How to Fill Out and File Form AO 240: Federal Court Fee Waiver

To fill out Form AO 240, you disclose your income, cash and assets, monthly expenses, dependents, and debts across eight numbered questions, then sign under penalty of perjury and file the form with your complaint so a federal judge can decide whether requiring the $405 filing fee would leave you unable to cover basic needs. The form is a single page, available as a free download from the United States Courts website or on paper at any district court clerk’s office.

Gather Your Financial Records First

The form asks for specific numbers, and the judge compares what you write against whatever you attach. Guessing is what gets applications denied. Before you sit down with the form, pull together:

Recent pay stubs showing gross and take-home pay, or an employer letter confirming wages. If you are self-employed, your latest tax return or a profit-and-loss statement.
Award or verification letters for any Social Security, SSI, SNAP, unemployment, or other assistance you receive.
Checking and savings statements for the last two to three months.
Rent or mortgage statements, utility bills, insurance premiums, medical bills, and loan payment records.
Vehicle registration or title showing approximate value, property tax assessments for real estate, and any investment or retirement account statements.
Credit card statements, student loan balances, medical collection notices, and any court-ordered payment records such as child support.

Inconsistencies between what you write and what your documents show are the fastest route to a denial. Listing no income while a bank statement shows regular deposits is the classic example.

Working Through the Eight Questions

The questions follow a logical path: where your money comes from, what you have, what goes out, who depends on you, and what you owe. Answer every field. A blank looks like you skipped the question, not that the answer is zero. Write “N/A” or “None” where nothing applies.

Questions 1 and 2: Employment and Wages

Question 1 applies only if you are incarcerated. If you are not in custody, skip to Question 2, which asks for your employer’s name and address, your gross pay before deductions, your take-home pay after deductions, and how often you are paid — weekly, biweekly, or monthly.¹ If you are unemployed, write “unemployed” in the field.

Question 3: Other Income

This question lists six categories of non-wage income received during the past 12 months and asks you to check “Yes” or “No” for each: self-employment earnings, rent or investment income, pension or annuity payments, disability or workers’ compensation, gifts or inheritances, and any other source. For each “Yes,” write the amount.¹ Include everything, even small or irregular amounts. Courts treat omissions more harshly than low numbers.

Questions 4 and 5: Cash and Assets

Question 4 is the total money you currently have in cash, checking, and savings combined. Question 5 asks you to describe and estimate the value of anything else you own that has significant value: vehicles, real estate, stocks, bonds, jewelry, or artwork.¹ Equity matters more than sticker price. If you own a car worth $3,000 but owe $4,500 on the loan, note both numbers. If you own nothing of meaningful value, write “None.”

Question 6: Monthly Expenses

List your regular monthly costs for housing, transportation, utilities, loan payments, and anything else that recurs. Be specific. Write “$850 rent,” “$120 car insurance,” “$60 electric” rather than rounding everything into a lump sum. Medical costs are worth itemizing; recurring prescriptions or treatment copays show financial strain that a single rent figure does not.

Question 7: Dependents

Provide the name (initials only for anyone under 18), the relationship, and the amount you contribute to support each person who depends on you financially.¹ This is one of the most persuasive parts of the form. A $2,000 monthly income reads very differently when three children depend on it.

Question 8: Debts

Describe your outstanding financial obligations and identify who you owe: credit card balances, student loans, medical debt, back taxes, child support arrears. Combined with Question 6, this section shows the judge how much of your income is already spoken for.

Declaration and Signature

Below the eight questions is a declaration stating that the information you provided is true. You sign under penalty of perjury, which means a deliberately false statement can result in dismissal of your case and potential criminal consequences.¹ Date the form the same day you sign it.

Where and How to File It

File the completed AO 240 with the clerk of the district court where you are bringing your lawsuit, and submit it at the same time you file your complaint. Doing both together prevents the clerk from requiring the $405 fee up front. That $405 is a $350 statutory filing fee under 28 U.S.C. § 1914 plus a $55 administrative fee set by the Judicial Conference.²³

Most courts accept the application in person at the clerk’s window or by mail. Electronic filing through CM/ECF is standard for attorneys, but availability for self-represented filers varies by district. Call the clerk’s office before you visit to ask whether your district accepts electronic filings from pro se parties and whether it has local form requirements beyond the AO 240 itself. Attach your supporting financial documents to the application. The clerk performs an initial completeness check; if something obvious is missing, they may return it for correction rather than forward it to a judge.

Are You Using the Right Form?

The federal courts publish two versions of the fee-waiver application. The AO 240 is the “Short Form,” a single page with eight questions, and is the version most non-incarcerated filers use. The AO 239 is the “Long Form,” which requires considerably more detail, including your spouse’s income and employment history, itemized bank account balances, and money spent or expected to be spent on attorney fees.⁴ Prisoners are generally directed to the long form because it includes the required institutional account disclosures, and some districts prefer the long form for all filers. Check your court’s local rules or ask the clerk which version to use before you start.

What the Judge Is Looking For

The legal authority for fee waivers is 28 U.S.C. § 1915, which lets a federal court waive prepayment for anyone who submits an affidavit showing they cannot afford the fee.⁵ The judge’s question is whether paying $405 would leave you unable to cover basic needs like food, housing, and clothing for yourself and your dependents.

There is no single income cutoff in the statute. Many courts look to the Federal Poverty Guidelines published each year by the Department of Health and Human Services as a benchmark. For 2026, the poverty line for a single person in the 48 contiguous states is $15,960; for a family of four it is $33,000.⁶ Income at or below roughly 150 percent of those figures, about $23,940 for one person or $49,500 for a family of four, is often treated as a strong indicator of need. But the decision is discretionary. A judge also weighs liquid assets, debts, dependents, and monthly expenses. Someone earning slightly above that range but carrying heavy medical debt or supporting several children can still qualify.

What Happens After You File

A magistrate judge or district judge reviews the application and issues a written order. Turnaround varies with the court’s caseload; some judges rule within days, others take several weeks. During this period, your case is on hold: the defendant is not served, and no deadlines run against you.

An approved application waives both the filing fee and the administrative fee. It also triggers a procedural benefit: the court must order the U.S. Marshals Service to serve your summons and complaint on the defendant at no cost to you under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(c)(3).⁷ You do not need to hire a private process server or figure out how to serve the papers yourself.

A denial order typically states the judge’s reasons, often that your income or assets are too high, or that the form was incomplete. Most courts give you a window, commonly 21 to 30 days, to either pay the full filing fee or refile an amended application with better documentation. If you do neither, the case is dismissed. In practice, most people find it faster to fix whatever was wrong with the original application (adding a missing bank statement, clarifying an ambiguous income entry) and resubmit to the same court.

Some judges grant partial relief rather than a full waiver. If your income is above the poverty threshold but still modest, the court may order you to pay a reduced amount or spread payments over time. This is more common for filers who fall into a gray area: not destitute, but genuinely strained by the full $405.

What the Waiver Does Not Cover

An approved application waives the filing fee and gets your complaint served for free. It does not make the entire lawsuit cost-free. Costs that can still arise include transcript fees if proceedings need to be recorded, copying and postage for discovery documents, and expert witness fees if your case requires them.

A fee waiver also does not protect you from the other side’s costs if you lose. Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 54(d)(1), a prevailing party is generally entitled to recover its taxable costs, and IFP status does not exempt you from that rule. If you bring a lawsuit and lose, the court can order you to pay the defendant’s costs even though your own filing fee was waived. A fee waiver lowers the barrier to getting into court; it does not eliminate the financial risk of litigation.

1
United States Courts. AO 240 Application to Proceed in District Court Without Prepaying Fees or Costs
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1914 District Court Filing and Miscellaneous Fees
3
United States Courts. District Court Miscellaneous Fee Schedule
4
United States Courts. Application to Proceed in District Court Without Prepaying Fees or Costs (Long Form)
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 28 USC 1915 Proceedings in Forma Pauperis
6
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 2026 Poverty Guidelines
7
Legal Information Institute. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 4 Summons