How to Upload Grren Card to Coalition Application

If you've read any of our posts on the CollegeVine blog nigh the Mutual Application (including How to Write the Common Application Essays 2017-2018), you know that the Common App asks for a great deal of information nigh every aspect of your life. Along with questions about your contact data — your postal accost, phone number, electronic mail, and so on — yous'll need to provide data about your citizenship status.

For applicants who are citizens of the Usa, answering these questions is usually fairly uncomplicated. However, if you're an bidder who is also legally considered an undocumented immigrant to the U.Southward., your situation is more complicated. You may exist concerned almost whether y'all'll be able to attend college in the U.S. at all, regardless of your academic qualifications and extracurricular achievements.

If you're an undocumented student, yous're not alone. Each yr, it'southward estimated that around 65,000 students like you lot graduate from high schools in the U.South., and plenty of those students would like to attend college.

Legally speaking, in that location is no federal or state law preventing undocumented students from attention higher in the U.Southward. Individual colleges and higher systems (such as land college systems) are immune to have their ain policies prohibiting undocumented students from beingness admitted to their schools, simply most colleges do not have policies of this nature.

When most colleges in the U.South. will acknowledge undocumented students, why do colleges need to know most your citizenship in the first place? Nosotros'll become over the answer to that question in greater item below, but briefly, citizenship status tin determine whether you're considered a domestic or an international pupil, which often has a large impact upon what fiscal aid options you'll exist eligible for. This is relevant both to the higher, in terms of application your financial assistance bundle, and to you, in terms of deciding whether you tin beget to attend a item higher.

Equally an undocumented loftier schoolhouse student considering applying to college, yous'll need to understand the federal, state, and school-specific policies that volition determine how your citizenship can affect your application. Read on for an overview of how the issue of citizenship is addressed on the Common App, what data you'll demand to provide on the Mutual App about your citizenship status, and how being an undocumented student might impact you in the realm of college admissions.

Why do colleges ask for my citizenship data on the Common App?

First of all, a few colleges practice specifically prohibit undocumented students from attending as a matter of policy. However, policies of that nature are quite uncommon, and they're just that — school policies — rather than state or federal laws. If you're worried well-nigh the practices of a higher to which you'd like to employ, ask the admissions office. (If divulging your citizenship condition in this way makes you lot uncomfortable, you can e'er call the admissions office and ask about full general policies without giving your name.)

Colleges are by and large non interested in making admissions decisions based directly upon citizenship, but they do have reasons to exist informed well-nigh your citizenship status earlier they brand an offer of access. For the most function, these reasons have less to practice with admissions and more to practise with how you'll pay for higher.

In some cases, where y'all live tin affect how much you'll be charged to nourish college. Namely, at state schools, students who reside within that state typically pay less in tuition than students who come from out of state. However, unlike states differ in whether they let undocumented students currently living in that state to admission in-state tuition.

If yous're an undocumented educatee considering a state school, it's worth looking into your state's regulations on this issue before depending upon in-state tuition. (Y'all can view some boosted contempo history on in-state tuition policies for undocumented students from the National Briefing of Land Legislators.)

Your citizenship condition likewise controls what kinds of financial aid you're eligible to receive. While not anybody needs help paying for college, clearly, for those who practise, information technology can exist a very of import factor in your college decision. In particular, your citizenship determines whether you'll be eligible for the financial aid programs offered directly by the federal regime of the United States.

Federal educatee assist eligibility is determined through the Free Awarding for Federal Educatee Assist, meliorate known as the FAFSA. This aid includes particular grants such every bit the Pell Grant, particular loans such equally William D. Ford Federal Straight Loans, and the Federal Work-Study plan. You can bank check out the U.S. Department of Education's Federal Student Aid website for more information about what does and doesn't count as federal pupil aid.

In social club to fill out the FAFSA, you'll need to have been issued a Social Security number. Social Security numbers are assigned to U.S. citizens and to some eligible noncitizens, such as permanent residents who have a green card. Some undocumented students may have DACA condition , which refers to a particular federal immigration policy under which undocumented youths tin can receive a Social Security number. Students with DACA status can fill out the FAFSA.

The bottom line is that in the current system, without a Social Security number, undocumented students have no way to fill out the FAFSA and therefore cannot apply for federal student aid. Colleges ask for your citizenship status on the Common App primarily to make up one's mind whether you'll be eligible for that federal financial aid.

When it comes to financial aid from sources other than the federal regime, things get a bit more complicated. Every bit an undocumented student, you lot may exist eligible for fiscal assistance that comes directly from the state in which you reside, but policies vary. You may also be eligible for financial aid that comes direct from your college or from individual sources. We'll discuss this in greater particular afterward in this post.

In instance you're worried about reporting your undocumented status to colleges, continue in mind that under the Federal Education and Privacy Human activity (FERPA), colleges are not permitted to disclose your citizenship status to anyone, including immigration regime. You lot should fill up out your college applications accurately and honestly. If you don't, you chance having any acceptances rescinded when your college finds out — not because you're undocumented, merely because you put downwards inaccurate information on your application.

Which citizenship status practice I select?

When you lot're gear up to enter your citizenship information into the Mutual App, you'll need to log in, open up your Common App tab, navigate to the Profile section, and click on "Citizenship." (For more background on how to use the Common App'southward online interface, check out the CollegeVine blog post A User's Guide to the Common Application .)

Once you click on "Citizenship," you should see the following question:

Showtime, you'll select your citizenship status from the available options in the drib-downwards menu. And so yous'll be prompted to answer additional questions, depending on your response. Below, we'll get over what each of these options means.

• U.S. Denizen or U.Southward. National: Choose this option if you were born in the U.S., Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.Southward. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, or Swains Island; if you are a naturalized U.S. citizen; or if you were born abroad, but 1 or both of your parents is a U.S. citizen. If y'all cull this option, you'll exist prompted to provide your Social Security number.
• U.South. Dual Citizen: Choose this selection if you meet any of the weather to be a U.South citizen or U.South. national, every bit listed above, and you are a citizen of some other nation as well. (Atmospheric condition for citizenship will vary from land to country.) If you lot cull this choice, you lot'll be prompted to provide your Social Security number every bit well every bit your country or countries of citizenship.
• U.S. Permanent Resident: Cull this choice if you are not a U.S. citizen or a U.S. national, but you are a light-green card holder and legally allowed to reside in the U.S. If yous cull this option, you lot'll be prompted to respond boosted questions. Yous'll need to provide your Social Security number, your land or countries of citizenship, a copy of your greenish carte, your Alien Registration Number (ARN), and your ARN expiration date.
• U.S. Refugee or Asylee: Cull this option if you have been legally granted official refugee or asylee status by the U.S. (an asylee is a person who has requested or received aviary.) If y'all choose this option, you'll be prompted to provide your Social Security number and your country or countries of citizenship.
• Other (Non-U.S.): Choose this option if you lot are a citizen of a nation or nations not including the U.S., or if you are an undocumented student, including if you accept been granted DACA status. If yous cull this option, yous'll be prompted to reply additional questions. We'll go over how to answer these questions in the next section of this post.

It's important that you reply this question accurately. If for whatsoever reason yous're unsure virtually your official citizenship status, you can first by talking to your parents or guardians.

If I am an undocumented student, how exercise I fill out the Citizenship section?

As we indicated to a higher place, if you are an undocumented student, you volition answer the first question in the Citizenship section by selecting "Other (Non-US)" from the drib-down menu. Once you practice that, the screen volition wait like this:

Where the Common App asks you to "Listing Citizenship(s)," cull the name(s) of the country or countries of which you are a legal citizen. Choose "No" for the "Do you currently hold a valid U.S. Visa?" question.

The next question will ask you " If y'all intend to apply for a new or different U.Due south. Visa, please betoken that visa type." If this question applies to you lot, you can select an answer; otherwise, don't reply information technology.

Once again, it'due south important this department be filled out correctly, so if you're at all unsure about your citizenship status, check your information earlier you fill up out this course.

smithlinim1992.blogspot.com

Source: https://blog.collegevine.com/a-guide-to-the-citizenship-section-of-the-common-app-can-i-still-get-into-college-if-im-undocumented/

Share this post