My parents recently left the country. My mother came into the country illegally and my father is not considered my parent in my birth certificate (i have no idea why.) I’ve been staying at other people’s houses and I’m currently staying with my uncle’s family who are also undocumented. My mother has never filled taxes. I support myself financially, they sometimes send me money now and then, but I have no support for my college expenses. What should I do?
Why is your father not considered your father? Just because his name is not on your birth certificate, if he is biologically your father then he is your father. He can rectify that by filing an order of affiliation at the faMily court, doing paternity by consent and having his name placed on your birth certificate.
When you file the FAFSA you must include your parents income no matter where they live in the world. Your custodial parent is the one that you lived the most with in the he prior 365 days. If you lived with neither one, then it is the one who provided you with the most support.
You must also include your income on the FAFSA and all other financial aid documents.
One challenge that you may have is because your mother is not residing in your home state, and you say that your father is not your father, is that , that you may not be eligible for state aid.
And your uncle is NOT considered on the fafsa.
You might be independent for FAFSA if you are homeless. Homeless includes couch surfing (staying with people other than your parents). There are agencies in my area that deal specifically with the challenge of being homeless while a student that help in this situation. Are there any homeless teen resource centers or guidance counselors at your school that can help you?
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/sites/default/files/homeless-youth.pdf
The poster says he is staying with an uncle. He doesn’t sound homeless.
Do you want to be considered independent for FAFSA purposes? It may not matter if your parent/parents do not make a lot of money. If you are dependent, you’ll need to print out the FAFSA and send it to your parent to sign. You’d need to fill out the income and asset portion, and it may be $0 or at least low enough to be a Zero EFC.
It may not make any difference if you are independent or dependent if your EFC is $0 and you get a full Pell grant. As an independent you could borrow an extra $4000 as a direct loan.
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa/filling-out/dependency gives the FAFSA dependent / independent questions.
State universities may have their own rules for determining state residency for in-state tuition and financial aid purposes.
Homeless also includes “at risk of becoming homeless” - he claims to ‘support himself financially’ which probably just means he doesn’t ask his uncle for money and may or may not chip in for household expenses, but it doesn’t appear he could actually afford to house himself (come up with a deposit, afford rent consistently, have a credit report that would allow him to sign a lease and get utilities) and is living with undocumented relatives. If his uncle is deported the kid is likely to end up on the streets, but again, you don’t have to actually be sleeping on the streets to be considered independent for the FAFSA, just unaccompanied and at risk of becoming homeless. The resources for students like the OP will help him afford college since they will subsidize his housing, make sure he is insured, has access to counseling, connect him to living wage employment, etc.
I truly appreciate the feedback. To add on, my father isn’t an American citizen. He also lived here illegally and only owned an expired work permit, but he didn’t support me financially. When my mother was here, she would take on babysitting and house cleaning jobs. I support myself financially with savings from helping out a family friend at their business in the summer and selling paintings or clothing. Unfortunately, I’ve been trying to make an appointment with my school counselor but I haven’t had any luck. I do not know of any organizations that could help with my situation, but I’ll take a look into that. Thank you.
Instead of trying to make an appointment with your school counselor, could you just go to the counseling office first thing in the morning, and sit there until any of the counselors is free to speak with you? Technically, it looks like you are an unacompanied, homeless, citizen minor. I don’t think that your undocumented relatives can be formal legal guardians. You might need to have someone formally appointed to be responsible for you. Your high school guidance office is supposed to be helping students like you access the legal and social services they are eligible for. So sit in that guidance office until someone there steps up and helps you sort everything out.
If that proves to be complete bust, the recommendation in my area would be to make a visit to the legal aid clinic run by Catholic Charities. The team there is familiar with immigrant issues.
try speaking to a counselor at the local community college. The ones near us have a lot of experience with these situations. They might have a FAFSA workshop you can attend.
I’m sorry you are in this situation. If you are in the DC metro area, please PM me and I can ask around to help connect you with resources to help, either education or social service based.
Central Ohio resource center for homeless youth http://starhousecolumbus.org/services-2/