I moved to the US a few months ago. I was looking up the questbridge applications and saw that I have to report the value of assets. We do have some land back in our country. Do I have to report that? Or do I just put in 0? There is a heavy restriction in taking money out of the country (no more than 5000$ at a time), that’s why I’m asking this.
It doesn’t matter if your assets are located on the moon…you are required to report them.
All assets. Current value converted to US dollars at the exchange of the day.
Report all assets. You run the risk of very significant consequences if you don’t. Nobody will care what excuse you offer. Just do the right thing.
Worldwide assets, otherwise what would stop a US citizen from tying up their money in restricted assets.
You cannot claim to have no assets when you do. Doesn’t matter where they are. Otherwise the queen of England could come over and apply for questbridge.
But the value of that asset in that country might not be much. Give it a fair value for what you could sell it for, even if you can’t take the money out of the country.
What is the definition of “taking it out of the country”? I understand that you can’t move it into a U.S. financial instrument. But is paying a tuition bill online considered taking money out of the country?
@brantly - Paying online is no different from old-fashioned wire-transfers. Unless the currency control rules where you live specifically allow paying for foreign educations, I expect the funds can’t be used. You will need to find what your limits are likely to be while you or the kid are in college.
@happymomof1 Thanks. I think @saitama123 needs to dig more deeply into the rules. I get that many countries don’t want you to launder money by parking cash in expensive U.S. real estate. But a foreign education may be treated differently.
Many countries do not allow you to transfer money out. In this case if the funds are actually restricted I would only report the amount I would be allowed to bring in over the time the kid would be in college.
The poster needs to check the rules. You say he or she should only transfer wha he or she has access to during he college years…but I’m going to bet that U.S. colleges see this differently. They do not award need based aid to protect assets you might have access to in the future.
For example, money in trusts MUST be reported if the student is a beneficiary and it doesn’t matter one bit of the student won’t have access to the money until after college graduation. The reality is…they HAVE the money.
Some schools will view this as a special circumstance…but others won’t.
If this family has assets held overseas, they would be honest to report them, whether they can access them or not. Then deal with the college and see if they will view this as a special circumstances situation.
Countries that set up their monetary systems to keep the money in the country are limiting the college choices of their citizens. That’s the choice that country made. If the US says a citizen can’t attend college in Iran paid for with US funds, we have to live with that. Doesn’t mean Iran can’t ask us how much money we have in the US or what we own in Ireland or about bank accounts in island countries.
For financial aid purposes, all assets have to be listed. Period. Whether they are liquid or not doesn’t matter. Whether they are transportable to another country doesn’t matter. They just have to be listed.
What a college or university makes of this information is up to them. If the money is essentially inaccessible, then that is something that the financial aid offices can take into consideration under their individual policies for professional judgment.
@saitama123 - I used to live in a country that had currency control. Each adult could take out a certain amount each year, and each child had a smaller figure. At that time, there were other amounts for students. You and your family need to carefully verify the limits. Is it per family or per individual? Work through the current version of the FAFSA formula and see just what your family’s property might add to your EFC. It could be that what FAFSA expects your family to pay from those assets is less than what you are allowed to take out of the country.
An international student (without citizenship or legal residency) wouldn’t file FAFSA
@saitama123 - I’ve forgotten. Do you have legal residency here or are you in a different immigration status?
I think OP is a permanent resident.
The OP wrote this on another thread.
BUT the OP also wrote this on another thread:
I asked for clarification and got none. If the OP already has a bachelors degree…then this is all a moot point because he or she would likely not qualify for any need based aid for a second bachelors.
But then…OP also wrote this on May 16:
This happened THIS year according to OP.
Clearly, there are some pieces of information that just don’t add up.
Is the “have a bachelors” from another country hypothetical?
In another thread the student indicated he has a green card
So, students from countries with money control really can’t attend college in another country unless they qualify for need-based aid. Is that how it works