When Florida Gulf Coast University receives an electronic record of your application information; the Office of Financial Aid reviews your application to determine if the Federal Department of Education has randomly selected your file for a process called Verification. If selected, Florida Gulf Coast University will send you an e-mail instructing how to check your record in Gulfline. Your Gulfline account will indicate the documents you must provide to the Office of Financial Aid in order to determine your Financial Aid eligibility. As the number of students selected for Verification is large it generally takes about one month for the Office of Financial Aid to review and process the documents that have been submitted. The process could take longer if additional documents are needed. If inaccuracies are found in the review process, your FAFSA will be reprocessed with the correct information. The correction could change your expected family contribution (EFC), which could cause a change in your financial aid award. Financial aid applicants for the 2010-2011 award year, selected for verification, must complete the process by the deadline of September 27, 2011 (subject to change by the Department of Education) or 120 days after the last day of the student’s enrollment, whichever is earlier.

Note: If a student makes subsequent changes to their FAFSA, it is their responsibility to notify the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships immediately, since any change could affect their Financial Aid eligibility, and in some instances drastically increase or decrease their initial eligibility status.

Instructions

The Student Aid Report (SAR) received from the federal processor will indicate in the comments section if you are selected for verification. Once the Office of Financial Aid has received your FAFSA information the following forms will be requested through Gulfline:

1. Federal Verification Worksheet
2. Signed copy of parent's taxes (if the student is dependent)
3. Signed copy of spouse's taxes (if the student is independent and married)
4. Signed copy of student's taxes
5. W2’s (student & parent)

In addition, a statement of non-filer from IRS may be required if the student or parent did not file taxes. The form can be obtained by calling 1-800-TAX-1040. Additional documents may be requested once the initial review of the documents is completed. An e-mail will be sent to request additional documents.

If any changes are made to a student’s FAFSA application, the student will receive a new SAR report reflecting the new information.

Status Code Definitions

While your verification is being processed the progress can be seen on Gulfline, and the following details will show up.

 

Letter Code	Status	Description
N	Needed	The documents are required by the Department of Education to start the verification process.
I	In Progress	The required documents have been received. The documents will be reviewed and processed. Once the file is received from the Department of Education, the process can take up to a month to complete.
S	Sent	Additional documentation is needed. Additional documentation is required to clarify inconsistencies in the financial records. Forms and paperwork have been sent to the address on the Federal Verification Worksheet.
R	Received	The necessary documents have been received and processed.
C	Complete	All verification documents have been received and the process is complete.

Collection and use of Social Security numbers

In compliance with FL Statute 119.071(5), The Office of Financial Aid at Florida Gulf Coast University may collect social security numbers for the following reasons: 

-      For use in administering federal and state programs/loans, including verification of eligibility. These programs include, but are not limited to:  

• Financial Aid and other related loan programs; 
• Scholarship Programs, including Bright Futures.