Citizenship Confirmation/Citizenship Verification (SIS)

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Virginia
1

<p>Hey guys!</p>

<p>Today I spoke to an admissions officer over the phone about these two things, but I quickly realized that the conversation left me with more questions than answers... Both of these two things are found on my To-Do list on the right-hand side of my student center. Let me start with questions about Citizenship Confirmation.</p>

<p>Citizenship Confirmation:</p>

<p>What the kind lady told me over the phone, was that this "Citizenship Confirmation" is new this year and that it will be standard protocol. They're basically asking you to fly to Virginia (from wherever you live) to present original documentation directly to the financial aid office so that they can disburse financial aid to your student account. My question is whether this is for all applicants, or just for those who have already been accepted? I applied RD, and I would not be too enthusiastic about having to fly down to Virginia and showing them proof of citizenship, only to find out later that I was rejected anyway... this would be a pretty disheartening experience overall and a total waste of time. The due date on SIS says 3/11/13, which is not too far away, but the lady over the phone assured me that I could just complete this at "my earliest convenience." Again, should I wait until April to find out if I have been accepted, or can I fly down to Virginia some time in the next few weeks because I have ALREADY been accepted? How important is this confirmation process in receiving financial aid?</p>

<p>Citizenship Verification:</p>

<p>I was born in a foreign country, and am the son of parents that obtained U.S. citizenship. Since I indirectly become a citizen of the United States through the citizenship of my parents, I never verified my identity with the Social Security Administration. As a result, UVa cannot verify my citizenship. Just to be clear here, does anybody else have "Citizenship Verification" on their to-do list, or is this a legitimate problem that plagues a specific group of applicants (myself included)? I have to fax them a photocopy of my passport as soon as possible... however, should I also contact the Social Security Administration directly to verify my citizenship? Colleges like UVa, Emory, Carnegie Mellon, and Duke have had problems processing my FAFSA due to this small blip I believe... the only issue is that Carnegie Mellon and Duke don't have these fancy student centers; all I know is that they have not been able to process my FAFSA, but I'm not sure exactly why (it could be due to this citizenship verification issue...). What makes all of this even more strange, is that other colleges that I applied to, like Dartmouth, Penn, and Villanova all received my FAFSA in a timely manner. </p>

<p>Can anyone enlighten me? Lol thanks for help.</p>

2

<p>I would strongly encourage you to call back and get these questions answered directly by the experts at financial aid. While there are many experienced, helpful, well meaning posters here this is something that has zero room for error in interpretation or misinformation because someone else’s situation was slightly different. Write your questions down before you call so you make sure you don’t forget to ask anything. Write down the answers so you are sure to remember everything. If you are confused or unclear about an answer ask them to please explain it again. As long as you are polite (which I’m sure you are) they will be more then willing to help you. </p>

<p>Best of luck.</p>

3

<p>I don’t think you were speaking with the Office of Admission. We don’t really deal with this sort of thing. Call Student Financial Services as many times as you need to. They are there to help you!</p>

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<p>Dean J would it be unethical/unfair to ask if this means that I was already accepted? I just don’t want to overstep any boundaries with this question.</p>

5

<p>Mid-year reports are just coming in now. We won’t have final decisions done for a while.</p>

6

<p>Volynsal 1- this is routine verification. The Financial aid offices have to verify your US citizenship for you to qualify for FA.</p>

<p>You need to fax your passport ASAP to all schools you applied to. Contact your local SS office and change your status to American Citizen.It takes no time at all.</p>

<p>[Changing</a> my citizenship in Social Security?s records](<a href=“http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1694/~/changing-my-citizenship-in-social-security’s-records]Changing”>http://ssa-custhelp.ssa.gov/app/answers/detail/a_id/1694/~/changing-my-citizenship-in-social-security’s-records)</p>

<p>Good Luck.</p>

7

<p>What’s interesting to me, is the fact that some of the schools that I applied to (specifically Dartmouth and WUSTL), claim to have somehow magically processed my FAFSA, whereas UVa, Emory, Duke, and CMU are having problems. Emory actually also asked me to confirm my citizenship by sending them a copy of my passport. It will be interesting to see in March and April whether there is any relationship between the schools that accepted me, and the schools that asked me for my citizenship so that they could process financial aid.</p>

8

<p>Haha I guess it was a good sign. I was accepted to UVa today!</p>