I am a US Citizen born and raised in NY till i was 15. Then i moved to Ecuador and am currently finishing highschool here. I will be going back to NY for college and am applying for FAFSA. But my parents will be staying here in Ecuador and i will be going back to NY without them. I will be living with my brother. The FAFSA consultants told me that even if im not living with them, i still count as being dependent of them. But the problem is that i cant count with their support financially because they dont have enough income to be able to pay off the tuition, FAFSA fees, or any other college expenses. How can i pay starting expenses? Should i take out a loan for that stuff? Or will i not have to pay anything? Will FAFSA take care of that somehow? Ive been told that you have to pay the starting tuition and FAFSA just gives you back the money you payed later… which is what im worried about because i wont be able to pay it at all considering the expensive 4 year college tuition.
Your situation is not rare…or unusual. There are plenty of expats who send their kids back to the U.S. for college. There are also foreign citizen parents with U.S. citizen kiddos who send their kids to the U.S. for college.
Because you are a U.S. citizen, you can complete the FAFSA even if your parents are not…or reside outside of the United states…or both.
Your parents MUST be included on your fafsa. It doesn’t matter where they live or how much they earn…or don’t earn. And it doesn’t matter where you live. Your parent financial information is required on your FAFSA.
Your goal is to find an affordable way to attend college. Are you a senior this year? Have you already applied to schools?
When your FAFSA is submitted, there will be a calculation done to determine your expected family contribution (EFC). That number will help determine your eligibility for federally funded need based aid. If the EFC is under $5000, you will get a portion of the Pell Grant. The maximum Pell is $5730, but that would be for an EFC of $0. You will also be able to take a Direct Loan of $5500 for your freshman year.
Can you commute to a community college from where your brother lives? It is probably that you will have to pay the out of state rate to attend that community college…but you might be able to pay for,that if you used the Direct Loan…and were eligible for a Pell Grant…and had some earnings from a job yourself. Can your parents contribute at all to your costs?
Where did you apply to colleges?
@thumper1 yes i am a senior and i have already applied to schools. But i have not yet submitted the FAFSA because of this dilemma. I can absolutely commute from there to the schools i applied to. Except for the SUNYs which i will obviously be residing at the campus in case i decide to attend any SUNY.
My parents cannot contribute to any expenses because their income is pretty low. I plan on workin when i get there, but to start off, i definitely wont have enough money to pay off the starting expenses.
All of this is so complicated lol.
You need to complete the FAFSA. You need to include your parent information. That is what you must do. That your parents cannot or will not be able to contribute to your college costs has NO bearing at all on your completion of the FAFSA including their information.
Have you looked at the total costs to attend these schools? You will be an out of state resident for tuition purposes…it doesn’t matter that your brother lives there, or that you did until age 15. Your parents do not reside there now. Your residence for tuition purposes is where your parents have their residence. A SUNY is upward of $28,000 a year for a student to attend.
You need to look carefully at your schools. If your family income is below $24,000 a year, you will get the full Pell Grant for sure. Is your parent income that low?
You need to run the Net Price Calculators at the websites of each of the places that you applied (or might apply) to. Convert your parents’ financial information into US $ at the exchange of the day. The Net Price Calculator will give you a notion of what your final costs might be.
You must file the FAFSA in order to be eligible for federally determined aid. So do get it done. If your parents are US citizens or legal permanent residents, they should file their US federal tax return as early as possible this year, because it will need to be linked to the FAFSA online. If they aren’t US citizens or legal permanent residents, you will need to print out a signature form from the FAFSA website for one of your parents to sign and mail in. You will still complete the FAFSA, but use 000-00-0000 for the parent’s social security number.
Since you have a place to live in the US, check the residency policies of each of the community colleges that are within commuting distance. Find out if any of them would consider you in-district for tuition and fees if you live and work there for a year and can demonstrate that you cover half of your living expenses.
@thumper1
Yes i will complete the FAFSA tomorrow since i will have someone to help me.
Yes ive looked at the tuition for both SUNYs and CUNYs… which is why i applied to more CUNYs than i did SUNYs.
And yes, my family income is actually way lower than that so thats good news for me 
@happymomof1
Yes i will do it tomorrow for sure. And i will definitely check the policies. Oh and i mostly applied to 4 year colleges, only 1 community college. (I have killer grades lol). Hopefully all of this works out… this has me super worried and stressed!
Killer grades aren’t unusual. What are your SAT and ACT scores?
You mentioned paying FAFSA fees. The FAFSA is FREE to file, if you are using a website that charges a fee, you are in the wrong place.
The most you can borrow freshman year is $5500 from filing the FAFSA.
@Madison85
So the rest of the money i would have to get other loans to pay off?
Cindy…if you have a $0 EFC, you will get a $5730 Pell Grant. You will be able to take $5500 in Direct Loans. It is possible that you might receive some additional need based aid from some college. You will have to wait and see.
Any amount not covered in your eventual financial aid award will need to be paid by your family…or the school will not be one you can attend.
Students here face the same issues. Many choose lower cost options, go to community college, commute from home, go to college part time and work full time, etc.
Did you take the ACT or SAT? What were your scores? What is your GPA?
You can’t just take a bunch of student loans… YOU can only borrow $5500. It sounds like your parents arent’ citizens, so they wouldn’t be able to borrow or cosign loans here…which are a bad idea anyway.
I’m not sure if you will be instate for any state. If not that will be a problem.
in what state did you go to high school? NY? . If so, maybe you’d get instate rates, but not sure if you’d get TAP w/o being a resident.
im gunna be a resident once again because i will be living there once again, and im a US Citizen. And i went to HS in NY.
@mom2collegekids
No…you will not be a resident there…unless your parents are planning to move back to NY as well. AND in most cases, you will be required…with your parents…to reside in the state for 12 months prior to enrolling in college.
And you didn’t graduate from HS in NY. Did you complete three years of HS in NY…no.
For undergraduates…in the VERY VAST majority of cases, their place of residence is where their PARENTS reside.
So…if your parent live in Ecuador, that will be considered YOUR place of residence for tuition purposes.
Some community colleges are more lenient…but the four year schools usually are not.
Good to know… 
- you should not be paying any fees to file the FAFSA. make sure that you are logged into and fill out the FAFSA.gov form NOT fafsa.com (which will charge you a fee)
Some of the challenges that OP will have is as follows:
Because OP does not live in NYS and has not graduated from HS in NYS, she will not be eligible for instate tuition at SUNY or in city tuition at CUNY
Because her parents are not residing in NYS, she will not be eligible for TAP
She must file the FAFSA using both of her parents income if they are living together. IF they are not citizens/permanent residents, one of the parents must sign the signature page and mail it in to the federal processor.
Please be aware that FAFSA is just an application to see what you qualify in federal aid. Though colleges do use the info on FAFSA to make whatever financial aid awards they offer, there is not a school out there that guarantees to meet full need as defined by the FAFSA Expected Family Contribution (EFC). That EFC is calculated by formula, by raw numbers, and it doesn’t matter if your family can’t pay that amount or won’t. It’s usually the bare minimum that you will have to pay because you cannot start getting federal aid until you pay that EFC.
If you have family with whom you are going to be living in NY, you might be better off starting off as an unmatriculating student taking some part time courses and finding a job. If you do that for three years, you can get state residency, and even have some money saved up, some credits under your belt and then be able to get federal aid when you apply for a degree granting program. Otherwise, you need to find an affordable school at OOS rates, get scholarships, hopefuly get sufficient aid packages.
I am wondering if brother can become legal guardian. Also it may be worthwhile to take a gap year to work in NY and then establish ‘residency’ if this is possible - so you can be in-state with tuition at CC or 4 year schools. It seems @cptofthehouse has more info on being able to get state residency.
As anxious as you may be to start college, you want to have a financial plan in place that is affordable to finishing a degree. You do not want to have debt and no degree - very hard to pay off with lower income jobs.
No, I don’t have much knowledge about in state status for the SUNY schools, other than the fact that 3 consecutive years of NY residency will work. Don’t know if it has to be the parents or the student even. Sybbie would better know the ropes on this, and it could vary from school to school.
I know some local SUNYs (as well as a number of other state school in other states) that are very relaxed in OOS differentials for those who are taking courses without being a matriculating student. Many here enroll their au paars , for example, as residents for a course here and there at in state rates, even in county. Having the local address right then is all that seems to matter. But to become a matriculating student is a whole other issue, and to get federal aid, one has to be such a program and have that status, I believe.
One has to deal directly with whoever makes these determinations at the college/university for in state or not, in terms of getting that residency, and getting the exact scoop on what the rules are at any given school. They can vary from school to school even within the same state.
Unless she moves to the US as a minor, she can’t have someone else become her guardian. And I think the courts would have to be involved
In order for OP to get residency, she would have to attend HS in the US for at least 2 years and graduate from a NYS HS (CUNY pulls transcript directly from the NYC DOE). This has not happened. In order fro brother to obtain legal guardianship, it would have to happen in the NYS courts (most likely unlikely as Op would most likely already be 18 years old). While it would make OP independent for FAFSA, you are not fully independent for TAP until you are 35 years old (so she will still be ineligible because her parents do nto reside in NYS). If OP attends SUNY CC, she will still have to get a certificate of residency from the county treasurer (because the SUNY CC, gets money back from NYC)
sample of form here
http://www.clinton.edu/Bursar/Content-docs/dc/5171/gid/18/document.cml.