You can call the courthouse/town hall/municipal office of the city or town your mom died in and they can send you a death certificate if nobody in the family has one.
Well, you’re going to have to provide documentation of this.
Just because your father isn’t a citizen doesn’t mean he’s not subject to documentation-- you think int’l applicants who apply for FA don’t have to provide documentation about their parents or their parents’ income?
Just being out of the country doesn’t make him irrelevant.
Ok blossom thanks. Well I got my mom
Down for sure. I just need documentation of my father. How can I obtain some documentation of him?
Ask him?
Well my father has a brother living in America would he be of any use for the documentation
Do you see your father once a year?
No, I have only seen him once which was last year that was it
What constitutes being independent for fafsa based finaid is on page 3 at this link:
http://ifap.ed.gov/efcformulaguide/attachments/090214EFCFormulaGuide1516.pdf
The one we’ve been asking about is this one:
Have you asked your uncle about that?
Unless you have court ordered legal guardianship, where a US Court gave guardianship to your aunt and uncle you will not be considered independent.
If you don’t have court ordered legal guardianship, it does not matter if your dad has been deported, you will have to supply his income and assets on the FAFSA in order to get financial aid. His not living in the state where you live may affect your getting State aid in that state. For example, if you were a NYS resident and your deported dad was even living in another state or outside of the U.S., you would not be eligible for NYS aid.
While, your dad may have been deported, unless a US court stripped him of his parental rights, thus placing you as a ward of the court or placing you in legal guardianship, he is still your legal next of kin. When he got deported, he had every right to take you out of the country with him, but he and your family chose for you to stay.
If he has “no income” you will most likely be selected for verification and he will have to prove how he eats everyday and takes care of his basic living expenses. If your aunt and uncle are paying for this, then it will have to be listed on the FAFSA.
After you file the FAFSA, you may have to ask each school to appeal your financial aid award in order to exercise professional judgement, or ask for a dependency override.
You said in your first post that your aunt and uncle were your legal guardians. If so, then they have court papers to that effect as only the court can make a legal guardianship. That is all you need to claim independent on FAFSA. See this question, any question answered yes means you are independent:
Has it been determined by a court in your state of legal residence that you are an emancipated minor or that you are in a legal guardianship?
https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/fafsa/filling-out/dependency
As an independent student, if you don’t work or have any assets you can get 5,770 Pell grant and a student loan of up to 9,500 for freshman year. If you have income or assets you may get less but you can always get the loan. Any other funds have to come from the college as an aid or merit award.
Grants and scholarships are gift money. Loans have to be repaid after you graduate.
Here is another bit about legal guardianship:
Q.
What if I am in legal guardianship, am I now independent?
A.
If you can provide a copy of a courts decision that you are or were in a legal guardianship as determined
by a court in your state of legal residence, you may meet the definition of an independent student. You would answer “Yes” to question 5
5 if you are currently in legal guardianship
You would also answer “Yes” if you were in legal guardianship immediately before you reached the age of being an adult in your state. The court must be located in your state of legal residence at the time the court’s decision. You may be asked to provide a copy of the court’s decision.
Brownparent: will I get work study as well?
We can’t predict your financial aid award. We don’t even know what college you will be attending.
Planning on attending UTM (University of Tennessee at Martin)
Are you a resident of Tenn?
a possible problem…If your uncle does not have court-ordered guardianship (and really only has some sort of approval to make decisions for you), then you may not be considered a resident in Tenn.
If it’s determined that your dad’s info goes on your FAFSA, then unless Tenn has a rule that if you go to a Tenn high school, you get instate rates, you may be OOS for all publics.
Do you qualify for HOPE?
Yes, I’m most certainly a citizen of Tennessee, my school only has students who are either citizens of Georgia or citizens of Tennessee. So since I’m in the school that means I qualify for instate rates.
And I do qualify for hope
I don’t think you understand. K-12 education only cares about where you live. They don’t care whether you’re a citizen or not. You live with your uncle, and therefore you can go to K-12 education in your zoned school.
College instate determination is different.
WHY haven’t you yet found out from your uncle about what level of guardianship he has.
And this will be my fourth year attending a Tennessee high school, so I’m pretty sure I qualify for instate rates
I haven’t spoken to my uncle yet because he and I aren’t in speaking terms for the time being but I will ask I’m positive of that.