| AwardYear: 1995-1996 ChapterNumber: 1 ChapterTitle: Basic Requirements Section: Verification Exclusions PageNumber: Due to certain unusual circumstances, a selected application may not have to be verified or is exempt from a portion of the verification requirements, as explained below. However, except in the case of the applicant's death, NONE OF THESE VERIFICATION EXCLUSIONS EXCUSE YOU FROM THE REQUIREMENT TO RESOLVE CONFLICTING DATA, as discussed earlier. Death--the applicant dies during the award year or before the deadline for completing verification Upon the death of a student whose application was selected for verification, you may cease verifying the application. In such a case, you CANNOT make any further disbursements on behalf of the applicant, except in the case of FWS funds already earned. You also CANNOT certify the applicant's Federal Stafford Loan or process Federal Stafford Loan proceeds for the applicant. (Funds already disbursed are not considered to be an overpayment.) Incarceration--the applicant is incarcerated A student's selected application does not have to be verified if the student is in jail or prison at the time verification is to be performed. Immigration Status--the applicant is a recent immigrant For the 1995-96 award year, a student's selected application does not have to be verified if the student is an immigrant who arrived in the United States during calendar years 1995 or 1996. Certain Spouse or Parent Status--spouse or parent(s) unavailable You are not required to verify spouse and/or parent information (or to obtain their signature(s) for verification purposes) if any of the following conditions apply: - the spouse or parent is deceased - the spouse or parent is mentally or physically incapacitated - the spouse or parent is residing in a country other than the United States and cannot be contacted by normal means*4* - the spouse or parent cannot be located because the address is unknown and cannot be obtained by the applicant*4* THIS EXCLUSION DOES NOT AFFECT ANY OTHER ASPECT OF REQUIRED VERIFICATION; THE SELECTED APPLICATION MUST STILL BE VERIFIED ACCORDING TO ALL OTHER REQUIREMENTS. (Further, if only one parent of a dependent student meets any of the above conditions, the other parent is still subject to all verification requirements.) You should document the basis for this exclusion in the student's file. Completed Verification--the application was verified at a previously attended school You are not required to verify the selected application of a student who completed verification for the current award year at another school, before transferring to your school. To document a student's eligibility for this exclusion, you must obtain a letter from the school that completed the verification. The letter must include: - a statement that the student's application data have been verified, - the transaction number of the verified application, and - if relevant, the reasons why the school was not required to recalculate the student's EFC (for example, the application errors may have been within the allowable tolerance). A financial aid transcript alone is NOT acceptable documentation for allowing an applicant this exclusion. Pacific Island Residency Status--the applicant is a resident/citizen of the former Trust Territories of the Pacific Islands You are not required to verify the selected application of a student who is either of the following: - a legal resident of Guam, American Samoa, or the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (to qualify for this exclusion, a dependent student's parents must also be legal residents of one of these territories), or - a citizen of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, or the Republic of Palau (to qualify for this exclusion, a dependent student's parents must also be citizens of one of these territories) To document the basis for this exclusion, you should note the applicable permanent mailing address(es) in the student's file. No Funds Disbursed--applicant does not receive student aid If an applicant will not receive federal student aid, for reasons other than his or her failure to complete verification, you are not required to complete verification. This includes students who are ineligible for federal student aid, students who withdraw without receiving aid, and students who for any other reason do not receive aid. *1* Verification is not required for Direct Unsubsidized Loans, unsubsidized Federal Stafford Loans, Direct PLUS Loans, Federal PLUS Loans, or Federal Stafford Loans received for study at eligible foreign schools. *2* The State Student Incentive Grant (SSIG) Program is not covered by verification requirements, unless an applicants state grant contains federal funds. *3* A FAFSA processor may also send its own nonfederal output document, produced as part of its proprietary services, which contains official CPS data (such as the official EFC) that are passed through to the student and school. Schools may use this document to disburse federal student aid; however, for the Federal Pell Grant Program, the school must subsequently receive a federal output document (as described at the top of this page) to make a second disbursement and to avoid liability for funds already disbursed. (A FAFSA processor may also produce nonfederal output containing an ESTIMATED EFC, but this document is not official and cannot be used to disburse federal aid.) *4* For example, during Operation Desert Storm, this exclusion applied to an applicants spouse and/or parent if that spouse or parent had been deployed to the Persian Gulf. |