<p>I am helping a friend trying to figure out financial aid.</p>
<p>He is 18, born on the US, living in CA with relatives since last August. He is graduating from high school and planning to go to community college. </p>
<p>Would he be considered a CA resident? How would he fill out fafsa? His parents live abroad and don't file taxes in the US. He did not work last year and did not file an income tax return for 2011</p>
<p>He needs to ask at the community college about the residence issue. Each college sets it’s own policy about that.</p>
<p>Unless he qualifies as independent under the FAFSA rules, he will need his parents’ financial information when he files the FAFSA. He can use 000000000 in the lines for their social security numbers, but he needs to double check about the signature. I think they may have to mail it in rather than signing with a pin.</p>
<p>RE: the living with relatives. </p>
<p>Individuals often get confused when filling out the FAFSA on the guardianship question. </p>
<p>Since the student is living with relatives and not his parents, he may think he can answer “yes” to the question asking if he is or has been in guardianship. Unless his guardianship has been formalized in a US court and his parents have given up their parental rights, then he must answer “no” to the question.</p>
<p>Since your friend didn’t go to a Calif high school for the required THREE years, he will be at a disadvantage for getting aid if he transfers to a UC or CSU later. </p>
<p>If the student is just living with relatives, but his parents still have legal rights over him, then he’s not independent and he’s not a Calif resident.</p>
<p>Living with relatives while going to school is like going to boarding school…the parents still have rights. </p>
<p>He may qualify for fed aid. He won’t qualify for Calif aid.</p>
<p>M2ck, the op says that he has between living with relatives since August but not that he wasn’t in CA high school before then.</p>
<p>OP, can you clarify? Where was the student before August?</p>
<p>Clarification would be good. I interpreted the statement as the friend was living in CA (with relatives) since August.</p>
<p>Yes, please clarify. </p>
<p>It seems that he has only been living in calif since august .</p>
<p>Yes, please clarify. </p>
<p>It seems that he has only been living in calif since august .</p>
<p>A big problem will be if he is OOS for all calif schools, even cc.</p>
<p>Sorry I was not clear. He is attending high school in CA while living with relatives. Prior year he was in Florida with other relatives.</p>
<p>Because he is over 18 there was no guardianship paperwork.</p>
<p>His parents may provide information for fafsa but they are not sure how as their earnings are not on dollars and their other kids are not on the usa. Also, how would they convert from one currency to dollars ?</p>
<p>They convert the figures to dollars at the exchange rate of the day. Chances are that the rate is published in the financial pages of the newspaper in the city where they live. If not, it will be available on the web. Google “exchange rate foreign-currency-name US dollar” and you should hit a whole bunch of links.</p>
<p>The student will not be considered a CA resident since he lived in FL before. He should have stayed in FL, graduate from high school there and be both a resident and eligible for the bright horizons scholarship. The student can file fafsa but will only be eligible for the federal aid and OOS tuition in CA. As others have posted, if there was no formal guardianship transfer - btw, it can be just a simple notarized document- the student remains under the parents. If there was a formal transfeership, then it does not matter that the student is 18 yrs old now because he will remain under their guardianship and be eligible for state residency under the relatives name.</p>
<p>You can read the NC state eligibility manual, even though the CA/other state residency requirements will be different, but it explains the technical terms and process in excruciating detail so it will give you an understanding of the vocabulary used and options available that may not be explained in detail in other states, even though they might exist there as well.</p>
<p>registrar.unc.edu/ccm/groups/public/@registrar/documents/content/ccm1_042786.pdf</p>