The Department of Education clearly defines which students attending school are dependent vs. independent. Typically, students who are independent qualify for better aid options because they are not required to list their parent’s income information on the FAFSA. When a dependent student becomes married, BYU-Idaho does allow the student to petition to change their marital status which ultimately changes a student from dependent to independent and may help the student receive a better federal award package. To determine if a student qualifies to change their marital status follow the directions below.
2018/2019 Academic Year: the deadline for students to change their marital status on the 2018/2019 FAFSA was January 31, 2019. Student are no longer eligible to update their marital status for 2018/2019.
2019/2020 Academic Year: students may only petition to change their marital status for the 2019/2020 school year if they were married by December 31, 2019. Any students married after December 31, 2019 will not qualify to change their marital status on the 2019/2020 FAFSA. Students who were married before December 31, 2019 and wish to change their 2019/2020 FAFSA must update their 2019/2020 FAFSA to reflect their change in marital status before January 31, 2020.
No student is required to update their marital status after submitting the FAFSA.
for any late fees or service charges incurred during that time.
Log into the FAFSA and view the Student Aid Report (SAR) from the “My FAFSA” page to determine the student’s Expected Family Contribution (EFC). If it is 0, the student is already receiving the maximum amount of Pell and is not eligible to change their marital status.
If the student’s EFC is greater than 0, the student should use the FAFSA4caster to determine if changing their marital status is actually in their best interest. If the FAFSA4caster predicts the student will receive a better award package than he/she currently has, the student should make the marital status change. Otherwise, the student should take no action.
Log into the originally submitted FAFSA using their FSA ID.
Select the “Student Demographics” tab and change the response from “I am single” to “I am married” and enter the month the student was married.
Change the household size and number in college to appropriately account for student and spouse.
Select the “Financial Information” tab and update the income information to reflect a combined income (student’s income + the spouse’s income for the appropriate tax year).
Use the name and Social Security Number found on the student’s current social security card. Unless students have changed their maiden name to their married name through the Social Security Administration more than 8 weeks ago, DO NOT USE THE MARRIED NAME ON THE FAFSA. Doing so WILL prevent the student from receiving their financial aid.
Sign and submit the FAFSA.
Once the student has updated their FAFSA, it will take approximately 3-5 business days for BYU-Idaho to receive the corrections and show on the student portal.
Students will be required to submit additional documents before BYU-Idaho can finish processing the marital status update. First a student income verification worksheet will be added to the student’s account. Once the income verification worksheet has been returned to the school, additional tax documents will be requested based upon the answers from the income verification worksheet. Students must check the financial aid student portal often and submit any documents requested, or any current and future federal financial aid awards will be cancelled, and the student may have to repay aid previously received.
Once all documents have been correctly submitted and processed students will see their financial aid awards update within 8 weeks.