I am an eligible U.S permanent resident and I have been accepted in several universities including UVA (University of Virginia) and UC Santa Barbara. For personal reasons I was not able to finish the FAFSA form and right now I am in a mental crisis. My family can manage to pay the fees but that would drain all their savings, which I obviously don’t want to happen. I don’t want to exhaust my parents and leave them financially broke just to take my education. At this point I am confused and I don’t know whether I should accept any university offers. What can I do in this situation? Is there any financial aid offered without requiring the FAFSA form?
Any suggestions and answers will be greatly appreciated, thank you!
Are you saying you didn’t complete the financial aid application forms? You know…UVA meets full need for all accepted students but you have to complete the applications…FAFSA and Profile…and you certainly have missed their deadlines.
Call UVA and see if you can submit NOW. Of course, you would need to be eligible for need based aid…and if your family can pay these costs…maybe you aren’t.
Forget UCSB. The UCs don’t give need based aid to out of state students…or are you a California resident?
Is there a deadline to file FAFSA? Cant you file it now?
I am an international students with permanent residence, FAFSA is not an option since it asks us to fill our tax return for 2017 when we have received our greencard in the beginning of 2018. For this reason I am looking for options that wont require the FAFSA form.
He can file the FAFSA now for consideration of federally funded need based aid.
BUT UVA is a Profile school. If he wants institutional need based aid from UVA…he also needs to complete the Profile.
At this point, your best bet is to contact the financial aid office at UVA to see if you can still get this submitttd, and considered ASAP.
And what th implications of doing it late will mean in terms of their awarding of need based aid.
I think you are wrong.
You are a permanent resident green card holder…now…right? That being the case, you can file a FAFSA. You will have to include your parent income from 2017, but that has nothing to do with your residency status NOW. You won’t be able to link to the IRS data retrieval tool…so your parents will need to get a non-filers statement which will be able to explain that they didn’t file a US tax return in 2017 because the didn’t work here then (if that is the case).
BUT University of Virginia also requires the CSS Profile. Why didn’t you do that.
ETA…every college has a process for international students to apply for aid IF that college gives international students aid. BUT at this point, you are no longer an international student IF you hold a green card…and it sounds like you all do! You all had your green cards well before when you even applied…right?
If you aren’t a California resident…ditch UCSB…as the UCs don’t give need based aid to out of state students.
Where do you currently reside?
Do you HAVE your green card in your hands? That is not clear.
This is what he wrote…
Why can’t you fill in the FASA etc (and profile). There can’t be anything “too personal” that stops you doing this. Administrative issues, certain tax and financial questions etc, usually can be addressed. If your family are refusing to fill them out then there is no aid. Do you have language barriers?
If you are having personal mental health issues, get those resolved. See if you can defer your college acceptances a year.
Yes, you may need to defer for a year. Ask about that.
Are you saying that you can’t fill out FAFSA because your parents won’t provide info?
Are you OOS for all states?
I took the OP’s reason for not completing the FAFSA to be that he didn’t have the tax info needed for 2017. I think he isn’t understanding that he can fill it out using income from 2017, no matter where earned (in US or another country) and that he needs to document that however he can.
You CAN complete the FAFSA even if you don’t have 2017 tax forms. If you can’t fill out the FAFSA, then you get no financial aid.
The OP needs to complete the FAFSA and Profile for UVA.
If he isn’t a resident of California, he isn’t going to get need based aid from the CA publics. And if he IS a resident, and qualified for the Calgrant…he missed the March 2 deadline for filing his FAFSA.
Maybe…but the words “for personal reason” sounded more dramatic, like family issues. But who knows.
Complete the FAFSA. It doesn’t matter whether you had a green card in 2017. Certainly you had some sort of income - enter that. For the rest (savings, PR number, etc) use information that is current when you complete the FAFSA.
DO SO NOW as there are deadlines.
What state are you a resident of?
And for UVA…complete the Profile…it’s required.
I would suggest contacting the college(s) to find out what the implications are for missing the financial aid deadlines they have posted.
Yes, the FAFSA can be completed now…for federally funded aid…Pell if you are eligible, and Direct Loans…but really, the sum total of those will not be enough to fund costs at UVA or UCSB…
And you are an out of state resident for at least one of these colleges.
You need to contact the places on your list, and find out what to do about the aid application now that you have your green card. Given your change of immigration status, it also is reasonable for you to ask for an extension of the reply date so that you can compare the corrected aid packages.
You also should consider taking a gap year. That will give your family time to settle in here in the US, sort out all the paperwork needed for the aid applications, and perhaps apply to an entirely new list. Your state residency status will depend on where your parents live. Presumably at least one of them will be moving here because at least one of them now has a green card with you. Talk with them. Is there a state where they would prefer to live?
The OP says they got their green card at the beginning of 2018…which would have been LONG before applications were sent to colleges…and long before the 2019-2020 financial aid forms were available for completion.
Since they have green cards and have had them for well over a year…one would also think they live here already.
Perhaps the OP can explain.
Oh @thumper ! You are so right! I noticed “beginning” and the year number just zipped by me! Clearly my reading skills aren’t what they should be. 
Sorry. I think I have created a misunderstanding here. So let me be clear, “personal reasons” I wrote that for the sake of concision and to make the question short, what I really meant is that me and my family didn’t really know how to fill the form out, since we have not filed the 2017 tax return because we received our green card in the beginning of 2018, so we used to choose the option “not going to file” and that would create errors since my parent’s income is higher than the required income to file a tax return. We are probably doing something wrong but that is because we are all new to this. “mental crisis”, sorry that was an over-exaggeration, I meant I am confused, not knowing what to exactly do. I currently live outside the U.S to complete my high-school education but we do have a green card and visit the U.S from now and then. @thumper1 could you tell me more about the non-filers statement. Thank y’all for taking the effort.