Changes in Your Personal Situation

If you’re a dependent student who married/will marry after submitting the FAFSA, you can update your marital status on FAFSA to better reflect your ability to pay. If you are married after you filed the FAFSA (but before August 1) the Financial Aid Office will allow you to make a correction to your FAFSA.

Reminder: Before Changing the Marital Status

• No student is required to update their marital status on a FAFSA submitted prior to their marriage date
• Students must wait until AFTER they are married to update their marital status
• Students who choose to update their marital status may be responsible for any late fees or service charges incurred during the processing time, specifically when they make the update after the FAFSA priority deadlines

Information students should have ready to submit when changing their marital status

• A copy of your marriage certificate that shows your date of marriage BEFORE August 1 PRIOR to the academic year
• Student and spouse W-2s
• Student and spouse IRS Tax Return Transcripts or Verification of IRS Tax Non-filing
• Any document needed if student/spouse filed a foreign return or had foreign income
• Student and spouse IRS 1040 tax form, Schedule E and K-1 if owned business in respective tax year

Instructions for Dependent FAFSA Applicants Getting Married

Name changes: We recommend that you not change your name on the FAFSA yet (if you have legally changed your name) unless you have a Social Security card in your possession that has your new name on it.

What to change on your FAFSA

Follow these instructions carefully to avoid delays.

1. Update the financial section of your existing FAFSA:
   • Add both your and your spouse’s Adjusted Gross Incomes together and enter the new number in the Adjusted Gross Income field.
   • Do the same for taxes paid and exemptions.
   • Enter each of your individual earnings into the “Student” and “Spouse” field.
   • Combine cash, checking, and savings.
   • Review and change the “Additional Financial Information” section that asks about education credits, child support paid, earnings from work-study, and combat pay.
   • Combine and add untaxed income. Review all items, especially:
     • Money received or paid on your behalf (e.g., bills)
     • Housing, food, and other living allowances paid to members of the military, clergy, and others (missionaries, resident advisors, and graduate assistants) with housing benefits. This includes cash received as well as the cash value of these benefits.
   • Update the demographic section of your FAFSA:
     • Change the questions that ask if you are married, the date of your marital status change, and say “Yes” to the question asking if you were married at the time you first completed your FAFSA. You will receive an “error” pop-up window to make certain that you know there are inconsistencies with the marital status date and the date of your FAFSA. Continue with “Yes” as the answer.
     • Change the questions regarding the number of people in your household and how many household members are in college.
   • Officially sign and submit your corrections!
   • The student should email our office with their full name, UID, and to indicate that they updated their FAFSA due to getting married.

What to Expect after You Update Your FAFSA

Your updated FAFSA will be rejected by the federal processor, but that’s okay. We will watch for the new FAFSA transaction and will do a comparison of your financial aid eligibility before and after you made the changes. The counselor reviewing your FAFSA will consider several items, including, but not limited to:

• The timing of the change in relation to the academic year.
• The type and amount of financial aid you are eligible to receive before and after the change.
• Whether or not the changes address an inequity or reflect more accurately your ability to pay towards your educational expenses.
• If the counselor accepts the marital status change, the “rejected” status of the FAFSA will be fixed, and you’ll be notified by the federal processor that a correction has been made.

Dependency status is determined by the response to a series of questions on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and schools may update a student’s dependency status in limited situations. Also referred to as a Dependency Appeal, Illinois State University has the authority to update a student’s dependency status in highly extraordinary circumstances where there is a serious family problem beyond the control of the student. Potential situations that might merit a dependency override include abusive and/or unsafe family environment, abandonment, inability to locate parents, etc. If you have indicated an unusual circumstance on your FAFSA application our office has sent an email to your ILSTU email address regarding the next steps and required documentation needed for review of you situation.