Verification

Financial Aid Verification

The Department of Education randomly selects students who have completed the FAFSA for a process called verification. Therefore, if you are selected for verification, you were selected by the Department of Education, not SNU, but you must verify the requested information by turning in paperwork to the Student Financial Services Office at SNU.

  • If you are selected for verification

    • You may be required to verify information such as, but not limited to, income and taxes paid, number in household and in college, child support paid, SNAP, high school graduation, and identity.
    • The SNU Student Financial Services Office will notify you if you have been selected for verification once you have filed your FAFSA.
    • SNU has partnered with ProVerify as an approved third party servicer who assists SNU in collecting all documents required to complete the process for any student selected by the Department of Education for verification.
    • Some students may be contacted by SNU’s Student Financial Services Office directly to complete the verification process, such as students who have been selected for institutional verification or students federally selected for the custom or aggregate verification groups.
    • You are required to submit all requested forms and tax information (see below for recommendations) before you are awarded financial aid.
    • If verification is not completed by the first day of school or by a specified deadline, any federal aid, state aid, and institutional need-based aid, may be removed from your awards.
  • If you are required to provide tax information

    To submit the required tax information, you must have already filed your taxes. IRS tax information is usually available to retrieve via either option listed below two weeks after filing electronically or eight weeks after mailing unless you owe taxes. If you owe taxes, your tax information may not be available until after May. Those who have not
    completed their taxes and have been selected for verification may experience a delay in processing financial aid.

  • IRS Data Retrieval Tool

    For those who are selected for verification, SNU Financial Services recommends you use the IRS Data Retrieval Tool while completing your taxes. This allows you to link your FAFSA to the IRS so you can avoid manually entering in all tax information and streamline the verification process. If you have already submitted your FAFSA (and you have filed your taxes), you should be able to log into studentaid.gov and link your FAFSA to the IRS.

    Step-by-Step Guide for IRS Data Retrieval Tool Content

  • If the IRS Data Retrieval Tool is Not Available to You

    If the IRS Data Retrieval Tool is not available to you, you have another option to order a Tax Return Transcript from the IRS. (Please note: Submitting a transcript may result in delayed financial processing.) When requesting a Tax Return Transcript from the IRS, Student Financial Services recommends selecting the option that allows for you to print the Tax Return Transcript immediately. Either way, you will need to send the information to SNU.

    Step-by-Step Guide for Requesting a Tax Return Transcript

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Ready to Apply?

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