Financially Dependent Students
Students who are financially dependent upon parents, legal guardians, or others (excepting spouses) must provide documentation to prove their parents/court-appointed legal guardians have established a bona fide domicile in the state of Washington. Documentation of financial dependence is also required. To be considered, students and parents/legal guardians must have a qualifying citizenship/immigration status to apply.
Please review items #1 and #2 of the Residency Requirements.
The Financially Dependent Residence Questionnaire requires information from both the student and their Washington resident parent/legal guardian. The student must initiate the residency review process by starting an application through the online portal and providing parent contact information. Once the student has submitted their portion of the application, the parent will receive a one-time link containing instructions to complete the parent section of the application and upload any necessary supporting documents. Please review the Materials Requirements for the Financially Dependent application and prepare the corresponding materials in advance, as the parent form and uploads must be completed within one session. Once the parent form has been submitted, any additional materials should be uploaded by the student.
- In cases of legal guardianship, documentation is required to verify the guardianship is court-appointed.
- Dependents of parents/legal guardians who are either divorced or legally separated may be classified as residents as long as the dependent student demonstrates financial dependence (claimed as a dependent exemption on income taxes for the most recent tax year or shows actual financial dependence) and at least one parent/legal guardian has established bona fide domicile in Washington state. This process requires documentation of:
- Bona fide legal domicile from the Washington resident parent/legal guardian and
- Taxes from the person who claimed the student or documentation of the significant financial support received by the student in the current and/or previous calendar year.
- The documentation of bona fide legal domicile will be of the parent/legal guardian signing the residency application (not a combination of documents between two parents/legal guardians).
Married students are to complete their residency application as a financially independent applicant unless they are significantly financially dependent on someone other than their spouse.