I know that people have asked this question before, but this year the FAFSA opened up early, so I don’t really know what to do.
Basically, FAFSA said that my citizenship status could not be confirmed by the Social Security Administration. I have been a citizen of the US for 2 years now, and have the certificate and the passport and all the paperwork. I went to the Social Security Office to get the mistake corrected, so now they know I’m a citizen, but FAFSA still won’t recognize it when I resubmit my application.
I’ve heard mixed things about how to proceed from here. I’m planning on emailing all the colleges I’m applying to for what they want me to do, but I’m afraid that they will have to see my documentation in person. Most of the colleges I’m applying to are out of state, and it is impossible for me to go to all of them to show them my proof. I really need financial aid since my parents make very little money, and my EFC was calculated at around $3500.
Should I wait till decisions come out and then proceed with only the college I select? Will colleges still calculate my financial aid package if they don’t have verification of citizenship? I don’t want to be left till the end when all the aid has run out, because again, I need that money. I’m frustrated, since I’ve already had multiple unrelated complications in my application process in other areas, and don’t really know what to do now. I guess I just expected this to go a lot smoother than it has, since I already wrote my essays over the summer and in September, and basically had everything laid out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The fact that FAFSA opened up earlier this year doesn’t mean that the answer to the question will be any different. What were the answers you saw when you found this same question asked before?
I would send a letter to the FA offices, explain that you have corrected your status with the ssa, and that if you are accepted, you will bring the official documents to show them before they release your FA. Included copies of the documents until you can show them the originals.
The FA officer doesn’t have to accept your copies, but it is worth a try and hope they will conditionally process your FA. They will need to see the official document (s) before releasing your federal financial aid.
@BelknapPoint I was getting a lot of mixed answers, some saying that I should just send schools copies of my passport/certificate, some saying that I should wait. Some said that the financial aid office at my schools will contact me themselves, and some said that I would not be considered for aid at all. I wasn’t really getting a concrete answer.
@twoinanddone Does releasing the aid mean actually getting the money or just getting to see what aid package the school is offering? Because this was my original plan until someone said that the colleges won’t even calculate my package until they have verification…
Can you even submit the fafsa without a fsa id? I don’t think so, so the schools will not have your fafsa unless you contact them first.
You could try calling the fafsa help desk and tell them that you have updated your status with the ssa (and just because you went to the ssa office doesnt mean they have done the update - they are really bad about it) and see if they can figure out a way for you to get a fsa id.
When my daughter’s fsa I’d didn’t work last year, I had to wait a week or so and tried again. It took 3 tries, and about 3 weeks.
@mommdc I filed the FAFSA about three weeks ago, right around when it first came out, so I got my FSA ID then. I went to Social Security more than a week ago, and they said it took up to 48 hours to update the database. @twoinanddone I did call FAFSA, and they said that I could just resubmit my application by adding a school to my college list or something, which I did, but nothing changed. Do I have to get another FSA ID to resubmit my application properly?
Ok thank you everyone. I’ll most likely email/call my schools to ask them what I need to be doing, and I’ll try to update this, once I figure it all out, for anyone in the future who has the same problem. If anyone has any further recommendations, they are more than welcome.
Alright, the college process is almost over for me, and I said I’d update this, so here goes:
As I submitted all my applications and financial aid documents, colleges themselves notified me on how to verify my citizenship status, either through the portals or email. Almost every college had a different set of instructions, some were quite ridiculous, but I was able to do it without sending in any of my original documents. I generally sent copies of my passport electronically, and submitted paper copies to the ones that asked for them.
It was a long and stressful process, but now it’s over. Anyone who is going through something like this, it’ll all work out, and if you don’t know what to do, call an admissions counselor or a financial aid person and ask them.
Not quite over. Whichever school you end up going to will have to see the original passport before it can release you aid. Don’t forget to take the passport with you to school and take it to the FA office on the first day.