<p>My step daughter did 2 years in American high school and is completing her final 2 in Canada. I am worried about the financial aid part of college. If her mom in Canada is the custodial parent her senior year, will she be the one to fill out the financial aid forms and claim her as the dependent thus making it impossible for her American dad to claim her on his taxes and fill out the FAFSA? Second question is if her mom doesn't pay taxes in Canada and her dad is not the custodial parent her senior year, will she be ineligible for need based financial aid?</p>
<p>I’m only speaking from personal experience here, but I applied as an out-of-state applicant to a state university in America and am a dual citizen as well. Both of my parents and I live abroad, so I obviously had to list myself as a dependent of a non-US resident, yet I still qualified for financial aid from the school that I applied to (not quite in the right form, but that’s a whole different story). As long as she has a SSN then I’m guessing you should be fine. :)</p>