FAFSA family size question: Do we include my independent sister who lives with us?
I'm filling out the FAFSA for 2025-2026 and I'm confused about how to count family size. My sister (24) is considered independent for FAFSA purposes since she's over 23, has her own job, and files her own taxes. However, she still lives at home with us because of the crazy housing costs in our area. When answering the household size question for my parents' part of the FAFSA, should they include her in the count since she physically lives in our house? Or is she excluded because she's considered independent for financial aid purposes? My dad says include her, my mom says don't, and I'm just confused now. Thanks for any help!
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Dmitry Volkov
This is a common point of confusion! For FAFSA purposes, your parents should NOT include your independent sister in their household size, even though she physically lives with them. The household size question is specifically asking about who your parents financially support, not just who lives under their roof. Your parents should only include: 1. Themselves 2. You (the dependent student) 3. Any other children who receive more than 50% of their support from your parents 4. Other people who live with and receive more than 50% of their support from your parents Since your sister is independent, files her own taxes, and presumably supports herself financially (even while living at home), she wouldn't be counted in your parents' household size for FAFSA purposes.
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Sofia Martinez
•Thanks so much for the clear explanation! So just to double-check - even if my sister occasionally gets help from my parents (like they buy groceries for the whole house), she still wouldn't count as part of the household size because she's supporting herself financially overall? I just want to make sure we report this correctly and don't get flagged for verification.
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Ava Thompson
Had the EXACT same issue with my brother last year!! The FAFSA ppl told us that if someone is independent they DON'T count in your family size even if they live w/ you. Unless your parents provide MORE THAN HALF of her support costs (like if they pay her tuition or something) she's not in the count.
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CyberSiren
•This is correct. The key phrase here is "more than half of their support" - it's not about physical residence but financial dependency. Your sister would only be included if your parents provide more than 50% of her total financial support throughout the year.
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Miguel Alvarez
Wait, but what if the independent person living with you is a full-time student? Doesn't that change things for the FAFSA? I thought there was some special rule about that. My financial aid advisor told me something different last semester...
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Dmitry Volkov
•Great question! For FAFSA purposes, being a full-time student doesn't automatically change an independent person's status in your parents' household count. The key factor is still who provides more than half their financial support. You might be thinking of IRS tax rules, which have different definitions for dependents than FAFSA. For tax purposes, a full-time student under 24 can sometimes be claimed as a dependent even with higher income levels. But for FAFSA, it's strictly about the financial support test.
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Zainab Yusuf
Omg the FAFSA is SO CONFUSING!!! 😡 I put my older sister on our family size last year because she lives with us and we got FLAGGED FOR VERIFICATION and had to submit like 50 documents to prove everything and our aid was delayed for MONTHS. The whole system is designed to trip people up and deny aid IMO.
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Sofia Martinez
•Oh no, that sounds like a nightmare! I definitely want to avoid verification if possible. Did you eventually get it all sorted out? How long did the verification process take?
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Zainab Yusuf
•It took FOREVER. Like 2.5 months of back and forth with the financial aid office. They kept asking for more documents, then saying they didn't receive stuff we already sent. We finally got it resolved but I missed the priority deadline for institutional scholarships because of it. Complete disaster.
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Connor O'Reilly
We had this exact same situation with my independent daughter living at home while going to grad school. We made the mistake of including her in our household size on my son's FAFSA and got selected for verification. When I called Federal Student Aid, it took FOREVER to get through to anyone. I finally used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to get past the wait times and connected with an agent in about 8 minutes. They confirmed that we should NOT have included my daughter in the household size since she was filing as independent, even though she lived with us. The agent was super helpful and walked me through how to correct it. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ
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Sofia Martinez
•Thank you for sharing! I'll definitely keep that service in mind if we need to reach someone about our application. It's really helpful to hear from someone who had almost the exact same situation.
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Yara Khoury
•wait is this service legit? i've been trying to reach someone at FAFSA for literally 3 weeks about my verification issue
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Connor O'Reilly
•Yes, it's legitimate. It basically holds your place in line so you don't have to stay on the phone for hours. We were skeptical at first too, but after being on hold for 2+ hours multiple times with no success, we tried it and got through to an actual person who helped resolve our issue.
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CyberSiren
To give you the official answer: According to the Federal Student Aid Handbook, your parents should only include in their household size: 1. Your parents themselves 2. You (the dependent student) 3. Other children who receive more than 50% support from your parents 4. Other people who both live with AND receive more than 50% support from your parents The key point many miss is that for someone like your sister, BOTH conditions must be met - they must live there AND receive more than 50% support. If she's financially independent (pays most of her own bills, buys her own food generally, pays rent or would pay rent elsewhere), then she shouldn't be counted, even if she lives there. Incorrect household size is one of the top reasons FAFSA applications get flagged for verification, so it's good you're asking this question now!
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Sofia Martinez
•Thank you for the detailed answer! This makes it super clear. My sister definitely pays for most of her own expenses and even contributes to household bills sometimes, so based on this, we shouldn't include her in the count. I'll make sure my parents understand this when we fill out the FAFSA.
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Ava Thompson
btw has anyone filled out the new FAFSA yet? i heard they changed a bunch of questions for 2025-2026 and now im scared its gonna be even more confusing lol
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Dmitry Volkov
•Yes, they've simplified several areas of the FAFSA for 2025-2026, including some household questions. The good news is they've added more help text to clarify exactly who should be counted in household size. The system now asks more directly about who receives financial support rather than just who lives in the home. So this particular issue might actually be easier to answer correctly on the new form!
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Miguel Alvarez
When I was filling out my FAFSA last year, I just put down everyone who lived in our house including my older cousin who rents a room from us. My SAI came back super high and I got almost no aid. Now I'm wondering if that was part of the problem? Should I have not included my cousin?
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CyberSiren
•That could definitely have affected your aid eligibility. If your cousin pays rent and supports himself, he shouldn't have been included in your household size. Larger household sizes generally lead to more aid eligibility (all else being equal), but incorrectly including someone might have caused other calculation issues or potentially triggered verification. For your next FAFSA, I'd recommend only including people who meet the official support test. And if you think this significantly impacted your aid this year, you could contact your school's financial aid office about a professional judgment review based on the incorrect household size information.
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Sofia Martinez
Thanks everyone for the helpful responses! I feel much more confident about how to answer the household size question now. We will NOT include my sister in the household count since she's financially independent, even though she lives with us. I'm going to sit down with my parents this weekend to make sure we're all on the same page before completing the application. Really appreciate all the advice and personal experiences shared here!
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Elijah Jackson
You're making the right decision! Just to add one more helpful tip - when you're filling out the FAFSA, keep documentation handy that shows your sister's financial independence (like her tax returns, pay stubs, bank statements showing she pays her own bills). Even though you're answering correctly by not including her, if you do get selected for verification, having this documentation ready will make the process much smoother. Also, make sure your sister files her own FAFSA as an independent student if she's planning to go to school - her living situation won't affect her independent status for her own application. Good luck with your FAFSA!
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