[RightField]

It used to be (as late as 2011 I know) that if you had your registration mailed out of state (any state except NV and AZ), the smog test was waived. This worked for us from 2005-2010 when we were still CA residents but living in FL taking care of my elderly mother. There is a form on the CA DMV site for setting up a "temporary" out of state address.

We were never hassled for any of the years we did this. The DMV even put our Florida address on our drivers licenses.

Our son took his truck to college in South Carolina and did the same thing. His legal address was CA, the registration was mailed to his SC address, and he never had to smog his truck.

[RightField]

The CA DMV person I spoke with back in 2005 when setting up our Florida address told me that the DMV didn’t care if our cars were in CA or not ... if the registration was mailed out of state, the smog was waived every year.