FAFSA SAR said I'm not a Citizen?

Paying for College
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<p>"The Social Security Administration did not confirm that you are a U.S. citizen. Provide your financial aid office with documentation of your U.S. citizenship (such as
your U.S. Passport, Certificate of Naturalization or Birth Certificate). If the documents support your status as a U.S. citizen, the financial aid office at your school
will make a copy of your documentation and can continue to process your federal student aid. If you are an eligible noncitizen, you or your school must submit a
correction to Item 14 to indicate that you are an eligible noncitizen and also provide your Alien Registration Number in Item 15. You and your school will receive a
new SAR/ISIR within three processing days with results from the Department of Homeland Security about your eligible noncitizen status"</p>

<p>The SAR from my FAFSA claimed that I'm not a citizen even though I became a citizen 2 years ago. Does this mean my application for my FAFSA is like waitlisted and I won't get any aid?</p>

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<p>It seems that you did not update Social Security Admin with your Citizenship status. Provide the information requested and you should be OK</p>

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<p>Do I still have to contact the schools directly and prove to them that I am a citizen, because I am worried I won’t get any aid by the time I update my citizenship status. What do I do once I update with SSA?</p>

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<p>Email the schools and ask them what documentation they need.</p>

5

<p>Hmm, alright but does this mean my FAFSA technically is incomplete and I’m “waitlisted” for aid?</p>

6

<p>Duh, yes. They can’t fully process your application until they know that you are eligible to file the FAFSA.</p>

<p>Email them all tonight, and follow up with phone calls tomorrow.</p>

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<p>Alright, I hope I won’t lose any potential aid because they sent me my SAR on like January 3rd. Man I thought I wouldn’t have to do all this.</p>

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<p>I know. The paperwork never seems to end. But it will, and you will get into college, and you will figure out how to pay for it, and you will continue to write your own immigrant success story.</p>

<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the words, I hope this ends soon.</p>

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<p>If you were naturalized, your parents had to sign you up for a certificate of citizenship with the SS administration for like 500-some dollars.</p>

<p>What you have to do now is make copies of your passport and fax them or email them to your schools’ financial aid office. Some will take emailed document, others will only take faxed documents, so you have to ask each school.</p>

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<p>I just joined the forum to correct the misinformation about citizenship certificates!</p>

<p>If the OP was naturalized, they’d already have a Certificate of Naturalization.</p>

<p>If the OP was a minor who automatically became a citizen when one or both parents naturalized, they are not obligated to apply for a Certificate of Citizenship, although it’s not a bad idea. If you do apply for a certificate, it’s with USCIS, of course, not the SSA.</p>

<p>What the OP and/or parents neglected to do, was go in to SSA with the OP’s new US passport or certificate, and apply to get OP’s citizenship status changed in the SSA database. It’s important to do this because, as the OP just discovered, the SSA record of citizenship is used for other purposes besides social security, e.g. FAFSA.</p>

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So what did you finally do? I am in the same situation as well. I’m actually quite worried now. I was also not recognized as a U.S. citizen, and I’m going to the SSA to fix that on Monday. Did you call the FAFSA afterwards? I already gave the school I’m enrolled to my passport copy and my SS card copy.

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Apply for passport too. You will need it sooner or later.

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Propensity, you will need either a passport or certificate of citizenship is you are changing your status with the SSA. I don’t know if they will change status with your parent’s naturalization papers especially if you are 18, but if so I’m sure your parent(s) would need to be with you. SSA is not my favorite agency, but by law SSA cannot determine citizenship except for those with US birth certificates. Only USCIS and the State dept (passport) can determine citizenship and other agencies just accept the passports or certificates - no thinking or interpretation allowed. Your school can’t make the determination either, it can just verify it saw proof (passport or certificate).