1Overview of the ISIR Verification Process

When the US Department of Education (ED) sends a student's Institutional Student Information Record (ISIR), it's evaluated to determine if the student is selected for verification and to which verification group they've been assigned.

ED selects students for verification and indicates this by adding the FAFSA Submission Summary (FSS) Comment Code (also known as a C-Code) to the ISIR.

FAFSA Summary Comment Code (C-Code) and Their Definition

FAFSA Summary Comment Code	Definition
Ind (C-Code 299)	Student independent from parents
Dep (C-Code 298)	Student dependent upon parents

ED also assigns selected students to one of the verification tracking groups.

US Department of Education's Verification Tracking Groups

Verification Tracking Group	Definition
V1	Standard Verification Tracking Group
V4	Custom Verification Tracking Group
V5	Aggregate Verification Tracking Group

The verification scenarios are grouped into 6 areas based on dependency and verification tracking groups.

The verification tracking groups broadly determine what documents are required for a student to clear verification. Verification requirements are further refined within each group based on dependency status, tax filing status, and other factors. Students may move from one group to another during the course of verification.

Requests for any required documents are triggered based on the appropriate logic for the student. Upon receipt of all required documents, additional review of the student's ISIR and document data determines if any more documentation or manual review is required before clearing verification.

Note: You'll frequently see documents labeled as Acceptable which indicates the actual system status of the requested document.

For additional information about verification, refer to Application and Verification Guide on the ED website.