Verification

If you are selected for verification, your eligibility for federal financial assistance for the 2023-2024 aid year cannot be finalized until this process has been completed. This means we will not award or disburse you any federal aid until you have completed the verification process and turned in all missing documents.

You will be notified by the Financial Aid Office at WVNCC, and advised of the documents or forms required to complete your Financial Aid.  It will also be available on your NOW account where you can see your received and missing documents.   Verification worksheets are available through your NOW account and the Financial Aid Forms webpage.   Once you are notified, you should return the forms as quickly as possible to avoid having your financial aid processing delayed.

The U.S. Department of Education has created verification tracking groups.  The groups are designated by a V1, V4, or V5 as shown on your Student Aid Report.  See below for specific requirements for each group.

Please be aware that you might be selected to complete the FAFSA Verification process, even though you completed your FAFSA using the IRS Data Retrieval Tool.

If you and/or your parent(s) did not and will not file federal income tax returns for the 2021 tax year, be sure that the ‘non-filer’ statement(s) on the 2023-2024 FAFSA Verification Worksheet is completed to indicate this. In addition, you and/or your parent(s) will be required to submit the 2023-24 Statement of Support form which is available on the Financial Aid Forms webpage and submit a 2021 IRS Verification of Non-filing Letter.

Documentation or written clarification other than the materials normally required is sometimes needed by the staff to complete the 2023-2024 FAFSA Verification process and/or finalize your eligibility for assistance. If this occurs, you will be notified about these requirements, which will also be listed at your NOW account.

How are you notified if there is a change to your Expected Family Contribution (EFC) and Title IV aid amount changes?

Once all required documents have been received, the Financial Aid Office will complete the verification process as quickly as possible.  If any corrections to your FAFSA are needed we will make that change on your behalf and that will result in you receiving a new Student Aid Report (SAR), usually by email. Your new SAR will show your current EFC after the verification which may or may not be different. In addition, if your EFC increases, the Financial Aid Office will send you an email indicating that your award has decreased.

No award is finalized until your verification is complete.  However if your aid is processed and you are selected for verification after your award has been completed, you will receive a new award notification on your NOW account and an email of any aid changes. 

Once the verification process is complete then your Financial Aid award will be finalized.

What we  are required to verify?

During Verification we may verify the following however this list is not intended to be the complete list and we may or may not verify each item and additional items not listed.

• Adjusted gross income
• U.S. income tax paid
• Untaxed portions of IRA distributions
• Untaxed portions of pensions
• IRA deductions and payments
• Tax-exempt interest income
• Education credits
• Household size
• Number in college
• High School Completion
• Identity and statement of educational purpose
• Unaccompanied Homeless Youth

Special Situations

• If you and/or your parents filed an amendment to their federal income tax must provide both an IRS Tax Return Transcript and an IRS Tax Account Transcript, or in lieu of these two items, an IRS Record of Account which includes the required information from both the IRS Tax Return Transcript and the IRS Tax Account Transcript. The Record of Account can only be requested using a paper IRS Form 4506-T and could take up to 30 days for IRS to process.
• Individuals who file a foreign income tax return must provide a signed copy of the foreign tax return and an English translation (if the return is not in English).
• Separated? If you or your parents are separated you must provide documentation showing you are separated. For more information see a financial aid representative.
• You may have to re-file your taxes or provide more documentation if we believe you have filed the wrong tax return or should have filed but did not. An example if is a dependent student’s married parents each filed “head of household” (which offers a greater tax deduction than filing as single or married).   We will question if this is accurate and may require one or both parents to re-file to complete the verification process.