Home Blog Am I Eligible for Financial Aid if My Parents are Undocumented?

Am I Eligible for Financial Aid if My Parents are Undocumented?

By Edvisors Network

November 1, 2018

Yes. To qualify for federal student aid, the student must be a legal U.S. citizen, permanent resident, or eligible noncitizen. It does not matter if the student’s parents are undocumented, under-documented, or foreign citizens.

Some tips to keep in mind when filing the FAFSA, if the student’s parents are undocumented:

When filing the FAFSA, enter 000-00-0000 as the social security number. Do not enter a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) or a stolen social security number. (This will create issues with the application, because those numbers will fail to data match with the Social Security Administration.)
Undocumented parents will not be eligible to use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool (IRS DRT), as they do not have valid social security numbers.
If the student’s FAFSA is selected for verification, the parents will be required to provide an IRS tax transcript by filing IRS Form 4506-T. Requesting an IRS tax transcript online will speed up the process.

Note: Photocopies of tax returns will not be accepted for the verification process for federal funds.

Students who are U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or eligible noncitizens are eligible for in-state tuition, regardless of the immigration status of their parents.

Note that undocumented students are not eligible for federal student aid. However, some states do extend in-state tuition to undocumented students who graduated from a high school in that state.