[RO] Residency when Washington parent is deceased?

[Dan Bye]

Icky is right. This stinks.

My thinking is that this student doesn't qualify as a dependent of a WA-domiciled parent for a 2025 fall enrollment, since the parent domicile is supposed to be for the year immediately prior to enrollment. If the parent moved to Delaware in November, it would be easy to explain how and why one sibling qualified but this one doesn't. That it involves the parent passing away makes it feel like it should be different, but it isn't.

That said, if we approved someone for resident status for fall now and their situation were to change over the summer - WA parent moves to Delaware or passes away in August - we wouldn't roll back an approval made in good faith through our standard review process and based on documentation provided by the student in good faith (as long as they enrolled for fall and maintained continuous enrollment afterward). In this case, however, the student hasn't had a living, WA-domiciled parent while an active applicant, so they've never been an applicant and met the requirement for dependent residency. Again, it would feel different, though, if the parent had passed in November 2023,

I'd be looking for any possible whiff of an error from our side (e.g., did anyone tell them that they would qualify for resident status in the recruiting/admission process or in any communication that we sent regarding residency criteria prior to the parent's passing?). If there's university error that would disadvantage the student, there's room to look at an individual-level exception.

If there's no sign of wiggle room due to error/misinformation/miscommunication from the university's side, I'd reach out to our Admissions/Enrollment Management folks to see if there are any funding sources that are institutionally defined and have a little more leeway than state residency definitions do.

Dan Bye
WWU Registrar's Office
byec at wwu.edu<mailto:byec at wwu.edu> | 360.650.2019<tel:360-650-2019> | Registrar's  Website<http://www.wwu.edu/depts/registrar/>


From: RO <ro-bounces at lists.ctc.edu> On Behalf Of Alison Bazeley via RO
Sent: Friday, March 28, 2025 11:42 AM
To: ro at lists.ctc.edu
Subject: [RO] Residency when Washington parent is deceased?

Hello Residency friends,

I'd like to get your input on a question we received from a first year undergraduate applicant admitted for Autumn.

The applicant lived out of state with his mother, but wants to claim Washington residency based upon his father.  This applicant's father passed away in November 2024, two days prior to when the applicant submitted his UW application.  We routinely go through the process to verify the residency of students applying from outside of Washington who have one parent here, so this student is in the group being asked to verify.

There is some question as to whether we actually can verify the residency of this student, given that their parent is no longer living in Washington, will not have been living in Washington for the twelve months prior to when the student verifies their residency or attends UW, and is not able to participate in the verification process/sign the application/provide information.

On the flip side, not giving this applicant any consideration for residency doesn't fully pass the ick test for me.  I feel like we (or someone) has seen this situation before and there's guidance out there somewhere.

Further information:  The applicant has told us that his sister has attended UW for several years as a resident, based upon their father.  We wouldn't share materials or information between students because of FERPA, but we can see that this is true.  The sister verified her residency with our office in 2021, based upon her father.  Both her admission application and her residency application place dad here since the 1970s.  I can also find dad's obituary online, posts from his WA employer saying he'd worked there for years, etc.

One overarching concern is setting a precedent and drawing boundaries.  If we would accept this student as a resident based upon his late father's long-term residency, where would we draw the line?  Does it matter how recently the parent passed away?  How long they lived here?  What proof should we ask for in an application?  Etc.

Thanks for your insights!


ALISON BAZELEY
Residency Officer, Residence Classification Office
Office of the University Registrar, University of Washington - Seattle Campus
Please visit our website for more information on submission procedures and office hours.
http://registrar.washington.edu/students/residency/

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