Free OSAP affidavit templates and helpful links at the end of the article. Click here to skip down to them!
Congratulations on being accepted to attend post-secondary education in Ontario! Education is expensive, but the Government of Ontario provides a financial assistance program consisting of loans and grants to students called OSAP, or the Ontario Student Assistance Program.
You can apply for OSAP at the website listed below. If you have questions about eligibility, you can also check directly with the Financial Aid Office at your post-secondary school.
To qualify for OSAP, you must fill out application forms and provide documentation to prove your income, as well as other information such as your marital status, parental status and Indigenous status. You can qualify for different financial benefits depending on your personal situation, but you need to prove to OSAP officials that you fit the categories that you claim to be a part of.
If you do not have the documents that OSAP requires as proof of your personal or financial information, you may need to provide them with an affidavit explaining the situation. For instance, if you are legally married, you can provide OSAP with a copy of your marriage certificate to prove your marital status, but if you are in a common law relationship, you will have to provide an affidavit confirming your relationship in order to qualify for benefits for students with a long-term partner.
An affidavit is a sworn statement signed in front of a Commissioner of Oaths or Notary Public, in which you state the facts about a situation and take an oath to swear or affirm that they are true.
Some of the situations where OSAP will accept an affidavit when you do not have other forms of proof include proving common law status, as discussed above, as well as claiming that you are a sole support parent, claiming that you are separated or divorced if you have no other documentation, or providing confirmation of Indigenous identity. You may also need to provide an affidavit to state that you have earned no income in the previous year or years.
