So sometime this year I'll be going to California for a little over a year for training, and I'm wondering.. I'm still legally a resident of Florida, and the car will have a FL tag (OTM will sport a GA tag). Will I need to worry about subjecting either car to a Cali emissions test?

 

no. if you're there for training, then you should be fine.

 

Speaking from lots of experience here.
You will not need any sort of smog check to legally drive in Cali... but...

If you roll through the same gate everyday and are faced by the same gateguards, expect at some point they'll ask you why you don't have base tags for that base. Most Cali bases are pretty ---- about having tags for their base. Most Cali bases also require a smog check certificate to get a base tag. You need to obtain a copy of the base tag-issue instruction and whether it specified the car needs to "pass" the smog check. When I was in Mugu, the intruction only said "must have a current smog check". Nowhere did it say anything about passing. They may have changed it in the past 4 years, but maybe not.
Try and get fresh tags before you leave wherever you are now. If you are PCS'ing to Cali, I can almost guarantee at some point, the gate guard is gonna want to scrape your Midlant (or whatever) sticker and make you get a "NAVREGSW" or whatever it is where you're going... and then you'll have to investigate what it takes to get new tags on that particular base. Also ask around your buddies to see if there are any other local bases or annexes that are a little more lax about the tag thing.
Keep your Florida residency.
Keep your Florida tags.

 

It would be a PCS move, since the training is so long. That's a good point about the registration on post, (DLI is where I'm going, fwiw). I'll have to ask if a smog check is needed to register the cars.

My current FL registration ends 1 JUN, so I'll have fresh registration stickers too!

 

Keep the car registered in FL and don't worry about it. They are very easy going at DLI. I was never asked or hassled about it when I spent time there.

 

Oh cool, someone who's been in the same boat!

So, do you need an inspection done in order to register the car on post?

And as long as I'm talking to a FLC grad, what's the name of the installation DLI is located on? Presidio of Monterey?