Pell Grant Question

[PanamaWX 9]

Hi All!

 

Here's the situation:

My spouse arrived on her K1 in November, 2021 and we were married a few days thereafter. Got a SSN shortly thereafter in January. Her AOS seems to be going well. Did biometrics in late January. All good.

 

Something to note: I was in grad school in 2020 and earned very little income. My mom served as a c-sponsor on the K1 and AOS. In 2021, I earned $80k, but didn't have that tax return when we did AOS.

She is applying for universities to start in the fall. We just filled out a FAFSA for her, and it only allows us to enter 2020 tax return/income information. There is option to use 2021 returns/income. Because of that, her expected family contribution was zero -- based on my super low income in 2020. As such, she would be eligible for Pell Grants (so says FAFSA). Googling seems to suggest that Pell Grants are not considered Public Charge, but it just feels odd to us. Obviously, there is nowhere in FAFSA to input the student's mother-in-laws income...

 

What's the move here? How do we at once get the most possible benefit without even skirting anything that would look like Public Charge?

 

Thanks for the help!

[iwannaplay54 985]

I have never seen Pell Grants defined as public charge, even the Trump admin did not include that in the list.