<p>And if we got divorced because there were a legal and/or financial, yet still lived with each other from time to time, it would not be? </p>
<p>Yet divorced non-custodial parents are apparently allowed to remove themselves from being a factor in certain financial aid calculations.</p>
<p>If there are inequities in the system, it’s not my fault. Just like the Federal Tax Code, I didn’t create the financial aid system. But as far as I am concerned, it’s personally immoral (& stupid) for me not to take advantage of any legal loopholes in the system that are available to help my child.</p>
<p>I can’t understand that last question. But no, legal divorce for whatever reason are not an issue with FAFSA. Nor are legal separations, btw. Informal separations are a separate thing entirely and are scrutinized because so many people try to game the system.</p>
<p>You’re not required to pay for your kid’s schooling and obviously you and your wife do not want to and that’s fine! Just be honest with the kid and tell her to look for merit aid. The rest of the taxpayers don’t have a problem with that.</p>
<p>If you are getting a “legal separation” (if permitted in your state) or getting a “divorce” for the sole purpose of trying to game the system, hide your income and get the schools to give you more need based aid, then what you are doing is distasteful at best and the comments posted here are well deserved, whether you like it or not. It is not different than fake marriages for purpose of a green card, or whatever other example you gave. Its skeevy and dishonest. Period.</p>
<p>So it’s only a legal separation of you never, ever, ever ever again sleep with your spouse - but that doesn’t apply to divorce, then you may sometime sleep again with your ex-spouse and it’s still a divorce?. </p>
<p>Wow … I’ve apparently known of a whole lot of fraudulent legal separations then!</p>
<p>It’s quite common on CC to learn unpleasant truths that one does not anticipate when one starts a thread. This thread is in the same category as those of the “How will adcoms know if I put down an EC that I really didn’t do,” or “How can I hide transcripts from colleges where I had a bad record,” or “How can I claim in-state residency in a state where I don’t live.” Fraud is fraud and is morally and ethically wrong. You don’t want to hear that, don’t ask for advice on how to commit it.</p>
<p>And I submit that the plan we contemplate is not “fraud”. </p>
<p>If we maintain & reside at separate residences, maintain separate finances, and have a written separation agreement … we are, in fact, legally separated.</p>
<p>People marry, divorce, and separate on paper for lots of reasons … not all marriages licenses are issued in the interest of love & not all divorces decrees & legal separations occur in the interest of hate. It’s a legal status … that can be legally changed.</p>