A minor applicant is an applicant who is below 18 years of age and above the minimum age set by your institution. You can set the minimum age via Narmi Command, under Configurations > Institution Settings > Minimum Applicant Age (the default is 13). When applying, if the applicant's birth date is not eligible, an error appears and they will not be able to continue.
Your institution has 3 options for handling minor applicants:
Restrict all minors from applying – Set the minimum applicant age to 18 using the institution setting mentioned above.
Require all minor applicants to have a parent or guardian as a joint applicant – To do this, in Narmi Command, go to Configurations > Institution Settings and set Require Joint Applications for Minor Applicants to
true. Once set up, if a primary applicant is detected as a minor from the date of birth entered on the application, and the application does not have a joint applicant who is non-minor, the following message appears: “In order to proceed, please add a parent/guardian to this application.” If the application has a joint who is a non-minor, they can proceed with the application. In addition, we recommend your institution set up custom Alloy workflows to handle joint minor applicants, for example, using a "Minor" tag to automatically send applications to manual review.
Allow all minors to apply independently – If your institution does not want to require minor applicants to have a parent or guardian as a joint applicant, we recommend your institution set up custom Alloy workflows to have all applications for minors go through manual review, then have a staff member decision each application. In Alloy, a "Minor" tag can be created for all minor applicants or you can restrict minors to applying to only certain account types. For example, a workflow could be set up to approve applications with the "Minor" tag as long as it includes certain account types; otherwise, deny the application (or move to manual review).
If your institution requires custom workflows to handle minor applicants, Narmi and Alloy work together with your institution to set up these workflows during the implementation process. For more information, go to Alloy - Manual Reviews & Evaluations or contact your Narmi Relationship Manager.
What if the minor applicant does not have their own email address?
Each applicant on the Narmi platform must have a unique email address—this includes minor applicants. If the minor does not currently have their own email, there are two options available:
Create a new email address for the minor
Use a different email address owned by a parent or guardian
A parent or guardian may use an alternative email address they already own (such as a work or secondary personal account), or use an email address belonging to a spouse or partner.
This email must be different from the one the parent/guardian is using for their portion of the application.
The same email address cannot be used for both the parent/guardian and the minor applicant.