<p>I have an efc of 0. I live alone. Work alone. My mom lives is nc. I have lived in ny my whole life. I tried to file as independent but fafsa made me file dependent. So I include her information and they tell me since you're a dependent ur address is based on your moms. Declaring you out of state for tuition purposes. My mom does not file me on her taxes and the state has tripled my tuition and seized all my state grants. I can't afford to go to school now. Help.</p>
<p>Nothing you can do unless you are 24, married, a veteran, or were a legally emancipated minor. Those are the rules. While you are independent for tax purposes (and practical purposes), for FAFSA you are dependent. Nothing you can do.</p>
<p>What you can do is go to your college and try to appeal the residency determination. There may be an appeal procedure for that, which is not bound to the FAFSA determination.</p>
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<p>My guess is that you will also have to demonstrate HOW you have supported your living expenses in NY (when your family lives in NC “all your life”. Who do you live with? Who pays your bills? Do you go to a public high school? </p>
<p>The biggest question you will have to answer is who is paying for your support in NY. If you are earning enough money to do that yourself, and you are then considered independent (my understanding is that college finaid folks are getting some leeway this year in making that determination), your EFC may not change anyway.</p>
<p>What you are looking for is how to establish instate residency for tuition purposes …is that correct? It doesn’t sound like your EFC will be very high anyway. </p>
<p>Call the colleges and ask them. BUT do be prepared to demonstrate how you are independent. Just living in a state (when parents are elsewhere) won’t usually give you instate status in THAT state…but you need to explain YOUR situation and find out.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for all your help. I think I have a pretty good chance overriding my dependency and receiving an independent status because I have over 9 documents pertaining to my my moms mental ilness and abuse which caused a social worker to send me to live with family in new york. I read on a lot of fafsa blogs and my schools financial link that in extreme cases of abuse and mental illnessof the custodial parent a student can be granted independence. Thank you for helping</p>
<p>This may help, due to your mention of abuse:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.kidscounsel.org/dependency%20override.pdf[/url]”>http://www.kidscounsel.org/dependency%20override.pdf</a>
[FinAid</a> | Professional Judgment | Dependency Overrides](<a href=“http://www.finaid.org/educators/pj/dependencyoverrides.phtml]FinAid”>Dependency Overrides - Finaid)</p>
<p>You don’t say which state school you’re attending, so I just search Binghampton’s website. Here’s the information on establishing State residency (which, as I said before, is different than establishing independence for financial aid purposes):
[url=<a href=“http://studentaccounts.binghamton.edu/residenc.htm]residenc[/url”>http://studentaccounts.binghamton.edu/residenc.htm]residenc[/url</a>]
I would assume that the procedures should be similar for other schools in the state system.</p>
<p>Good luck to you.</p>