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Office of Student Financial Aid

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Verification

Every year, federal regulations require all univerities to complete verification on a select number of their FAFSA applicants. The students are selected by either the US Department of Education or Iowa State University. Students chosen for verification must provide several documents as well as complete an Institutional Verification Form (IVF). These documents will be compared to what was submitted in the student's FAFSA, and any necessary corrections will be made.

Only students notified of the request for verification documents, through AccessPlus, email, or mail, are required to submit the following verification documents. Students should not submit the following documents if they were not notified of their selection for verification.

To determine the documents required for verification, the student must follow the instructions based on their dependency.

Verification of Vet Med Students

Forms Required

• Vet Med Institutional Verification Form (IVF)
• A signed copy of the student's federal income tax return
• A signed copy of the spouse's federal income tax return if married and filed separately
• A signed copy of the custodial parent's federal income tax return

Verification of Dependent Students

Forms Required

• Dependent Institutional Verification Form (IVF)
  * Complete the dependent form if you include parent information on the FAFSA
• A signed copy of the student's federal income tax return
• A signed copy of the custodial parent's federal income tax return

Verification of Independent Students

Forms Required

• Independent Institutional Verification Form (IVF)
• A signed copy of the student's federal income tax return
• A signed copy of the spouse's federal income tax return if married and filed separately

Procedure

PLEASE NOTE:

• All tax documents submitted should be from 2008 for the 09-10 FAFSA
• Accepted tax documents include:
  • Federal 1040
  • Federal 1040A
  • Federal 1040EZ
  • IRS tax return transcript (a free document from the IRS and can be requested by calling 1-800-829-1040)
  • Puerto Rican tax return
• E-file or Tax Extensions will not be accepted for verification
• State tax forms are not accepted for verification
• IRS tax summaries will not be accepted for verification
• All submitted tax forms must be signed
• If the student/parent/spouse was not required to file taxes under federal regulations, all W-2 forms and/or income statements (taxed and untaxed, including disability statements, Social Security benefits statements, etc.) should be submitted in place of the tax return
• Forms received by fax will not be processed if received with missing signatures, incomplete, or not legible. Please allow 3 business days prior to calling our office to follow up with any form that was faxed to our office

Checklist

• All information is legible, signed, and completely filled out
• Federal tax returns and/or income statements are from 2008 for the 09-10 FAFSA
• The student tax return is signed by the student
• The spouse tax return is signed by the spouse, if married and filed separately
• The parent tax return is signed by the parent
• The IVF is signed by the student
• The IVF is signed by the parent on the FAFSA
• The IVF is filled completely (2 pages)
• All worksheets in Section E of the IVF have a value entered

If the forms contain incomplete or missing information, there will be a delay of 3-4 weeks in processing the student's financial aid. The incomplete form will be returned for resubmission to:

• The student at the address on the IVF if the IVF or student tax return contains incomplete information
• The parent at the address on the parent tax return if the parent tax return contains incomplete information

Submission of Verification

When completed, the verification documents should be sent to ISU Office of Student Financial Aid in one of the following ways:

• Mail to:
  Office of Student Financial Aid
  0210 Beardshear Hall
  Ames, IA 50011-2028
• Fax to:
  (515) 294-3622
• Deliver to:
  Room 0210 Beardshear Hall

Follow-Up

After 3 business days, the student may log in to AccessPlus to check the receipt of the verification documents. One of the following messages will be displayed:

• "Send Requested Documents"
  One or more of the documents has not been received by the Office of Student Financial Aid, or one or more of the documents contains incomplete information and has been returned to the student via US Mail
• "Verification in Progress"
  All necessary documents have been received
• No message (blank)
  Verification is complete

Letters and emails will be sent to the student on an end-of-the-month basis beginning in April if any documents are unable to be processed.

Ames, IA 50011-2028, (515) 294-2223
Published by: Office of Student Financial Aid, financialaid@iastate.edu.
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