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This article was co-authored by Felipe Corredor and by wikiHow staff writer, Hannah Madden. Felipe is a Senior College Admissions Consultant at American College Counselors with over seven years of experience. He specializes in helping clients from all around the world gain admission into America's top universities through private, one-on-one consulting. He helps guide clients through the entire college admissions process and perfect every aspect of their college applications. Felipe earned a Bachelor's Degree from the University of Chicago and recently received his MBA.
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If you’re applying to college in the United States, you’ve probably heard all about the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) form. To qualify for financial aid, you have to include your parent’s tax return from the previous year—but there are a few special circumstances where that’s not the case. Read through these frequently asked questions to see how you can submit your FAFSA form without your parents and receive the benefits you need to go to school.
How to Complete FAFSA without Your Parents: A Quick Guide
If you don’t have your parents’ tax information, choose one of the special circumstance options on the form. Check the list on the form to see if you qualify as an independent. If your parents don’t have a social security number, enter zeros. If they don’t file for taxes, select “Not going to file.”
Steps
How do I file FAFSA without my parent’s tax return?
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Select “I am unable to provide information about my parent(s).” You’ll see it when the FAFSA form asks you to fill out your information about your legal guardian(s). If you’re using the mystudentAID app, click on “learn more” to select this option.[1] -
Choose a special circumstance option. Read through all the info about special circumstances, then pick the one that pertains to your situation. If your parents are incarcerated, if you left home due to an abusive environment, if you don’t know where your parents are, or if you’re between the ages of 21 and 23 and you’re at-risk of being homeless, you can submit your FAFSA without a parent’s tax return.[2]- If you do submit your FAFSA form without a tax return, it won’t be fully processed. You need to talk to the financial aid office of the school you’re attending to figure out your next steps.
- If you don’t qualify for a special circumstance (if your parents just refuse to give you their tax information), you can still submit your FAFSA form. However, you won’t be eligible for federal aid, just subsidized loans.
How do undocumented parents fill out FAFSA?
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If your parents don’t have an SSN, enter all zeros into the field. Even if they have a Taxpayer ID Number, just enter zeros. Your parents won’t be able to make an FSA ID, so you’ll need to print out the last page of the FAFSA form, have them sign it, then mail it in.[4] -
If your parents don’t file taxes, select “Not going to file.” The FAFSA form will ask if your parents have filed or not. Once you select that, you can enter in information about how much your parents earned instead of specific tax form information.[5]
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References
- ↑ https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out/parent-info
- ↑ https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out/parent-info
- ↑ https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out/dependency
- ↑ https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out/parent-info
- ↑ https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out/parent-info
- ↑ https://studentaid.gov/apply-for-aid/fafsa/filling-out/dependency
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