Prepare your tax return for the year immediately before the year in which you expect to begin graduate school. Your W-2 and 1099 forms from employers tell you how much you earned and how much you paid the government in taxes. You need this information to complete the FAFSA as an independent applicant. Simple state and federal tax returns can be filed online for free.
Create a FAFSA account on the federal website. You need a PIN, which you can get by visiting the Federal Student Aid PIN site. Commit your PIN to memory. You need it to complete your application for federal loans.
Submit your application for federal aid on the FAFSA website. The online application process will prompt you to elect to submit your parents' tax information in addition to your own. If you submit your parents' tax information, you will not be considered an independent applicant. If your parents claimed you as a dependent on their tax returns at any time in the previous two years, you cannot file an independent application for federal aid. If you are eligible because your parents have not claimed you as a dependent and do not financially support you, submit only your tax information, not your parents'.
Contact the FAFSA administrators if you have made an error in your application by choosing to submit your parents' tax information. Submitting your parents' tax information will be interpreted as communicating to the government that your parents will contribute to the cost of your graduate school education. If this is not the case, contact the FAFSA office by phone or via the website's Live Chat function for help.
Familiarize yourself with the requirements of your graduate school or program. Some graduate schools consider all applicants under a certain age dependents even if their FAFSA was submitted as an independent student. Contact your financial aid office for details.