<p>Fair question. Are you by chance in the military, OP?</p>
<p>Iron Maiden, you are really out of line suggesting that OP intends to commit fraud. He asked a perfectly reasonable question–his fiancee will be married by the time the school year begins, so listing her as single on FAFSA does seem odd, even inaccurate, to someone who is not totally conversant with the process. And there is certainly nothing “fraudulent” about hoping the submission can be made in a legitimate way that produces the best result–I suspect this is what you do every time you complete your tax return. It’s also absolutely none of your business, and irrelevant to the topic, whether OP should be getting married or not.</p>
<p>Dautoservice, sorry you have to deal with snotty responses.</p>
<p>I’m in Georgia, I know for a fact that with the Health Law change our insurance does cover your children up to 26 EVEN IF THEY ARE MARRIED. We do not cover spouses or any offspring of those children.</p>
<p>Thank you everyone for your insight.</p>
<p>Let me clear this thread a bit concerning the health insurance thing. Technically speaking, I am not “self employed”. I own a business and am an employee of the business. Thus my health insurance is a corporate health insurance plan that is offered to my employees without medical review (whether insurance rates goes up or down depending on the new employees that take advantage of it is a different story, but the insurance company must cover employees and family members if they choose to enroll). She will be under my health insurance plan after we get married. And thats that! </p>
<p>Let me summarize my understanding of everything said on this thread and my plan of action:</p>
<p>1) If you are not married, you cannot file fafsa as married. Check.
2) I cannot use 2010 taxes to file for 2012-13 school year. Check.
3) 30k/yr income will not guarantee grants, 100k/yr definitely no grants. Check.
4) Best case outcome of filing fafsa with 2011 taxes reporting 100k income are loans. Check.</p>
<p>Plans:</p>
<p>1) Have her talk to her financial aid office and see when fafsa and other info need to be submitted for 2012-13 school year. Hoping that we can filed as married at that point without crossing any legal issues.
2) Seems to me, whether we file as married, or her as her parents dependant will still result in the bulk of aids in forms of loans. Which in this case wouldn’t matter much to me, I would welcome the loans.
3) Start looking/applying at private school loans. Im pretty sure my credit union offers it and her bank does as well.</p>
<p>I think that sums up what my understanding is and what my options are. Please correct anything above if I gotten my understanding wrong.</p>
<p>Last to answer questions and comments:</p>
<p>@ Iron Maiden</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I really am attempting to keep my cool as I read your reply. I’m not going to start a war over this, but I have to say your reply was pretty rude and presumptuous. </p>
<p>First off, I am not here to ask if its ok to commit a fraud. I’m here to understand my course of action as it relates to my scenario. I’m not quite sure why you had read it that way when I’ve not even so much as filled out a single block of the fafsa. I’m here because I want to understand before I fill out.</p>
<p>Secondly, the status of single to married can be changed in one week through the courthouse with expidited service on the certificate. This, by previous posters, is of little concern anyhow. The main concern is what kind of aid can be expected, whether single or married.</p>
<p>Your family rule of financial support before marriage is very shallow and black and white. Although I agree with it to a certain degree, how dare you use it in closing to lecture me of what my reponsibilities are? You have absolutely no clue as to what our circumstances are, my financial health, and other circumstances that may serve for a couple to get married. Is it an ideal situation to get married while your not financially stable? Of course not, but we also don’t live in an ideal world. If that was the case, america wouldnt be in debt, unemployment wouldnt be rising, and social security would still be around when I retire.</p>
<p>Everyone experiences financial hardship and try to plan out the scenario the best they can.
According to your family rule, if your spouse can no longer support the household in its current level of life, do you divorce him/her?
It’s not so black and white for everyone, please have the decency to respect others situations of life before judgement.</p>
<p>@momofthreeboys</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I really dont want to start a sidetracked discussion about it but I will fill everyone in a bit to satisfy those that are curious. I have considered waiting until she was out of school to get married. It would honestly be the most economical thing to do really. The problem is simply she was raised in a rather strict household of a certain religious belief, very old school system. Basically, within her parents roof, she has a curfew (imagine that, college senior with a curfew). We can date, but we cannot go on trips that would require an overnight. She even gets a lot of crap if she just hangs out at my house.</p>
<p>So we’ve decided for the sake of our relationship, and to honor the parents wishes, to get married. Understanding that it may not be the most financially savvy of moves, we are very happy with the decision and her parents are as well.</p>
<p>@jym626</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No I am not. Why do you ask?</p>
<p>Thats about all for this post, thank you all very much again for your insight!</p>
<p>@MommaJ</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Lol, you’ve posted about this before I could! But yea, I didnt expect perfection on a forum and was very close to just letting it go, but I felt the need to respond.</p>
<p>In any case, I thank you for your support and advise.</p>
<p>Could she file the FAFSA as single and then amend it after you are married? I know that I had to go back and make corrections for my DD last year after we found out more specific financial info.</p>
<p>lammb66,</p>
<p>I’ve considered that as well, but because she has not had a single taxable job in her life - no w2’s, no 1040’s, it would be very hard to prove that she could be independant, especially since her parents are forking over a $24k bill for school every year. I’ve kinda thrown that option out unless someone else here can tell me otherwise.</p>
<p>2) Seems to me, whether we file as married, or her as her parents dependant will still result in the bulk of aids in forms of loans. Which in this case wouldn’t matter much to me, I would welcome the loans.</p>
<p>Not exactly.</p>
<p>If she files as a dependent of her parents, she’ll get a 7500 loan.</p>
<p>If she files as married, then she’ll get about a 11,000 loan.</p>
<p>*Could she file the FAFSA as single and then amend it after you are married? *</p>
<p>No, she can’t. She’s a dependent of her parents til 24 unless married, a vet, etc, etc.</p>
<p>dautoservice,</p>
<p>Will she become an in-state resident once you are married? That is another thing to check with at VCU. If so, her tuition will drop down by quite a bit.</p>
<p>happymomof1,</p>
<p>No, I am a resident of maryland and she is too. Shes currently living with her aunt in virginia so she can commute to school. Her family has been trying to fight the system for some time now to get her school to admit her as an in state student because she stays in VA during the school year (minus breaks). But to my knowledge, the fight has been fought and failed, shes classified as an out of state.</p>
<p>Will she be commuting from MD to school each day, or will she still be living with her aunt during the week? Can you both move to VA? If you do that, she will be a resident in about 12 months (double-check the rules). This is another thing the two of you will need to sort out.</p>
<p>When you are a dependent (as she is) your presumed state of residence is where your parents reside. That’s why she has been denied in-state status. In some states, if a student lives there independently for a year and can demonstrate that they are self-supporting, they can qualify for in-state status. I don’t know what the policy is at VCU. In any case, since she goes home for breaks, and she isn’t working, clearly her “real” address is her parents.</p>
<p>Hmmm this is interesting to consider. I will look into possibly getting VA residency at least for her… </p>
<p>Working this angle might prove to be worth more than financial aid…</p>
<p>Thanks happymomof1!</p>
<p>dautoservice:</p>
<p>You missed my point. In your first post you state “We are getting married in May, but we want to have the fafsa submitted by early january. So one of the questions I have is - since we are applying for her last school year that starts after we are married, on the fafsa, should we just fill in “married” so she can be an independant (even though we are not technically married at the time of filing the fafsa)? Is there any negatives to doing this that I should be concerned about”</p>
<p>Yes, the negative is that filing her FAFSA as single in January but putting married is fraud. Plain and simple. You specifically asked about downsides of doing this. Others seemed to be tap dancing around the issue. I did not. Sorry if that offended you. That was not my intent. I was answering the question you posed. If you were not considering doing just that then why did you ask?</p>
<p>You cannot amend marital status on a FAFSA once it is filed. Marital status for an entire academic year for FAFSA purposes is based on your marital status as of the date that you complete your FAFSA.</p>
<p>The FAFSA includes the following warning on the front:</p>
<pre><code>- WARNING: You must fill out this form accurately. The information that you supply can be verified by your college, your state, or by the U.S. Department of Education.
- You may be asked to provide U.S. income tax returns, the worksheets in this booklet and other information. If you can’t or don’t provide these records to your college, you may not get Federal student aid. If you get Federal student aid based on incorrect information, you will have to pay it back; you may also have to pay fines and fees. If you purposely give false or misleading information on your application, you may be fined $20,000, sent to prison, or both.
</code></pre>
<p>Putting down married when you are not is both false and misleading.</p>
<p>I don’t think he had read the FAFSA instructions at the time of his original post. I, and apparently others as well, didn’t read that post as one looking to skirt the law but simply as a lack of knowledge. I think he’s clear on the way FAFSA works now…;)</p>
<p>*Hmmm this is interesting to consider. I will look into possibly getting VA residency at least for her… </p>
<p>*</p>
<p>Since she only has one more year to go, don’t know if marrying in May and then establishing residency in VA will be soon enough for instate rates. Can she “defer” a year and then complete her education one year late?</p>
<p>From the DOL website (<a href=“http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/newsroom/fsdependentcoverage.html):%5B/url%5D”>http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/newsroom/fsdependentcoverage.html):</a></p>
<p>Providing Relief for Young Adults</p>
<p>The Affordable Care Act requires plans and issuers that offer coverage to children on their parents’ plan to make the coverage available until the adult child reaches the age of 26. </p>
<p>Coverage Extended to More Children. The goal of this new policy is to cover as many young adults under the age of 26 as possible with the least burden. Plans and issuers that offer dependent coverage must offer coverage to enrollees’ adult children until age 26, even if the young adult no longer lives with his or her parents, is not a dependent on a parent’s tax return, or is no longer a student. There is a transition for certain existing group plans that generally do not have to provide dependent coverage until 2014 if the adult child has another offer of employer-based coverage aside from coverage through the parent. The new policy providing access for young adults applies to both married and unmarried children, although their own spouses and children do not qualify.</p>
<p>Me again: If your healthcare plan covers “children,” it has to cover your children … in or out of school, single or married … until they turn 26. Employers can terminate as of the end of the day prior to the day they turn 26, but some choose to allow them to stay on until the end of the month in which they turn 26, or the end of the year in which they turn 26.</p>
<p>The only thing that doesn’t apply to all medical health plans (it is correct that dental and vision are not included in the PPACA legislation, although the employer may decide to extend coverage for these plans): If a plan is “grandfathered,” they do not have to offer coverage to a dependent who is able to get coverage through his/her own employer. A non-grandfathered plan has to offer coverage even if the dependent could get coverage through his/her own employer. On January 1, 2014, ALL medical health plans will have to offer coverage through 26 regardless of whether or not they could get coverage through their own employer.</p>
<p>This is my new line of work …</p>
<p>Looked into the VA residency. It won’t work for us with the time restraints we have. Thanks for the thought anyways.</p>
<p>It looks like the thread has run its course. This is the way I look at it.</p>
<p>1) Health Insurance, is she is pregnant etc. are extraneous and irrelevant to the question.
2) If the OP gets married, his wife to be will not receive educational assistance from her parents.
3) OP and his wife to be intend to stay in Maryland. Not sure about Virginia, but in most states the fact that you go to school there, does not make you instate. If that were the case, then every out of state student in the UC system or at top state university can claim instate after say a year of stay. That is why state schools have these stringent rules to prevent that. Unless OP and his wife to be can prove to the satisfaction of VCU authorities that they are tax payers of VA and permanently intend to reside in VA, that is a No Go.<br>
4) OP’s wife to be will probably not qualify for FA (other than un subsidized Stafford loans) due to OP’s high income. The fact that OP would prefer not to pay the costs out of his pocket, as he wants to invest in his business, is immaterial to the process of granting Federal student aid. Again, if the Govt. permitted that, every parent could claim they have the money but want to invest in their business, and the whole need criteria will disappear. Hence, the OP’s wishes are not a consideration.
5) The OP and his wife to be have made a decision. I have no opinions as to if it is right or wrong, it is what it is. Now they have to deal with the consequences of the decision. There are many choices: She could take a leave of absence from VCU till they get VA residency, she could transfer to a Maryland college, she could take a combination of Federal and private loans, the OP could pay for the whole thing for one year, she could get a job and contribute to the tuition etc. All these are not mutually exclusive.</p>
<p>Some of the above alternatives may not be acceptable or feasible (example transferring to a local MA college or getting a job etc.). Not knowing the facts (and it is not my business either), I am not going to suggest a course of action. All I want to point out is that there are many other alternatives, other than those discussed here. The OP and his wife to be would need to decide for themselves if they want to even consider some other options (other than taking loans). They also need to be aware that private student loans have eligibility criteria and not every one gets it. OP’s financial standing and credit history could come into play and hence there may need to be a plan B. So my suggestion is consider all alternatives and then decide which makes most sense.</p>
<p>@mazewanderer thanks for the summary and suggestion.</p>
<p>Since the start of this thread, I’ve given everything a lot of thought and here is the final path that I’m going to take this is going to make the most sense for me and my situation.</p>
<p>1) Fiance and I are getting married courthouse style in January. This allows FAFSA to use tax statements.
2) Gone through my credit union and her bank - both sources pre-approved loan for 20k at 6.2% interest for a 20yr student loan. (odd because I thought unsub loans were going to be 6.8% for fall of 2012.)
3) Met with my accountant, and we can pour more money into the business since Ive not taken any distributions so far this year (yay!), and effectively bring my AGI to 25k for 2011 (there won’t be any dispute on this since 2010 income was effectively 35k, and 2009 was a wash[lost]).
4) Will file Fafsa early feburary, and then go from there with what the SAR shows.</p>
<p>Done! Problems solved!</p>
<p>Lastly, I want to give a heartfelt thanks to all those that have contributed to this thread.
If you live in Howard County Maryland, please look up my business dautoservice.com, give me a call and I can hook you up with a free oil change. Just be sure to mention your from collegeconfidential. It’s the least I can do for such valuable information.</p>
<p>* Gone through my credit union and her bank - both sources pre-approved loan for 20k at 6.2% interest for a 20yr student loan. (odd because I thought unsub loans were going to be 6.8% for fall of 2012.)
*</p>
<p>I think you’re confusing federal unsub student loans with what you’re getting…a private student loan through your CU.</p>
<p>FYI…since your fiancee is female…fiancee is spelled with 2 e’s. :)</p>
<p>Best wishes to you, your future wife, your marriage, her education, and your business.</p>