<p>No time like the present to declare your residency. Where are your cars registered? Which address is listed on the tax return? Where are you (or parents) registered to vote?</p>
<p>People can have multiple residences, but you have to elect and declare ONE as the permanent residence for these purposes. If you are male, which address did you list when you registered for the draft?</p>
<p>If you are going to change your address, do it now. Get a new licenses with the new home listed. If you need in-state status, that may control where you elect to reside.</p>
<p>I agree that is it is a gray area. I think if I were in that situation, I would declare the owned home as the primary residence, not include it on FAFSA and treat it as such on PROFILE. That is a financial aid issue and my guess is that it won’t flag as an issue. My guess only. </p>
<p>When it comes to getting state residency, that can become an issue, and it would depend on how active a school is in defining, investigating and enforcing their residence rules I’ve seen situations where it has worked out just fine when there are dual residence like this particular situation, and even in situations where the custodial parent for FAFSA purposes is not living in the same state as the student is claiming for state residency because there is another parent living in the state of the school the student has chosen to attend. Some schools even have rules spelled out about that situation. But what one declares as the custodial parent on FAFSA does not seem to have to corelate to declaring the primary residence. Also, if there is an intent to move to the owned residence and a parent is living there, it can be said that the rental is temporary. </p>
<p>It appears that this is a non state school in the picture as PROFILE is in the picture. Frankly I would just fill out the form with the owned home as the primary residence and see how it flies. OP should be aware that it could be a sticking point. But if the OP reports the owned home as an investment asset, there is no window open for it to be considered any other way.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>i agree.</p>
<p>i think that people need to keep in mind that with intact families, there are no “tests” as to where the child lives (how many nights with one parent vs the other) in regards to FAFSA. Those tests are only for separated/divorced homes. </p>
<p>As for determining where the student is “instate” that’s going to depend on each state…it won’t depend on FAFSA.</p>
<p>Does either the FAFSA or Profile ask for the address of the primary home? I didn’t think so and if not, it seems that this situation will be transparent from the POV of the financial aid offices. The family seems perfectly justified in making a reasonable interpretation and considering the owned home to be their primary for the purpose of filling out the forms, and I don’t even see where any red flags would be raised or anything would look odd (for financial aid purposes).</p>