If it were me I would replace the upstream cats with a piece of pipe instead of just gutting them. If it turned out that the pcm wasn't happy and couldn't be made happy then you could always put them back on.
I don't believe that will be the case with the current exhaust filtration being done by the downstream kitties.
As far as the visual inspection goes, when they look they will see a cat on each pipe so they shouldn't even notice that there is supposed to be more than one per side.

 

Even if they notice should it matter? Why would NC care if your Cali rig is missing some cat's, after all, NC is just a bit mire then a hop, skip, and a jump from Cali.......

 

In North Carolina your vehicle has to have all the equipment that it came with from the factory on it to pass. Unless you know of a shop that doesn't care.

 

Cut the cats out, gut them, slide a piece of pipe inside, weld them back in. This way it appears to have the cats, but you also have the straight through flow. No disrupting of the flow with the hollowed cats.

At least this was my idea after I gutted mine.

 

Ah, well I learned something new today

Find a shop that doesn't know what's on a Cali rig

I'm sure if you looked hard enough you will find a shop that doesn't care.

 

My "Inspection" here in Louisiana consisted of the female (?) obesity behind the counter asking me:

"Does your windshield have any cracks in it?"
"No."
"Okay. Juarez already put your sticker on. $10 cash only please."

 

You must of went to smiths towering lol

 

^^ Haha I can't remember. Out the main gate, left on Barksdale Blvd 'bout 3/4 mile down...

 

yup that's smiths lmao

 

Here in Georgia they don't even do inspections.