My son has now gotten his second request from a school that says, “You were selected by the Department of Education to verify information for the FAFSA.” What they need is for him to go to the financial aid office with his photo ID to verify he is who he says he is. Thankfully the second school is offering him the ability to get a notarized form instead of showing up in person, but the first school insists he has to show in person. They are 1 1/2 hours away and so it’s not convenient to miss school/work to do so.
I’m wondering if this is common? Does anyone know what this is about? I do not remember doing anything like this for my daughter three years ago…
You can tell his FAFSA has been selected for verification as there should be an asterisk by the EFC on his FAFSA SAR.
He can contact the school and ask if they would also accept the notary option, tell him to make sure to speak with a director level or above. Because his FAFSA was selected for verification, he will have to prove who he is to all the schools he applied to. Some may also ask for other documents supporting other FAFSA info too.
Federal regulations allow students the option of using a notary for this purpose. While I understand schools wanting the student to appear in person, the reason that the notary option exists is because it’s not always possible. Call and ask to speak with a financial aid officer. Explain that you can’t appear in person to sign the form and ask for it to be sent to you with instructions for getting it notarized. If they tell you it’s not an option, ask to speak with a manager.
Mine has gotten it for almost every school. So frustrating. My question is- we had an error on ours and had to correct it. FAFSA recently corrected it and we have a new EFC. If the school gets the new SRA will we still be required to do the verification?
Once you are selected for verification during an award year, you will have to complete verification. The requirement will not go away, even if you make changes.
Notary should be allowed by all schools. That is the policy. It can happen when already in school too. We joked that my daughter won the lottery for next school year. She is already enrolled and attending her college. As such she was allowed to upload into her portal without notary but has to say hi on campus. Notary was allowed too but she lives on campus.
Yes, happened to us as well. It’s kind of funny as some schools have requested the ID verification and some have not. No idea why, probably just random but my D23 was born outside of the US so we speculated that maybe that was why.
If there is an issue with citizenship, such as the SSA doesn’t list the student as a citizen, the school has to see proof of citizenship such as a passport or certificate of citizenship/naturalization. They have to see the original documentation. Of course, DO NOT send the originals. Some will delay this requirement until the beginning of the term (and accept a copy just to process the FA) but cannot release the financial aid until they see the originals.
We’ve had final aid packages without ID verification. We don’t qualify for aid at most places but the FAFSA was required for some merit scholarships so we submitted it, that may be why.
Is showing the id part of all FAFSA verifications? Ours were flagged for verification and it said it want the IRS retrieval thing done. Which I tried multiple times to do in October and it wouldn’t work! But worked like a charm this time. So does that mean we’ll now get another email with the id request?
Students who are selected for verification by the Federal processor will be placed in one of three groups. The information required for each group is governed by regulations. Here are the verification tracking groups for 2023-24 and the information required for students in each group. V4 and V5 both require identity statement, but only V5 requires additional information (V5 is a combination of V1 and V4):
V1 Standard Verification Group
Tax Filers
Adjusted Gross Income
U.S. Income Tax Paid
Untaxed Portions of Individual Retirement Account (IRA) Distributions
Untaxed Portions of Pensions
IRA Deductions and Payments
Tax Exempt Interest Income
Education Tax Credits
Nontax Filers
Income Earned from Work
Tax Filers and Nontax Filers
Number of Household Members
Number of College
Tax Filers
Adjusted Gross Income
U.S. Income Tax Paid
Untaxed Portions of IRA Distributions
Untaxed Portions of Pensions
IRA Deductions and Payments
Tax Exempt Interest Income
Education Tax Credits
Schools are told which verification tracking group the student is in, and they will request appropriate documentation based on the assigned group.
Sometimes students are also flagged to provide documentation of citizenship or permanent residency status. This is separate from verification, and is not the same as the identity statement.
I can’t remember, TBH, but I don’t think so. Maybe someone here who was selected can tell us if there’s any language on the SAR that would indicate this.
@kelsmom thank you so much for the information. Should I be worried or is this random? I was honest to the best of my knowledge and think I completed things accurately. I wonder what would put us in this category.
Also could it impact any merit aid offered? We do not anticipate any need based aid.
So far we have only been asked for ID verification and nothing else from FAFSA that I am aware of. I need to log back in to verify that all is well I suppose?