Hi guys, I’m an immigrant from other country. I came to America in 11/2016. At that time, my mom she didn’t go to work and we didn’t file any taxes. But in my FAFSA Application, I accidentally put $9000 in “My parent’s Income 2016”. They also asked me to submit “IRS Parent Non-filing Letter 2016”, I did already. Now they require me to have “Parent W-2 Form”, then I decided to correct the amount of money I put in “My Parent’s Income 2016” to $0. Did I do it right? Because when I signed, they wrote, “purposely report wrong information will be fined $20,000 and sent to prison…” I didn’t lie anything.
If you were correcting to reflect accurate information…you are fine.
But be alerted…the school is likely going to want to know how you are paying your everyday living expenses here with $0 in family income. Be prepared to explain.
Hi, thank you for your asnwer. That was in 2016 though 
So what? The school is still going to want to know how you paid your living expenses in 2016 with $0 income. Who paid your bills?
They may ask you how you pay the bills now. Be honest. Lots of people get help from relatives, or church groups, or share living space to keep bills down.
Are you a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident (Green Card holder).
If not, how did you file the FAFSA? How did your parent(s) sign the FAFSA?
If your mother worked off the books and earned $9000, that is what you should have put on the FAFSA. Income, must be reported, whether or not it can be documented by a W2.
If you say that your family had no money, you will most likely be flagged for low income verification.
Is your mom married? How are you all paying rent, buying food, etc?
We brought money when we moved to the U.S. That money was for paying renting room payment for each month. Furthermore, we came here at the end of the year so that’s why I put in $0.
- you did not answer the questions in post #5
- are you talking about a FAFSA for this school year 2018-2019?
- Even if your mom did not have a job during 2016, when you filed the FAFSA, you were suppose to put down the amount of cash you had on the day that you filed the FAFSA, whether it was leftover money from when you first arrived or if it was money saved up since the 2 of you have been in the U.S. As I stated you will get flagged for a low income verification so you can explain it all and provide documentation to the financial aid office.
Yes, I am Green Card holder. I’m talking about this school year. Thank you for your helpful reply. I will discuss with my school financial aid office.
So…did your parent not have any income in 2016 in your former country?
Lol I don’t know how to say, we opened a small food store so we did have income but didn’t pay taxes. It’s Asian stuff that I don’t know how to explain.
So you opened a store here in the US and that’s your income?
Or…you had a store in your Asian country and you brought that income with you to the US?
I had a street food store in my country.
It is not Asian stuff, you must report your 2016 income from anywhere in the world. If you owned a store before you came here you must report that income on your FAFSA.
I got it. I’ll contact my financial office then. Thank you guys.
Why would you need to contact your financial aid office? What you need t9 do is correct your FAFSA to accurately state the amount your parent earned at their store in 2016.
It doesn’t matter where the money was earned…it could be on the Moon…you have to report it.
So…amend that FAFSA so that it’s accurate…because clearly, your family income in 2016 was NOT $0.
And understand that if you don’t correct this…and you get federally funded aid…you will have done so fraudulently…and fraud is a CRIME here. You could lose your college admission, any aid, and be fined.
When I recommended that you speak with your financial aid office, we were talking about your mom having no income in 2016 explaining how you had money to come to the US.
You had not disclosed that your family had a small business before coming to the US.
You must put the income from that business on your FAFSA, it does it matter if the money was made in another country.
Yes, as @thumper1 stated, you must change your FAFSA to include your income from 2016, as right now you are a little less than truthful about your financial situation and it will come back to bite you- you could lose your admission at your school , not receive financial aid in the future and have to repay all aid that you received as a result of misrepresenting your fiancial situation
Thank you