Just wanted to know if international students can use IDOC. If not, what are the alternatives?
IDOC is just a way to send your tax forms and a few other paperwork items to one central place, and they then distribute it to the colleges that use IDOC so you don’t need to fax/mail/email your financial records to all those colleges. Not all colleges use it, though. From the IDOC website it appears that colleges do have the choice of using IDOC for international students, but it is unclear to me whether all colleges actually choose that option. If you don’t use IDOC, you will just send in your tax forms & any other needed documents directly to each college. Don’t fret if you don’t get to use IDOC, it is actually quite a pain – documents have to be meticulously placed in a certain order with SSNs at the top of each page, etc. I do hear that they are allowing uploading of documents this year instead of just mailing paper to them, so that could be an improvement.
Here is a link with some info about IDOC, although this appears to be more oriented to the college signing up for the service than to the student/parent sending info. But it is still helpful.
Yes. If your school requires IDOC, and you are an international student, you will be required to use it.
You can only use IDOC for schools that participate in the program.
Thanks so much @intparent for the detailed and @thumper1 for the important info, I really appreciate that.
Ivy…just an FYI. I believe IDOC requires mailing…yes old fashioned snail mail…the copies of the requested documents. So, as an international student, make sure you allow enough time to mail these items and have them received by the IDOC deadline.
You will receive information about what to send from schools using IDOC. Wait until you get that email. Do check your spam folder…just in case it ends up there.
Thanks @thumper1 I had no idea they required mailing and would have probably ended up way over the deadline… I guess I’d better ask my colls if they will accept emailed documents.
The colleges do NOT collect the IDOC documents. Those are mailed to IDOC if the school uses IDOC.
You can ask all you want…but the colleges do NOT collect the info required by IDOC, and IDOC is done by mail.
I know that, but two of the schools where I’m applying to have stated that they use IDOC and want me to send my parents’ tax returns via IDOC… Am I getting this right? :-/
Yes…and if they want them sent via IDOC, you must copy them, and MAIL them to IDOC. They cannot be sent via email…and they do NOT get sent to the colleges.
The only time you send tax returns to the college directly is when the college asks for you to send to the COLLEGE.
If they want these documents sent via IDOC, you must submit them via IDOC…and that is NOT direct,y to the college itself.
Alright. I understand now. Thanks once again, it really helped!
I heard that IDOC is going to allow uploaded documents this year for the first time (so maybe snail mail can be avoided)? Unfortunately, the IDOC site just says it is not available yet for this year, so there is no detail available. Plus, it will be the first year for this process, and could have some bugs… you might be better off using the snail mail option instead. But you have to wait until you get details. There is a special cover sheet and instructions on the order of the docs, etc.
thanks @intparent . yeah I guess that would be a bit risky.
This year seems to allow uploading - did you check? Are you all going to be uploading or snail mailing?
Normally, if the university you applied to requires IDOC submission after the CSS Profile, the university sends that information to College Board (CSS Profile) which inturn sends a mail to you regarding the IDOC items to be sent. By this time if college board does not ask you send that perhaps imply that your college does not want you to send anything. If your college IDOC deadline is Mar 1st or so, it may come next week. But if you have any doubt please send a mail to college board, they will reply within 72 hours.
@Someone007 yesss they allow uploading! @F1crazy thanks, I did get an email