Residency is where one chooses to live. Domicile is more permanent and is essentially somebody's home base.Domicile refers to the place you call home permanently. Your domicile is important for legal purposes such as paying taxes, voting, and claiming benefits. Simply, a person's domicile is the place where they have their most settled legal connection. In law, domicile is the status or attribution of being a lawful permanent resident in a particular jurisdiction. See Section L,. Meaning of Domicile. A nonresident is any individual who is not a resident. An affidavit of domicile is a legal document that verifies the primary place of residency of someone after their death. A residence is a place of some permanency, while a domicile is a true, fixed permanent home to which an individual intends to return after an absence.