What Do I Do If I Forgot To Register With Selective Service

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Everything Y'all Need to Know About Selective Service

By Gabriel Jimenez-Ekman

Reviewed by

Updated: June 10th, 2022

The federal financial assistance system mandates that all male students annals with the Selective Service before submitting the FAFSA. Many people are unaware of the Selective Service and its requirements before applying for fiscal aid. Here's our breakup of the Selective Service enrollment process. We'll go over what the Selective Service is, who must register, and what they are signing up for.

Related:What is this twelvemonth's FAFSA deadline?

What is the Selective Service System?

The Selective Service System is a federal database of people who are eligible to be drafted into the military. The police force mandates that every male male in the US enrolls in the database inside thirty days of turning xviii. However, there are no penalties for signing up late every bit long every bit you enroll earlier y'all plough 26.

The database is maintained to collect data on people who might be drafted if information technology becomes necessary. It collects contact data and demographics. The United states has not had a draft since 1972, but it's yet important to know what you are signing up for. Unfortunately, if y'all will require whatsoever financial aid, you lot don't have much of a pick.

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Who has to register for the Selective Service?

All male Americans are required to register for the Selective Service before they turn 26 years old. If y'all fail to register, you lot waive your right to a wide variety of privileges. These include federal financial aid, naturalization, federal jobs and task preparation, and other land and local government jobs.

Read more: When is this year's FAFSA borderline?

Rules for transgender students

The Selective Service enrollment requirement just applies to those who were assigned the male person sex at birth. Then, if you were assigned the female person sex activity at nascence and now identify equally male, you are not required to register. And if you were assigned the male sexual activity at nascence and at present identify as female person, you are required to register.

For more than details on how gender impacts Selective Services requirements, bank check out the Selective Service website.

What if I already turned 26 and oasis't registered?

Selective Service Exemptions

If you've already turned 26 and you lot haven't registered, in that location are a few pathways to regain financial aid eligibility. The showtime option is to prove that you were exempt from the requirement. This could be because you were medically unable to serve, enrolled in the military, or entered the US afterward turning 26. To prove this, you'll need to provide documentation of your get-go entry in the United States.

You lot may also exist eligible to regain your fiscal aid privileges if you were hospitalized, incarcerated, or institutionalized. If you have a disability that hospitalized or institutionalized you lot between ages 18 and 26, you may exist exempt.

Students who were not required to register can obtain a status information letter direct from Selective Service. This letter of the alphabet will reinstate all the privileges that were revoked by failing to enroll. It can exist obtained past calling or writing to the Selective Service System. Their phone number for SIL requests is 847-688-6888, and their address is:

Selective Service Organisation
ATTN: SIL
P.O. Box 94638
Palatine, IL 60094-4638

You can find more information about SIL appeals on the Selective Service website.

Willful and knowing

Some other pathway is to evidence that your failure to annals was not knowing and willful, every bit defined by 50 UsaC. 3811(m). If you can prove that you were unaware of the requirement, you may be able to regain eligibility for federal financial aid. This decision will be made by the US Department of Education rather than the Selective Service Organisation.

To prove that a pupil was knowing of their decision not to enroll, they must take been aware of the requirement. If y'all received mail from the Selective Service merely didn't reply, this indicates that you were knowing. Simply if you lived in some other country between ages 18 and 26, you may be eligible to regain your benefits.

If you served in the armed services but were discharged before you lot turned 26, you may be eligible to regain your benefits. Some soldiers were not informed that they needed to annals when they were discharged.

To prove that your failure to enroll was willful, information technology must be shown that it was done intentionally. If you were deemed mentally unfit to make this decision, y'all will not face the penalties of non-enrollment. This has a somewhat malleable definition, just records of institutionalization could support your case for exemption.

Related: How to complete this year'south FAFSA

Ofttimes asked questions

When do you have to annals for the Selective Service?

The police dictates that men should annals for the Selective Service within 30 days of their 18th birthday. However, there is a grace menses built-in that allows them to register whatever time before they turn 26 without penalty.

That being said, men who want to have advantage of certain benefits, including federal fiscal aid, must register with the service earlier receiving it. So, well-nigh higher-bound students in any sort of financial need accept to register in order to attend college.

What happens if you don't register for the Selective Service?

Although it is unclear how often this penalty is enforced, the technical consequences for failure to register with the Selective Service include a fine up to $250,000 and/or upward to five years of imprisonment. These would only become possibilities if a man turned 26 without enrolling and had no letter of the alphabet proving his exemption from the service.

Perhaps more than immediate a consequence for college-bound men is ineligibility for federal fiscal aid, including Pell Grants and Federal Direct Loans. Students do not have until they turn 26 to register if they promise to qualify for these programs.

What is the Selective Service portion of the FAFSA?

The Selective Service portion of the FAFSA requires that men over the age of xviii enroll in the Selective Service in club to receive federal financial aid, such equally Pell Grants, Federal Straight Loans, and more than. In this section, you'll agree to serve in the military should a draft occur, and provide information with which the authorities can contact you should the need arise.

Are you automatically registered in the Selective Service when you plow 18?

You are non automatically enrolled in the Selective Service on your 18th birthday. You'll have to enroll yourself. Many college-bound men enroll through the FAFSA, which provides a user-friendly selection to enroll. If you don't go to college, it'due south of import to remember to enroll before turning 26 in gild to avoid federal penalties down the line. You lot may lose lifetime eligibility for financial aid if y'all fail to register before this date.

How to write a letter explaining why I am not registered in the Selective Service?

Students who plough 26 without registering in the Selective Service lose eligibility for financial aid, but in certain circumstances, they tin regain eligibility. These include students who entered the country after turning 26, those who were medically unable to serve, those who were already enrolled in the military, those who were hospitalized, institutionalized, or incarcerated, or disabled.

If you lot have proof of any of these qualifying exemptions, you tin become in affect with the Selective Service to obtain an exemption letter. In that location are two means to do this; you can telephone call the function at 847-688-6888, or ship them a letter at: Selective Service System
ATTN: SIL
P.O. Box 94638
Palatine, IL 60094-4638