Permanent resident living abroad. When to submit CSS/FAFSA?

I’m a permanent resident (Green Card holder - they’re equivalent to citizens) living abroad and I just realized the deadlines for financial aid documents are different for international students and local applicants. What pool do I fall into and when do I have to submit them?

Domestic students.

You are considered a US applicant for financial aid purposes provided your green card status is unchanged. You should file a preliminary version of your FAFSA as soon as possible after Jan. 1. You can update it later.

Whether you are considered an international applicant for academic purposes is a differnt issue. you need to contact each place on your list, let them know where you completed (or will be completing) your secondary school education, and ask them what paperwork they need. Do not be surprised if each place twlls you something different. Just do whatever A asks for A, and whatever B asks for B.

I would contact them but some offices are closed for the holidays so I probably won’t get a reply until after Jan 1st which is the deadline for the financial docs for CSS for internationals so I guess that won’t help.

So pertaining to financial aid you’re saying I can submit the CSS by Feb?

You need to ask each place separately about the CSS Profile. Each place sets its own due dats.

But generally its international students have to submit by Jan 1st while domestic applicants by Feb

@Rameen there is no “generally” about deadlines. You need to check EACH college website to,which you are applying. The dates vary wildly, and you don’t want to jeopardize your aid chances because you assume the date is later than it really is.

@thumper1 I know there are variations but the requirement is that international students have to submit it with their common app while domestic applicants have to do it by Feb. Now I hadn’t filled it out and it takes a week for it it process so I doubt they’d get it by the 1st-3rd of Jan. That’s why I’m asking

Rameen…where are you getting your information? Is it,from the college websites? If not…look there.

@thumper1 Yes, there are two different tabs under financial aid and deadlines for each, international and domestic applicants, now the deadlines differ by months but they haven’t listed a criteria for “international” or “domestic” applicants so I don’t know which deadline to follow

Where are you looking? On the common application site…or on the college websites?

You are a domestic applicant for financial aid purposes,because you are a U.S. citizen.

If you have any doubts…submit on the earliest possible date for submissions.

I will tell you…my kids were domestic applicants and the financial aid application deadlines were all over the place…no single date…no single month. Some were due in January, some February, and some even March.

I’m dying to know,where you see a February deadline for ALL colleges for domestic applicants.

@thumper1 All the colleges on my list have the CSS deadlines in Feb for domestic applicants, I’ve checked on their websites.

Then there you go for your colleges. You have the deadlnes. Like I said, if you aren’t sure…submit earlier.

your obvious posts made it sound like all international students had January deadlines…and ll domestic have February. This is true for,your schools…but is not a uniform thing.

If you think you are an international applicant, use the earlier deadline. How would we know what your status is? You say you are a domestic applicant, so if you think you are, use the later deadline. Either way you aren’t ready to submit them so all you can do is submit by Feb 1 and hope your are right, that you are a domestic applicant.

If you are wrong, it’s not going to matter that a bunch of people on a website said you were okay in submitting by Feb 1.