us living abroad

@flowercat12

You are not a resident of NY now. It doesn’t matter that you lived there some time in the past. You don’t live there now, so you are not a resident of NY state.

If you complete a bachelors degree, you would be wasting your time, and money going to a community college.

If you want to get a masters degree in the United States, AND you want instate status for tuition purposes at a public university to do so, you would need to come here and NOT attend college, and establish residency in whatever state. This takes a minimum of 12 months before you plan to start going to college here. Some places it takes longer.

Re: the FAFSA and Profile, you need to check the colleges for their financial aid application requirements. BUT, if this is a masters, you need to understand that there is not much need based aid here for masters programs. Masters funding is largely merit based, and is based on the strength of your application and the college’s desire to have you as a member of the graduate cohort. Aid comes in the form of scholarships, grants, fellowships, assistantships, sometimes work study, and…loans.

@sybbie719 can better address getting instate status for grad school in NY.