Documentation of Physical Presence is used to establish the fact that an individual has been physically residing in Wisconsin continuously during a specific period of time. Each item of documentation must include your name and a date within the period of time in question. Examples of some types of documentation of your physical presence in Wisconsin follow. You are not limited to these examples, however, and may submit other records more appropriate in your situation. If you plan to submit records that are not included on this list, please check with a residence counselor in the Registrar’s Office first to ensure the documentation will be acceptable. We understand the difficulty some may have in producing these documents, but we must include them with your records to satisfy residence audits.
You may submit copies of your documentation rather than originals with the exception of letters written on your behalf. In most cases, documenting 3 to 4 days of presence per month will suffice (i.e. 3 to 4 documents).
It may sometimes be necessary, however, to request additional documentation depending on individual circumstances.
Appropriate documents include:
- Banking or debit statements showing ATM transactions or point-of-sale debit and credit transactions in Wisconsin. These statements must generally be in your name only, although in the case of spouses, we will accept documentation that is jointly held. We will not accept joint statements in cases where the individuals are not married (including statements held jointly with a parent or child), or statements that are held solely in another individual’s name. Please submit the full statement for each month. We do not accept screenshots of purchase histories. The statement must show all identifying information, although card numbers, transaction amounts, and balances may be redacted.
- Monthly billing statements from utilities or other businesses. These must be the monthly statement and must include the component showing the mailing address in addition to the main statement. We do not accept documents with the mailing address removed or aggregated bill summaries covering multiple months.
- Verification of, and/or bills from doctor or dentist appointments in Wisconsin.
- Documentation of volunteer work or involvement in community activities in Wisconsin. (e.g.: an original letter from a Volunteer Coordinator on official letterhead). A letter demonstrating volunteering/involvement should specify the date range that the individual has been involved and indicate specific dates of participation or the frequency of participation.
- List of visits to health club/fitness center (must be on letterhead, show the name of the member who checked in, check-in dates, and location (including city and state) of facility). If the fitness club cannot produce the document on letterhead, a staff member from the club should write a brief letter verifying that the document was produced by the club and should include a copy of their business card.
- Canceled checks you wrote to local businesses or credit card receipts you signed with charges to local businesses. We only accept cancelled checks as they appear on monthly banking statements. The signature must be legible, and we must be able to identify the Wisconsin business that you provided the check to for payment. We do not accept voided checks.
- Envelopes (excluding window envelopes) addressed to you at your Wisconsin address with a legible postmark. We cannot accept envelopes (or other mailed items) that do not clearly list the shipment date, such as magazines or packages that don’t have human readable postmarks. We do not accept window envelopes because we can’t confirm that the contents inside correspond to the postmark; however, we can often accept the mailed documents inside the window envelopes as evidence of physical presence.
- Shipping receipts from online purchases. These should be the shipping, not billing, receipts, as it is required that we see the shipping address and ship date in addition to the individual’s name. Websites like Amazon allow customers to download shipping receipts for very long periods of time after their initial purchase and shipment.
- Pay stub/pay slips showing your name, the paycheck date, and your Wisconsin address. All three items must be clearly visible for these items to be acceptable.
Some examples of unacceptable documents include:
- Any document, regardless of type, that does not include the individual’s name.
- Duplicate checks or voided checks: These do not show the original signature or, in the case of voided checks, were not used for payment. Only canceled checks are acceptable.
- A lease: This does not attest to one’s physical occupancy during the dates in question.
- Letters written on your behalf from friends and relatives. Only letters written by impartial individuals are acceptable.
- Documents that include more than one person’s name, such as a utility bill or letter sent to two individuals, or a credit/debit statement held jointly by multiple individuals. We may accept joint documents from individuals if the other person on the account is their legal spouse. In most other instances, we will not accept joint documents. However, if you share a joint credit/debit account with someone who is not your spouse and the statements have a method of identifying who made specific purchases on that account, feel free to contact a residence counselor for further guidance, as we may be able to accept the documents under certain circumstances.
- Envelopes that do not bear a clearly dated postmark or window envelopes.