I am a legal citizen as I was born in the states. I’ve been living with my aunt, who is my legal guardian, for the past ten years or so. She takes care of my housing, living expenses, etc. My parents are not legal citizens, and they reside in Asia. Am I considered a dependent or independent? I checked FAFSA, and my situation doesn’t fall within their “special circumstances.” Do I still list my parents’ information, and convert their income into US dollars?
Is your aunt a court appointed legal guardian?
If YES, then the FAFSA does address this as one of the questions on it asks if you were ever in legal guardianship. If your aunt is a court appointed legal guardian…you would answer yes to that question.
If you can honestly answer YES, then the parent information questions won’t heed to be answered.
I don’t believe she is a court appointed legal guardian IN California, no. I read up on the requirements, and it said the guardian must be appointed by a court within the state. She has papers, though I believe they’re from Asia.
Is this just paperwork allowing your aunt to act on your behalf as a guardian…or did your parents give up your guardianship…or were you removed from your home?
There are “papers” that give permission for someone to live with a relative, and do things like advocate for medical care, for example…because the kiddo lives with a relative.
That is NOT legal guardianship.
It is paperwork allowing my aunt to act on my behalf as a guardian, but that paperwork was appointed by a court in Asia, therefore it’s basically useless.
You’d have to have the Asian court’s paperwork evaluated to see what the facts were. A foreign court can award custody and that would be recognized by a US legal system. It really would depend on the facts, if parental rights were severed, if there was a legal reason for the change of guardianship (financial, abuse, inability of the parents to care for the child).
You may be better off providing your bio parents’ information. If they are not wealthy, you may be better off reporting a low family income rather than claiming to be independent, or it may make no difference at all.