Tricky situation for financial aid. Any help would be appreciated.

<p>My mom and I are U.S permanent residents but my dad lives overseas and holds a korean citizenship. My mom makes around 70k and my dad makes 200k (translated to dollars) but the problem I have is that my dad isn't willing to pay for colleges at all. We also have no idea about any of his assets or what he does with his income. </p>

<p>So the problem I have is that I would technically have to report 270k as family income which would ruin my chances at any financial aid. What should I do??? Do I HAVE to report my dad's income? I have a sibling who will be attending college the year after and with the huge mortgage on our house, no financial aid would mean that my choices are reduced to local state colleges. </p>

<p>Thanks in advance and any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>

<p>If your parents are still a married couple despite the physical separation, yes you have to include your Dad’s income and assets on fafsa, profile or school’s own finaid forms. If your parents are maritally separated as well as physically, then for fafsa you don’t include your dad’s info. As for profile or a school’s own forms, it varies. Most will require non-custodial parent info, some not. Can you clarify your parents’ marital situation and how much contact you’ve had with your dad? Does he provide any support to your family in the US?</p>

<p>You need to read the paperwork for the FAFSA very carefully with your mother. She may qualify to be considered separated, in which case your dad’s income and assets don’t matter at all. If your father is completely estranged from the family, you might also be able to get a non-custodial parent waiver at some places that require the CSS Profile.</p>

<p>Your best bet right now, is to determine what your mother can pay, and then look for places that are affordable with that figure. This might limit your options to cheap home-state publics and places that would offer you significant merit-based aid.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the input everyone. I really appreciate it. To clarify, my parents are still married but dad doesn’t provide any support to my family in the US.</p>

<p>That didn’t fully clarify. Do your parents still consider themselves a married couple or are they estranged? Would they like to be living together again sometime in the future? Or, have they just not gone through the process of divorce? The other question was how much contact have you had with your Dad?</p>

<p>Does your dad not send any money simply because he thinks that the $70k your mom earns is enough to house and feed you?</p>

<p>Is your dad on the “huge mortgage”? </p>

<p>Even IF the parents are separated or estranged, for some schools, the father’s information will be required.</p>

<p>ETA:</p>

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<p>Most of the schools on this list require the CSS Profile, and most require the non-custodial parent form. SO…if your parents are estranged…your father would likely be required to complete the non-custodial parent form.</p>

<p>If schools are going to grant FA because one married high income parent refuses to pay, then what’s to stop any family from conveniently excluding the income of one married parent?</p>

<p>For FAFSA purposes, your mom probably qualifies as separated, even though she files taxes showing she as married. Colleges will probably ask questions to confirm that she and your father do not live together and that he is not supporting the family. There are a number of situations where definitions for IRS purposes do not match FAFSA definitions, and this is one.</p>

<p>However, for schools that require the Non-custodial profile, you have a problem.</p>

<p>Probably best to look at schools that either require only the FAFSA or that requre the Profile without requiring the Non-Custodial Profile, or that have generous merit aid for which you are likely to qualify.</p>

<p>@arabrab‌
No she doesn’t qualify…and supporting the family is not relevant to this situation (even if we may find it odd). As far as we know, the parents may think that the $70k the mom earns is enough to live on, and dad is investing his earnings for the family. </p>

<p>For FAFSA purposes, they are ONLY considered to be separated if the couple considers their marriage to be in trouble and therefore they are living in separate homes. They are NOT considered to be separated just because one spouse is living somewhere else and working. </p>

<p>The situation as described seems like informal separation, but perhaps I’m reading too much into, “We also have no idea about any of his assets or what he does with his income.” I agree that simple distance does not a marriage unmake, but this sounds like more than that. </p>

<p>^^ If they have no idea of his income or assets, it’s unlikely he is filing a US tax return or that the mother is filing as married.</p>

<p>@OP, does your mom file her taxes as " married filing jointly" or " married filing separately"?</p>

<p>For FAFSA purposes, if the mother is not filing as married on US returns and father is not filing at all, many fin aid offices would verify the FAFSA with the tax returns and leave it as that.</p>

<p>For those schools that require NCP financial information, the fact that Dad will not pay is not a consideration unless a NCP waiver is obtained. This is a situation in a lot of split households. My friend’s children did not get financial aid from any PROFILE schools, generous with fin aid for the most part, because their father had income and assets that precluded aid, even though he refused to pay for their college It was just too bad for them They went to state schools that used FAFSA only for fin aid, and still had a tough go of it, paying for the costs, since their mother did not have much money, and their father would not pay. Many students are in that situation.</p>

<p>In fact, those in intact famiiies can have the very same issue. One parent refused to pay, and the other doesn’t have enough to pay, though willing, and such students are not going to get financial aid based on just the willing parent’s financial situation. My BIL was just saying, he refused to pay for private college for his one son, because he did not feel it was worth the extra cost in those circumstances, and the financials were such that the kid was not eligible for financial aid. This is a very common situation.</p>

<p>^ I must agree with cptofthehouse. There is really no way for a school to take into consideration whether one (or both) parent(s) are <em>willing</em> to pay the costs, when determining FA, because any parents at all could then simply say they are unwilling to pay. </p>

<p>If your father has high income but refuses to pay for private school, the school cannot consider that evidence of “need” just because your parents happen to be separated/divorced. This is how the schools try to distinguish actual need from attempts to game the system.</p>