Filing FAFSA with lost parents?

Paying for College
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<p>I’d like to know if I have any options/possibilities in qualifying for Financial Aid with my particular situation. I’m going to go to my school’s financial aid advisor, but I’d like an idea of what response to expect and the line to wait is extremely long, so I don’t want to make more than one trip there. Sorry in advance for the long read.
My mother left me when I was 14 (and my father left when I was an infant), she told me that she didn’t want me anymore, and she signed a power of attorney to my friend’s mom (she decided to care for me as my mother tried to get rid of me) and left the country. My mother was an illegal immigrant and wanted to leave before she got deported, since she had a very bad criminal record and feared prison. This wasn’t adoption; the power of attorney only said that she could make decisions for me until I turned 18, or graduated, or something of that sort. My friend’s mom was in a very bad financial state, but decided to care for me as I had nowhere to go. I did not stay with her until I turned 18, I’ve sort of house-hopped throughout high school when she couldn’t care for me anymore. None of the people that took me in went through any legal process of guardianship over me, nor did they report me to Foster Care (I think that would have been applicable to me, but I’m not sure). No school official said or did anything about this, my parental situation was ignored for the most part. I didn’t think it mattered, since turning 18 wasn’t too far off for me.
When senior year of high school came along, my counselor set me through an interviewing process that eventually considered me as homeless or potentially homeless, in order to qualify as an independent student for financial aid.
This year however, I’m working, and have my own apartment, and live completely on my own. When applying for financial aid, I didn’t/don’t think that I could try to apply for potential homelessness again, since I’m making ends meet on my own.
I’m not sure what to do now, since FAFSA requires me to provide parental information unless I say yes to one of their dependency questions, which all apply as ‘no’ to me. I believe if legal action had been taken while I was living in someone’s home I could have some options, but nothing was done.
I tried to request for Independent student status, but I need acceptable documentation stating my situation, and I’m not sure if the old power of attorney is sufficient. I was in an abusive household with my mother, but I said took no legal action and said nothing because I was a scared and as her child I didn’t want her deported at the time. So I have no documented case of anything to the best of my knowledge.
Long story short, I have absolutely no contact with my parents, I qualified as an Independent student last year, and I want to know if I could qualify this year. If not, what options do I have?
I’d like to know what I should realistically expect when I try to get a better word out of my financial aid advisor. I’m paying out of pocket for a couple of classes in community college this semester, but I won’t be able to afford finishing my degree on my own. </p>

<p>Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, I realize it's fairly long.</p>

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<p>Re-check the information on the FAFSA website about homeless status. I believe that if you have been formally classified as homeless at any time after age XX, you are subsequently permanently considered to be an “independent” student.</p>

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<p>Since the only thing that has changed about your situation is that you now have a roof over your head, the question that you need to ask the finanical aid counselor is about the possibility of your getting a dependency overrride based on abandonment.</p>

<p>Abandonment is the failure of the parent to provide financial support or to communicate with the child for a long time, generally understood to be a year or more. There are two key elements to the definition of abandonment: (1) no contact for at least a year, and 2) no support for at least a year</p>

<p>Line your ducks in and have your documentation ready to bring to the financial aid office. This includes 3rd party letters from the school, if you went into the shelter system letters attesting to that . </p>

<p>IF a copy of the power of attorney is part of your school’s records, get a certified copy from the school attesting to the fact that your mother left you in the care of “Mrs. Smith” and she was allowed to make medical/educational decisions for you. Unfornuately the power of attorney does not consititute legal guardianship (that would have had to be done through the courts). In addition, no one reported you to foster care or minimally tried to get benefits for you through social services, nor did you go to the family courts when you were at least 16 to discuss the possibility of becoming emancipated due to the abandonment of your family.</p>

<p>Perhaps even notarized letters from the families which you lived with documenting the dates and time that you lived with them.</p>