descriptive of where a person sleeps. The legal meaning adds jurisdictional weight: non resident status can strip a court of personal jurisdiction, trigger substitute service procedures, alter tax rates, disqualify a petitioner from filing suit, or subject property to a different legal regime. The factual question of where someone lives becomes a threshold legal determination with procedural and substantive consequences.
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Common Confusion
Non resident is frequently confused with non domiciliary. Residence and domicile are related but distinct. A person can be a resident of a state without being domiciled there (a student, a temporary worker). Domicile requires both physical presence and intent to remain permanently or indefinitely. Many legal rules — particularly in conflict of laws, succession, and divorce jurisdiction — turn on domicile, not mere residence. Using non resident when the operative legal standard is non domiciliary can lead to misidentifying the applicable rule.
Non resident is also sometimes used interchangeably with alien or non resident alien in immigration and tax contexts. These are not synonymous. Alien refers to citizenship or nationality. Non resident alien is a compound tax classification describing a foreign national who does not meet the substantial presence test or the green card test — both terms are required, and neither alone carries the full meaning.
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Why It Matters in Research
The term's usefulness in historical sources depends heavily on context. In older procedural materials, non resident appears primarily in discussions of attachment jurisdiction — the doctrine that a court could seize a non resident's property within the forum to compel appearance or satisfy a judgment. This doctrine has been substantially curtailed by modern constitutional personal jurisdiction doctrine, but historical sources may treat it as routine. Researchers reading pre-20th century procedure materials should not assume the non resident attachment rules described there remain valid.
In family law sources, residency requirements for divorce jurisdiction have shifted dramatically. Early American statutes often imposed short residency periods or none at all; modern statutes vary widely, and the constitutional minimum is unsettled in some respects. A historical source describing divorce jurisdiction for non residents may reflect rules that have been superseded, tightened, or held unconstitutional in the relevant jurisdiction.
In tax research, non resident carries a precise technical meaning under federal law (non resident alien) that differs from state tax usage. State income tax statutes define non resident by their own criteria, and the definitions vary. A researcher moving between federal and state tax materials must track which definition is operative.
Corpus researchers should also watch for the term appearing in statutes governing specific licensing regimes — attorneys, physicians, land agents — where non resident status triggered separate licensing requirements or disabilities. These materials are rich in historical state-specific variation and are not always reflected in the general dictionary literature.
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Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill defines non resident simply as one who does not reside, or is not a resident — one who resides out of a particular place or jurisdiction, with a cross-reference to Resident. The entry is minimal, which is itself informative: by Burrill's time the term was treated as self-explanatory in its reference function, with the legal weight carried by context rather than the term itself. Burrill's placement of the entry adjacent to Non Sanae Mentis suggests alphabetical convenience rather than conceptual grouping, confirming that the term was used as a general descriptor across procedural, property, and status contexts rather than as a term of art with a fixed independent meaning.
What Burrill and comparable historical dictionaries do not address is the layered modern complexity introduced by constitutional personal jurisdiction doctrine, federal tax classification, and interstate recognition principles. Historical sources treat non resident as a factual predicate; modern law treats the determination of that status as itself requiring legal analysis.
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Jurisdictional Note
Residency definitions vary by statute and context within each state. Some states define residency for divorce jurisdiction purposes differently from residency for tax purposes, and neither definition may match the state's voter registration or driver licensing definition. Researchers should identify the specific statutory or regulatory definition operative in the context being analyzed and not assume uniform meaning across subject-matter areas within a single state.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
Divorce — Residency and Jurisdictional Requirements (The Law Mind Family Law Encyclopedia)
Qualified Personal Residence Trusts (QPRTs) (The Law Mind Trusts, Estates & Probate Encyclopedia)
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