<p>I really need the money for my university study but I'm not sure if I will get the money! </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Me and my family live abroad and my father hasn't been filing taxes for a long, long time. </p></li>
<li><p>My father has a high salary (but is in great debt). High salaries aren't very helpful on the FAFSA application now are they!</p></li>
</ol>
<p>It might be a good idea to focus on finding schools that give merit-based financial aid. Are you a U.S. citizen? Did you ever take the PSAT scores? How are your grades and SAT/ACT scores? You’re right; if you have a really high income you’re not going to see much aid from any school other than the Ivy League universities. Debt isn’t really factored in apart from some medical situations.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This would be a problem if your father is a US citizen/permanent resident. I think he’s required to file a US tax return even if living abroad. You will not get federal student aid, even if you qualify, if he doesn’t file his taxes.</p>
<p>Since you are a citizen, you are eligible to file the FAFSA. If your parents are citizens they should be filing tax returns every year because it is a real headache to straighten things out with the IRS later. If your parents are legal permanent residents of the US, since they are living abroad, if they don’t file file federal income tax returns they can lose that status. In either case however, they might not owe any US income tax because of the foreign earned income exclusions, foreign tax credits, etc. Have whichever parent is more computer savvy sit down and read through the relevant information at [Internal</a> Revenue Service](<a href=“http://www.irs.gov%5DInternal”>http://www.irs.gov) Then give that person a hand with straightening out the paperwork. It is not that hard. I did it each year while our family was living overseas.</p>
<p>If your parents aren’t citizens, and aren’t US legal permanent residents, then they don’t have to file US tax returns. There may be a way to produce the financial records needed for the FAFSA without filing local tax returns. But I don’t know about that one. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>