We are in the middle of a move from Michigan to Massachusetts. My wife has already moved and we have an address in Boston. What is the state of legal residence from a FAFSA perspective - our tax return for 2014 will be Michigan.
FAFSA is only interested in your state of residence for tax purposes. So you will be using Michigan for the 2015 FAFSA that will jive with the 2014 tax return for the School year beginning fall of 2015.
However, when it comes to residency for admissions purposes to state schools, state scholarship programs, in state tuition, school set up their own criteria for those things and they may not even be consistent. You have to check what each school has in requirements for what.
We have moved a couple of times while kids have been in school. Our oldest was accepted and started his freshman yr in-state before we moved. The university allowed him to keep his in-state status through to graduation. The state we moved to considered our kids OOS for 12 months. When we moved again, the new state allowed students to file information verifying that the move was not for tuition purposes (basically a letter from my husband’s employer stating the move was due to a business transfer) and granted in-state status.
Basically, you have to know the laws of the states individually. You could end up with no in-state qualification for 12 months. You might be eligible for a waiver.
Thanks a lot for the input! It seems that we will have to file using the state of residency for the filing year.