<p>My parents are married but their names are in two different addresses, on paper.</p>
<p>On paper, I live with my father, but for some reason he has never placed me as a "dependent", and my mother has, although she doesn't live with me.</p>
<p>Also, my father fills out his income tax form as “single” and my mother as “Head of the household”.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t know whether to put my parent’s marital status as “Married or Remarried” or “Divorced or separated” in the FAFSA, because my father puts himself down as "Single", and my mother is listed under a different address, although they are married.</p>
<p>Also If, I put “Divorced or separated”, it will ask me whose information do I want to put down. Who should I put down?</p>
<p>No, there’s nothing about having to be in the divorce process. If they live separately and file taxes separately and consider themselves separated… then why would you not call them separated?</p>
<p>You’ll use the parent with whom you live as your custodial parent for purposes of the FAFSA.</p>
<p>If they are separated you can put that they are separated. They do not have to be divorced or in the process of or even ever planning to be divorced. </p>
<p>You put the custodial parent down on FAFSA. </p>
<p>I do see one problem here though. You say you live with your dad but your Mom is claiming HOH on her taxes? That means she is saying that she pays more than 50% of maintaining a household for herself and the dependents she is claiming. If you are the only dependent then by filing HOH she is saying that you lived with her for more than half the year (that is one of the rules for filing HOH). I don’t know if this would cause problems with FAFSA or not.</p>
<p>1) If they are using 2 different addresses, they are “separated”–no matter if that is a legal term, or not (I think the FAFSA is confusing that way, but they are clearly separate, using different addresses). 2) The FAFSA rules do NOT care who CLAIMS you as a dependent, rather, they ask “Who provided more than 6 months’ worth of support?” So answer that parent, and then use the figures from that one. </p>
<p>If you are selected for Verification (30–40% of FAFSA filers are randomly selected) you will need to submit tax forms from the parent or parents you named, and then each school (you will need to do this with each school to which you have applied) will decide how to sort out the complications of your family situation. It is not your responsibility to make your parents do the right thing, whatever that is–the schools will decide. It is not your responsibility to make it “straight” as far as how your parents file–single, HOH, whatever.</p>
<p>If you are not selected for Verification, the paperwork and FAFSA info will stand as you have put it. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, get the FAFSA in for deadlines, even with estimates on these things. You can always change or correct it (Just remember there is a 3 day lock on it every time you resubmit it). And note to parents of juniors–get your tax situation in order so that you are not in situations like this a year from now!</p>