Can Cant I Upload My Green Card On Common App

If you've read any of our posts on the CollegeVine web log about the Common Application (including How to Write the Common Awarding Essays 2017-2018), you know that the Common App asks for a bully deal of information about every aspect of your life. Along with questions nearly your contact information — your postal address, phone number, email, and then on — you'll need to provide information about your citizenship condition.

For applicants who are citizens of the United States, answering these questions is usually fairly simple. However, if you're an applicant who is also legally considered an undocumented immigrant to the U.S., your situation is more complicated. You may be concerned about whether you'll be able to attend college in the U.Due south. at all, regardless of your academic qualifications and extracurricular achievements.

If you're an undocumented student, you're not alone. Each year, it's estimated that around 65,000 students like you graduate from loftier schools in the U.Due south., and enough of those students would like to attend college.

Legally speaking, there is no federal or country law preventing undocumented students from attending college in the U.S. Individual colleges and college systems (such as state college systems) are allowed to take their own policies prohibiting undocumented students from beingness admitted to their schools, but about colleges do not have policies of this nature.

When nearly colleges in the U.Southward. will admit undocumented students, why exercise colleges demand to know nigh your citizenship in the first place? We'll become over the answer to that question in greater detail below, but briefly, citizenship status can decide whether you lot're considered a domestic or an international student, which often has a large bear on upon what financial aid options you'll be eligible for. This is relevant both to the higher, in terms of awarding your financial assistance package, and to y'all, in terms of deciding whether you can afford to nourish a particular college.

As an undocumented loftier school educatee considering applying to college, you'll need to empathise the federal, country, and school-specific policies that will determine how your citizenship can touch on your application. Read on for an overview of how the issue of citizenship is addressed on the Common App, what data y'all'll need to provide on the Mutual App most your citizenship status, and how being an undocumented student might bear upon you lot in the realm of college admissions.

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

First of all, a few colleges do specifically prohibit undocumented students from attending every bit a matter of policy. Nonetheless, policies of that nature are quite uncommon, and they're just that — school policies — rather than state or federal laws. If you lot're worried about the practices of a college to which y'all'd like to utilize, ask the admissions office. (If divulging your citizenship status in this mode makes you uncomfortable, you lot can always call the admissions function and ask almost general policies without giving your proper name.)

Colleges are by and large not interested in making admissions decisions based directly upon citizenship, just they exercise accept reasons to be informed virtually your citizenship condition before they make an offering of admission. For the near office, these reasons take less to do with admissions and more to practice with how you lot'll pay for college.

In some cases, where you live can bear on how much you lot'll exist charged to attend college. Namely, at state schools, students who reside within that land typically pay less in tuition than students who come from out of state. Yet, different states differ in whether they allow undocumented students currently living in that state to access in-state tuition.

If you're an undocumented student because a state school, information technology's worth looking into your state'south regulations on this issue before depending upon in-state tuition. (You tin view some boosted contempo history on in-state tuition policies for undocumented students from the National Conference of State Legislators.)

Your citizenship status besides controls what kinds of fiscal aid you're eligible to receive. While non everyone needs help paying for higher, clearly, for those who practise, it tin be a very important factor in your college decision. In detail, your citizenship determines whether you'll be eligible for the fiscal aid programs offered directly by the federal authorities of the United States.

Federal student aid eligibility is adamant through the Gratuitous Application for Federal Student Assistance, better known as the FAFSA. This aid includes detail grants such as the Pell Grant, particular loans such as William D. Ford Federal Direct Loans, and the Federal Work-Report program. You can check out the U.Due south. Section of Didactics's Federal Pupil Aid website for more data about what does and doesn't count as federal educatee assist.

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

The lesser line is that in the electric current system, without a Social Security number, undocumented students have no way to fill out the FAFSA and therefore cannot employ for federal student assist. Colleges ask for your citizenship status on the Common App primarily to determine whether you lot'll be eligible for that federal fiscal help.

When information technology comes to financial aid from sources other than the federal regime, things become a bit more than complicated. Every bit an undocumented educatee, you may exist eligible for financial assist that comes directly from the country in which you lot reside, but policies vary. Y'all may besides be eligible for financial aid that comes directly from your college or from private sources. Nosotros'll discuss this in greater detail afterward in this post.

In case y'all're worried near reporting your undocumented status to colleges, proceed in heed that under the Federal Education and Privacy Act (FERPA), colleges are non permitted to disclose your citizenship status to anyone, including immigration regime. You should make full out your college applications accurately and honestly. If you don't, you risk having any acceptances rescinded when your college finds out — not because you're undocumented, but because you lot put down inaccurate information on your application.

Which citizenship condition practise I select?

When you're ready to enter your citizenship information into the Common App, you'll demand to log in, open up your Common App tab, navigate to the Profile section, and click on "Citizenship." (For more than background on how to use the Common App's online interface, cheque out the CollegeVine weblog postal service A User's Guide to the Common Application .)

One time you click on "Citizenship," you should see the post-obit question:

citizenship basic

First, you'll select your citizenship condition from the available options in the drib-downward card. Then you lot'll exist prompted to answer additional questions, depending on your response. Beneath, we'll get over what each of these options means.

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

It's important that you answer this question accurately. If for any reason y'all're unsure about your official citizenship status, you tin starting time by talking to your parents or guardians.

If I am an undocumented student, how do I make full out the Citizenship section?

Every bit nosotros indicated above, if y'all are an undocumented student, you will answer the first question in the Citizenship section past selecting "Other (Not-The states)" from the drop-downwards carte. In one case you do that, the screen will expect like this:

citizenship

Where the Common App asks you to "List Citizenship(southward)," choose the name(due south) of the country or countries of which you are a legal citizen. Choose "No" for the "Do you currently hold a valid U.South. Visa?" question.

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

Again, it'southward important this section exist filled out correctly, and then if you're at all unsure nearly your citizenship status, cheque your data before you fill out this grade.