<p>Is anyone here familiar with the Verification process? This year I was "selected" for review in a process called verification...something about matching our fafsa application to tax returns? It seems like the worksheets are similar to the fafsa but with some questions I don't remember being on the fafsa. Anyone else been through this or know what this is for?</p>
<p>About 30% of FAFSA applications are selected for verification. We were this year. The school should tell you what to do. We had to fill out a form (quality assurance form or something) which asked for a little more information such as the names and ages of the people included in household number and we had to provide copies of parent and student W2s and copies of signed parent and student tax returns.</p>
<p>But the information regarding household members should be only those my parent is financially responsible for, is that correct? Currently we are stuck living with her boyfriend because she lost her job and was unemployed for a year and a half. She was told that since they're not married and he is not my step-parent that he did not factor in on FAFSA.</p>
<p>No - as they are not married you would not report his financial information. Just send the items you have been asked for - as long as everything was accurately reported you have nothing to worry about. As I said before - 30% of FAFSAs are randomly selected for verification - it is nothing personal. If you do a search on this web site you will find other threads about this - some people get verified every year even though they qualify for no financial aid whatsoever. We were selected, sent the stuff by return of post and within a week everything was updated as "document requests satisfied".</p>
<p>how do you know if you got verified?</p>
<p>You are being verified if there is an asterisk (*) next to your EFC at the top of your SAR, so I have been told.</p>
<p>I received a letter from my school. That's how we found out. Also I just re-checked my SAR and there is an asterisk (*) next to my EFC.</p>
<p>From fafsa.ed.gov:</p>
<p>"If an asterisk '*' displays next to the EFC it means the application has been selected for verification. Verification is a process where your school verifies certain data reported on your FAFSA. To complete this process, your school may ask you for documentation that supports income and other information reported on your FAFSA."</p>
<p>Mine has it, too.</p>
<p>wait i got an asterick thing on my EFC and i was notified on fafsa for verification but no school asked for information what does that mean?</p>
<p>Because of my mom's income level when I filled out the FAFSA it gave the option to skip filling out worksheet A, B & C on my application. Now I find out that one of the worksheets (Worksheet B, I think) has a place to claim child support on it. My question is, how do we know we have to include that information when the FAFSA allows you to skip those questions when your income is low? I just found out about what is contained in the worksheets because of the verification forms I have to fill out and now I had to go back into my FAFSA and make corrections. Does anyone know anything about this? If we have to submit child support on the FAFSA why does it allow you to skip the worksheets? If it weren't for the verification, I would not have known anything about this because it told me I could skip the worksheets based on our income. Also, does anyone know how long it will take for the corrections to go through? I am so confused right now!! My 2007 - 2008 application was the same deal. Do I have to go back and correct that FAFSA too? Is that even possible?</p>
<p>you can make corrections on the fafsa.</p>
<p>The information about not including an unmarried partner's income and counting that person in your totals is correct. As others have said, it's not big and scary, it just sounds like it. Send the documents requested, and you're done. It's not like an IRS audit or anything.</p>
<p>We were selected for verification both years so far. It was simply a matter of making copies of our tax statements, verifying son was a dependent, and that was it! There were no follow-up questions and financial aid package arrived on same time schedule as we would have expected if we weren't selected for verification.</p>
<p>this is our second year to be verified too.</p>
<p>It really isn't a big deal, just more paperwork.</p>
<p>I got the asterisk too!
I haven’t gotten any forms form any school to fill out. what do I do who do I contact.
I live in a house with my sister and her two children, along with my mom. The problem is my sister and the two kids are not on my mom’s tax form. While filing the fafsa I included them as part of the household number. Am I wrong?</p>
<p>brainomatic - how were you notified - just by the asterisk or something more direct?</p>
<p>@hanauma:</p>
<p>Contact your school(s) and explain that you think your FAFSA has been selected for verification by the Dept of Ed. Some schools have the option to verify only some of the FAFSAs selected for verification, so if your school(s) haven’t contacted you, that might be why.</p>
<p>Being claimed on someone’s tax return as a dependent, and being listed as a member of a household on the FAFSA, aren’t the same thing and often aren’t related to each other. </p>
<p>For the household number, you should be counting yourself, your mother (even if she’s not supporting you financially) and anyone else who lives with your mother and receives at least 50% of their financial support from your mother. So if your sister provides all the financial support for you, your mother and your sister’s two kids, you would still only list yourself and your mother as members of the household. But if your mother provides at least 50% of the financial support for your sister and her kids (if your mom contributes to your sister’s rent or mortgage, provides money for groceries, etc. and her contribution totals more than 50% of the total household expenses), you would list your sister and her kids as members of the household also. </p>
<p>Be aware that if your sister (or someone else who isn’t your mom) is providing most of your financial support, the financial aid office may ask you to provide documents to show how you’re being supported. My school has something called a Low Income Form. If students’ FAFSAs show no income for either the student or the parent, they have to fill out the LIF to show us who else is supporting them instead–usually another family member as in your case.</p>
<p>I know this is really, really confusing. The financial aid office folks at your school(s) can help you.</p>
<p>Because of my mom’s income level when I filled out the FAFSA it gave the option to skip filling out worksheet A, B & C on my application. Now I find out that one of the worksheets (Worksheet B, I think) has a place to claim child support on it. My question is, how do we know we have to include that information when the FAFSA allows you to skip those questions when your income is low?</p>
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<p>If the FAFSA gave you the option to skip certain questions, it was because your income & answers to a couple other questions put you into the Automatic 0 EFC formula. However, when you are verified, the school must collect a bunch of info - including some that you weren’t required to put on the FAFSA (in your case). It may very well be irrelevant. But there might be a mistake that is uncovered during verification that will mean you are not eligible for the Auto 0 formula - in that case, the school would have to use the additional info you provided on the verification worksheet form. For example, if you qualified for Auto 0 because you said mom was eligible to file a 1040A/1040EZ & the school finds out that your mom wasn’t actually eligible to file a 1040A/1040EZ - the school will update your FAFSA & include the info you had originally been able to skip. If verification shows that everything you put on your FAFSA was correct, the extra info will just be ignored.</p>