<p>I know a 20 y.o. kid who appears to be an official resident of TN (He has a TN drivers license and his address is in TN as he has been living with family friends, although they are not legal gardians.) However, both of his divorced parents live in PA. What is his state of residence for the FAFSA? Will he need to present either/both of his parents' financial information? If he has to use his PA parents' financial info for FAFSA, can he still be a resident of TN?</p>
<p>In most cases a 20 y.o.'s state residence will be determined by his parents residence. However, each school has specific set of guidelines and exceptions, so YMMV.</p>
<p>I don’t know where TN will consider him to live, but for the FAFSA, where does he live? In the parents’ state or in the state where he actually lives?</p>
<p>Is he an emanicipated minor? Do either of his parents provide health insurance or other financial support? For FAFSA purposes he is a dependent until he turns 24.</p>
<p>No, he is not an emancipated minor (since he is 20, I guess). I don’t think he has any sort of health insurance at all, and any financial support he gets might be a few bucks as an occasional gift. He might be in the difficult position of being a dependent without any real support. He really is on his own (except for staying with the family friend).</p>
<p>There is a difference between an address and residency. His address will be his physical address. His residency will be (most probably) his parents residency.</p>
<p>P.S. He might want to appeal to school to get classified as TN resident, however most likely he will not succeed.</p>
<p>Thanks, I will advise him to check with the school to see if he can be classified as a TN resident.</p>
<p>hopefully this will help</p>
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<p>Since he will have to turn in one of his parent’s info for FAFSA, it’s their residency that will take affect there. He can use his address but according to the law, he is still “dependent” for FAFSA purposes on that parent who he has on FAFSA. It would behoove him to document having spent more time with the parent who earns less and has less, and does not have a spouse in the picture, since he needs to have a parent on the form.</p>
<p>IF he is going to TN school, it is up to that school to determine whether he is a TN resident for tuition purposes. School vary on how strictly they define this and how they monitor and enforce these rules. Our local college doesn’t care. You just say you are living in state, in county and have that address on the forms when registering and that is it. Not so with other state school, however, that may have a verification process in place.</p>
<p>My son lived in another state during college, paid his own living expenses, and has a drivers license, car regsitration, lease, job, etc in that state. But he is still considered a dependent for college purposes and if he were to try to go to the state flag ship they would not have permitted him to get in state rates. My friend tried to do this, and her son did not get past verification processes that the school had in place.</p>
<p>Ironically, when he transferred to another school in the same state, it did not have the same processes in place. It is the same university, but a commuter campus in another location and they just take the check mark you put on the registration to determine state residency though the same official rules are supposed to apply for both branches. So you go figure.</p>
<p>I just recently found out that this student has no idea about residency requirements for either his school or the FAFSA. He just assumes that since he has been living and working in TN, while getting little or no financial assistance from the parents, that he is indeed a “resident”. Although it makes sense, he will certainly have to discuss this with officials at his college. I wonder how they will view his living with the family that took him in? While unofficial “guardians”, they certainly have been providing support for him in the form of a roof over his head and food on the table.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of the input!</p>
<p>IIRC, the only thing on FAFSA that cares about location is when computing the credit for state income tax paid.</p>
<p>I would argue for FAFSA that his parents are PA residents, and the student is a TN resident. FAFSA allows different states to be listed for parents and student.</p>
<p>If you are really talking about residency for the purpose of in-state tuition, you have to check what the rules are for his school, and this really has nothing to do with FAFSA.</p>
<p>I think what Notrichenough has written is the way it works.</p>