Parents living in state for 5 years - fafsa question

Paying for College FAFSA & CSS Profile
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Trying to fill out the FAFSA and under parents demographics there’s a question asking if my parents (mom & stepdad) have lived in state for the last 5 years.

My confusion is… my mom has lived here her whole life and my stepdad only the past 4 years (the amount of time they’ve been married).

But when I answer “no”, if asks us to enter the parent that’s lived here the longest name, and to enter the date they moved to this state. Which is essentially my moms birthdate. When we do that, it gives an error message and says, “you answered above your parents have not lived in state for the last 5 years, please go back and correct this answer”.

So my question is… does it only care if ONE parent has lived in state for the last 5 years? Because it won’t let me answer yes to 1 parent and no to the other parent. And I’ve searched and searched online and cannot find this issue discussed anywhere.

Thank you in advance.

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Just answer ‘yes’ Most states only require the parent to live there one year for tuition purposes. Your custodial parent has lived there more than 5 years.

When I filled out the FAFSA for my kids, we hadn’t lived there 5 years. I answered no, and that was the end of it for FAFSA. The state did make me complete a form for instate tuition, but I think everyone had to do that. I had to provide copies of my DL, some info on leases and utilities (FL doesn’t have a state income tax form) but it was all easily approved.

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