The Department of Education selects approximately 30% of students who complete the FAFSA for verification. Verification is a process where the school confirms the data reported on the FAFSA is accurate. Students selected for verification will receive notification from the Department of Education on their Student Aid Report (SAR), a letter or an email from the Financial Aid Office, and the required documents will appear on the To Do List in WINS. The type of documents a student is required to submit will vary for each student. Check with the Financial Aid Office if you are not sure what documents to submit. We do not recommend submitting documents via email if those documents contain personal information (social security number, date of birth). Documents can be submitted in the following ways:
There are strict deadlines, so the verification process must be completed in a timely manner. Failure to complete verification requirements by the deadlines may prevent you from receiving a financial aid award for that aid year.
It is recommended that you submit all verification documents by the priority date of January 1 - for the 2023-2024 academic year, the priority date is January 1, 2023. If you are unable to submit documents by January 1, please submit as soon as possible.
For most financial aid programs, including Federal Direct Loans, verification documents must be submitted no later than two weeks prior to the last day of the term or your last day of attendance for that term, whichever is earlier, in order to receive aid.
For a Federal Pell Grant, verification documents must be submitted no later than 120 days after the last day of attendance or the final deadline for the academic year, whichever is earlier:
Students and parents of dependent students who utilize the IRS Data Retrieval tool while completing the FAFSA could reduce the number of documents required. This tool transfers tax data directly from the IRS. Taxes should already be completed by the time the FAFSA is filed. If a tax extension was requested, the data retrieval should be available 2-3 weeks after filing taxes electronically. Here's how it works:
If you do not utilize the IRS Data Retrieval during the initial filing of the FAFSA, you can update this information at a later date by going back to fafsa.gov, logging in, and clicking Make Corrections to a Processed FAFSA.
Need Help Getting the Right Documents?
When the Financial Aid Office requests documents, it is important to submit these documents in a timely manner. Any documents which are incomplete or illegible will be returned to the student. If our office needs additional information after reviewing the documents, an email or letter will be sent to the student.
All worksheets are available in our online forms section. Check the To Do list or the communication from the Financial Aid Office to determine which worksheets you need to submit. Be sure you are downloading worksheets for the correct aid year.
Note: The Department of Education has indicated that we may waive this letter in certain circumstances. If you attempt to obtain this letter and are unable to do so, please be sure to indicate this on the addendum on the back of the Non-Filing Worksheet. Any questions, contact your Financial Aid Administrator.
The IRS Verification of Nonfiling Letter is required for independent students and parents of dependent students. It is not required for dependent students.
Note: You must have a credit card, mortgage loan, home equity loan, or auto loan in order to verify your identity and obtain IRS data online.
The Financial Aid Office must collect tax return transcripts for anyone selected for verification who did not use the IRS Data Retrieval or if an update to the FAFSA invalidated the transferred data. We are unable to accept a copy of the tax return in place of a tax transcript. The IRS will provide a tax return transcript free for any tax filer. You can order a transcript to be mailed or call 1-800-908-9946. Be sure to order a Return Transcript. If you need to speak to a person at the IRS, call 1-800-829-1040; however you cannot order transcripts using this phone number.
Note: You must have a credit card, mortgage loan, home equity loan, or auto loan in order to verify your identity and obtain IRS data online.
If you are struggling with obtaining IRS data, contact the Financial Aid Office to schedule an appointment with your administrator.
If you have submitted an amended return to the IRS, please send the Financial Aid Office a signed copy of the amended return (1040X form). If you did not file an amended return, but the Financial Aid Office requests a 1040X form, please submit a Record of Account Transcript from the IRS. These are requested when you utilize the IRS Data Retrieval Tool and the IRS flags the record as amended. You can obtain the Record of Account Transcript by using the Get Transcript Online process or submitting a 4506-T form to the IRS. The Record of Account indicates if the IRS amended a data field on your tax return.
If you have been the victim of identity theft and you cannot obtain tax transcripts, you must provide the following documents:
If you did not save a copy of your W-2 form(s), you can contact your employer(s) for copies. You can also obtain a copy by submitting the 4506-T Form to the IRS. You only need to submit W-2s if they are requested.