WA State Financial Aid for Undocumented Students

Website:

Eligibility Requirements for WASFA can achieved into ways.

  1. Currently have a Social Security Number (SSN), Tax ID, Work Authorization, or hold Deferred Action for Child Arrival (DACA) status from the US Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) AND have lived in the state of Washington for at least one year prior to your enrollment in college.

OR

  1. Meet requirements for HB 1079 by having

●Graduated from a Washington high school, or have obtained a GED.

●And lived in Washington for three years prior to, and continuously since earning a high school diploma or the equivalent

To determine eligibility please visit

Required Information/Documents

●Tax information of student and parents, if student is dependent.

Notes:

●WASFA opens annually on January 1st.

●Application must be submitted before your college’s financial aid priority date(February 28th for UW)

●You should try to apply as soon as possible because financial aid is always on a first-come first-served basis

●Application is completely free of cost

●WASFA provides aid for up to 5 years of college

●Additional Resources for Undocumented Students -

Steps

Pre-App: Registration

· The application can be found at

· Click on “Start a New WASFA” and you will be prompted to the registration screen

· Answer a couple of screening questions to determine eligibility

Pre-App: Log in

If you have filled a WASFA in previous years, log into your existing account. You will be prompted to insert your user ID and password

· You will also be able to view the individual components for the application such as student information and parent information.

· The meter on the side will show you the progress you have made

Step 1: Identify Applicant

●Fill out basic information.

●If you have a SSN: input SSN

○Otherwise select “Student does not have a Social Security number”

Step 2: School Selection

●Select year in school for which you are requesting aid, i.e. select 2nd year undergrad if you are currently a 1st year undergrad at time of application.

●Select school that you will be attending. (WASFA - University of Washington for any of the UW campuses)

Step 3: Student Information

●Select “other” for student citizenship

Step 4: Student Annual Income and Expenses

●Enter your annual income. If you have not filed your taxes, enter the amount you made from the previous year, it is okay to come back and edit the numbers once your current taxes have been filed

●For questions that do not apply to you, enter 0

Step 5: Parent Annual Income and Expenses

●Enter household annual income. If parent taxes have not been filed, enter the amount made from the previous year, it is okay to come back and edit the numbers once your current taxes have been filed.

●Click on the “?” next to each question, it will provide you with a detailed explanation of what to enter from parent’s tax forms if you are unsure

●For questions that do not apply to your family, enter 0

Step 6: Additional School Specific Questions

●You only need to qualify for one of the two residency options:

○A: Have graduated or will graduate from a WA state high school

○B: Have obtained or will obtain a GED