<p>My daughter is in the process of adjustment of status ( I-485) and I have already applied for her EAD. Once she gets her EAD , I will apply for her Social Security Number. Will she then be entitled to apply for FAFSA?</p>
<p>You already asked this question on the Parents’ Forum.</p>
<p>According to a few minutes research via google, here are the facts according to the government:</p>
<p>[Student</a> Aid on the Web](<a href=“http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/Glossary.jsp#elegiblenoncitizen]Student”>http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/Glossary.jsp#elegiblenoncitizen)</p>
<p>Your daughter could probably qualify in the “Parolee” category, although perhaps not this year.</p>
<p>I suggested the OP post here. Some of the posters here who have knowledge of this type of thing might not read the Parents Forum.</p>
<p>Hope someone here can give the OP some info.</p>
<p>Thanks .That was a relief. My daughter has been rejected for so many opportunities because of lack of greencard /citizenship that I was kind of apprehensive in this area.She is a junior in high school so next year hopefully we can file for FAFSA.</p>
<p>I believe you received an excellent (and hopefully accurate) reply on the Parents Forum. That reply stated clearly that your daughter needed to have her green card in hand to be able to apply for federally funded need based aid using the FAFSA. The EAD allows her to work, but apparently is not used to define permanent residency status.</p>
<p>Good luck…hope that Green Card comes through for her in time.</p>
<p>anju, if you wrote “that was a relief” because of my comment about your daughter qualifying as a parolee, please don’t assume everything is worked out now. You need to do some more research. I think the immigration forums are probably better on this topic.</p>
<p>Anyway, from my quick googling expedition it seems that you might be able to file I-131 for your daughter, have her travel outside the country and get paroled back into the USA. It’s not clear to me whether this is a legitimate procedure for gaining FAFSA eligibility or not, and certainly, it’s neither simpler nor inexpensive.</p>
<p>anjufromindia -</p>
<p>I’d hoped that when you re-posted here, kelsmom would see your thread. Since she doesn’t seem to have found it yet (and she is our real expert on this subject), I suggest that you send her a PM. If you find a thread that she’s posted in, just click on her blue username and then choose the option “send a personal message” to get to the page that lets you compose the message.</p>
<p>The other suggestion I have would be to contact the admissions and financial aid office at a community college or public university close to where you are living. The people there should be able to explain the process to you and your daughter. If your daughter is attending a high school here where there are many new immigrants and international students with different visa types, her own guidance office may know about this as well.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best!</p>
<p>Normally, having an EAD alone doesn’t qualify for financial aid. She needs to have an approved green card or stamp in her passport. Since she is currently a junior, hopefully she will get it approved by the time to apply for financial aid. If not, she will be considered as an ‘international student’. Good luck.</p>
<p>btw, Advance Parole (or I-131) has nothing to do with her actual status. It is only a travel document.</p>
<p>The important thing is your daughter’s status in terms of being eligible for federal aid. Please take a look at this link and see if your D meets the criteria to be eligible for aid: <a href=“http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1112FSAHbkVol1Ch2.pdf[/url]”>http://ifap.ed.gov/fsahandbook/attachments/1112FSAHbkVol1Ch2.pdf</a>. There is too much information missing for me to tell you whether or not she will be eligible.</p>
<p>Kelsmom, for my own future reference, is the passport stamp indicating that the status is approved and the plastic card is in process enough, or does one need to actually have the card itself?</p>
<p>Anju…</p>
<p>Unless you’re low-income, fed aid from FAFSA isn’t much. At most, it’s about $5500 in Pell Grants and sometimes a tiny bit more in a supplemental grant. </p>
<p>Fed aid doesn’t provide enough aid to pay for college in most cases…certainly not enough to pay for private schools, OOS publics, or “sleep away” schools. </p>
<p>Most schools do not give much free aid. Most schools do not meet need. Most schools gap.</p>
<p>The schools that give the best aid, mostly use CSS Profile. That considers all aspects of your financial situation…often including any non-custodial parent info as well.</p>
<p>You need to consider your entire situation…your child’s major, your financial situation, your child’s GPA and test scores and interests to figure out what schools might be affordable.</p>
<p>A quote from the handbook link posted by kelsmom:</p>
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</p>
<p>When I googled on this topic I found a few threads on immigration forums where people alleged having qualified for federal aid via the parolee route. As I mentioned in my earlier post, it’s not clear to me (I’m not an immigration lawyer) whether this approach is within the intent of the law, or not. However, it might be worth investigation. Someone else commented:</p>
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</p>
<p>Perfectly true, however the handbook seems to allege that having used this travel document may make a student eligible for aid.</p>