<p>Good day everyone! I have been browsing these threads for a few weeks now and have found them very informative. I am currently living in the Caribbean and I am hoping to gain entry into a tertiary institution in the USA for the fall of 2010. I have began assembling my application and writing essays and I am very excited about the application process, however I do have a problem. I am a US citizen (born in FL) and my mom is a green card holder. She had been living in the US up to the late 1990s but she lost her job and moved back to the Caribbean and started a business. Unfortunately, the business has not been very profitable, (well to be exact it hasn't been profitable at all) and she is up to her neck in debt. My father passed away on Christmas Eve last year and he was the main source of financing my education, for he was the one who has paid for it up until now. As such I am greatly in need of financial aid. I'm not the world's greatest student nor am I the world's worst student. I've managed to maintain decent grades and did well in my CSEC/O'Level exams. The problem is that my mom still has her green card even though she is living outside the US, and she has not been filing her taxes. Would it be wise if I apply for FAFSA considering that my mom hasn't been paying taxes and is living outside the illegally? Would the government find out through my FAFSA application and revoke her permanent resident status? Would it be wise to just apply as an international student (as a means of saving my mom's permanent resident status) and hope for good financial aid from private colleges? I also have two younger siblings. Thanks for your response in advance</p>
<p>How long has your Mom lived outside the US without returning? I am a green card holder and I think she has probably already lost her permanent resident status if she has been gone from the US for an extended period of time and has not done anything to maintain that status. From
[USCIS</a> - Now That You Are A Permanent Resident](<a href=“http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=fe17e6b0eb13d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD&vgnextchannel=4f719c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD]USCIS”>http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis/menuitem.5af9bb95919f35e66f614176543f6d1a/?vgnextoid=fe17e6b0eb13d010VgnVCM10000048f3d6a1RCRD&vgnextchannel=4f719c7755cb9010VgnVCM10000045f3d6a1RCRD)</p>
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<p>If you are a US citizen you are still eligible to file FAFSA.</p>
<p>swimcatsmom, we travel to the US at least once a year, and we always join the returning citizen line at the airport (most recent trip to the US was December 2008). FAFSA asks for the income tax returns documents for the previous year, and like I said she doesn’t pay taxes.</p>
<p>Unless there’s some special rule for green card holders, it doesn’t sound like she met the income requirements that make filing necessary! Any thoughts on this, swimcatsmom?</p>
<p>In any case, “will not file”, or something to that effect, is one of the FAFSA choices.</p>
<p>Cut and pasted from the information above:</p>
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<p>owlice, it does seem that she has failed to meet to criteria to maintain permanent resident status, however, it has not been revoked since (as i said before) we always join the returning citizens line at the airport and we go through the immigration officer with the occasional questions “Mam, how long have you been outside the US?” and give the usual answers “3 months”. Also, they always take her green card and punch something into the computer.</p>
<p>Start with FAQs for Foreign Income at <a href=“http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq13-3.html[/url]”>http://www.irs.gov/faqs/faq13-3.html</a> Chances are she didn’t have a high enough income to actually have to pay US taxes, so getting straight with the IRS shouldn’t be all that hard. She just needs to file the paperwork for the missing years and show that she doesn’t owe anything. When she does this, she needs to be careful ab to demonstrate that she qualifies for the foreign income exemption due to the “physical presence test” rather than to the “residence test”. If she claims the “residence test”, she is telling the IRS that she has moved there permanently and this will mess up her status with immigration.</p>
<p>If she was living abroad on April 15, she has an automatic extension of the date by which she needs to file her taxes, so she’s still in the clear for 2008. I can’t link to [Internal</a> Revenue Service](<a href=“http://www.irs.gov%5DInternal”>http://www.irs.gov) tonight or I’d include the links for all of the forms she needs.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>i do have another question. I have a grandmother who lives in FL. My mom was saying that i could go and live with her for a year before going college, and have her claim me as a dependent on her income when she is filing taxes, and maybe i could enter her (my grandmother) info when applying for FAFSA. Can i actually do something like that?</p>
<p>No, you cannot do something like that. Your mother must be used for FAFSA unless your grandmother legally adopts you and your mother relinquishes all parental rights.</p>
<p>What you can to do is to move in with your grandmother and get a job in Florida. This would allow you to establish your domestic residence there for voting, drivers’ license, and eventually, in-state tuition and fees. In Maryland, the community colleges require three months residence for in-state tuition and fees, and the public universities require twelve months. You will need to investigate the specific policies in Florida.</p>
<p>If you have not yet graduated from high school, moving in with your grandmother now would allow you to finish your secondary education in the US. Depending on her school district, this might be a better choice for you than paying (I presume) private school fees where you live now. Of course there would be other implications (she might need legal guardianship, and you would have to figure out how to pay for your living expenses, etc.) but you may want to consider this.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
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<p>I was wondering about the address thing too! Afaik, you shouldn’t apply as an international when you’re a US citizen. Fin aid for internationals is very limited to nonexistent at many schools. I don’t think there is any reason the college would notify any immigration type offices if you have an outside address…they’d probably assume you were an expat. But it would be easier if you had a US address, and a state of residence. Perhaps FL would also be able to help you with student aid if you maintained residency with your grandmother. But your mom still needs to fix her tax thing before she loses her green card over it!</p>
<p>happymomof1, completing my secondary education in the US isn’t really an option for me. It’s probably cheaper for me to complete where I am. Also, I’ll think about moving to the US and trying to get a job, though with the recession I’m not so sure how eventful that will be. Thanks everyone for your advice I’ll look into it</p>
<p>bacchanal, Florida does offer excellent scholarship and grant programs, including full tuition, that you may want to look into before you dismiss the idea. I’m not familiar with all the details, but I’m sure someone here on CC is an expert! Here’s a link to Bright Futures - you can see the others by clicking the Programs tab at the top of the page:
[Florida</a> Student Scholarship and Grant Programs](<a href=“http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/SSFAD/factsheets/BF.htm]Florida”>http://www.floridastudentfinancialaid.org/SSFAD/factsheets/BF.htm)</p>
<p>sk8rmom, I’ve already finished my junior year in high school and I’m not sure how to go about transferring to another secondary institution overseas, especially in time for this September. Also the variation in the education system may also be a bit complicated. In my region, i have already graduated from high school. We do 5 years compulsory secondary education and then take O’Levels at the end of the 5 years. Then, there is an optional 2 years, at the end of which you take A’Levels. I have already taken the first component of my A’Level exams. Transferring to a high school in FL would impose difficulties I’m not ready to deal with.</p>
<p>okay, I’ve done some thinking and I am considering finishing high school in the usa. If I start putting the necessary things in place now, is it possible for me to get into a high school by september? Also what kind of high school should I be looking at (public/private/boarding)? I won’t be able to afford private school tuition but i do see that some schools offer fin aid. I haven’t spoken with my mother yet I just wanna look at my options first.</p>
<p>Since you have family in the US, the cheapest way to go to HS would be simply to move in with one of them and attend the local public school. The local public school HAS TO take you. It is the law. While you can’t necessarily arrive on Monday and start classes on Tuesday, it shouldn’t take you very long to be enrolled.</p>
<p>If you are going to be living with a relative, you might want to have that person be given legal guardianship, but that isn’t strictly necessary.</p>
<p>There may also be fairly economical private schools that you could attend while living with your relatives. Generally speaking, Catholic parish schools are pretty cheap. However, private schools may have admissions requirements for you to fulfill.</p>
<p>Depending on where your relatives live, there may be more than one public school that would be an option for you (some have special programs). You need to google “public school district CityX” to start your research.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I have submitted an application to a magnet program in the county my grandmother lives in. I am wondering if changing my high school for my junior & senior year would affect college my application negatively. Spending one year at a new high school before applying to college won’t land me any positions of responsibility (EC wise) and I’ll probably have limited community involvement by time I apply to college, since I’ll first have to get to know the community before I can get involved. Will colleges take these things into consideration when reviewing my application?</p>
<p>For many juniors and seniors, a part time job is a significant EC. Also, there are undoubtedly many clubs and organizations through the school which would welcome you and help you to make friends more quickly. If you’re athletic, try out for a team. I don’t think you need alot of different EC’s - one or two should be fine. For many schools, EC’s are not a huge component of admission decisions, they just help to fill in the “who you are” picture.</p>