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Another important tip: when you receive the contributor invitation and set up your FSA ID, be extremely careful with the personal information you enter. If there's even a slight mismatch between your information (name, DOB, SSN) and what's on file with the Social Security Administration, your identity verification will fail. This is one of the most common issues parents face with the new FAFSA process. If you have a hyphenated last name or use your middle name, be especially careful to enter your legal name exactly as it appears on your Social Security card.
Update: My daughter added me as a contributor yesterday evening, and I received the email invitation this morning! I've created my FSA ID and started working on the parent section. The IRS Data Retrieval Tool worked perfectly for importing our tax information - much easier than I expected. Thanks everyone for the guidance!
That's great news! Glad it worked smoothly. Make sure you save frequently as you go through the parent section - the system sometimes times out. Also, after you submit, keep an eye out for your family's Student Aid Index (SAI) calculation, which should be available in about 3-5 days. That's the number schools will use to determine her aid packages.
Great news! Glad you finally got your SAI. Did the number come in close to what you were expecting based on your financial situation?
update????? did u figure this out?? my nephew is having this same problem now and we're getting desperate!
Yes! We finally resolved it. Turned out it was two problems combined - I use Yahoo email (which was blocking the messages) AND my daughter had entered my phone number with a typo so the text verification wasn't coming through either. We used that Claimyr service someone mentioned above to actually get through to FSA, and they fixed it while we were on the phone. Got the invitation immediately after that and completed my portion. Her SAI calculation came through 2 days later.
why is the system so BROKEN every single year?? 🤬 my daughter had to apply for loans instead of grants because the fafsa wasn't processed in time last year. the whole system is designed to fail i swear
Last year was especially bad with the completely redesigned system. My son applied in October and didn't get his SAI until February! But they did eventually process everything and adjusted his aid package retroactively. Did your daughter follow up with her financial aid office? They can often make adjustments even after initial awards.
My twins both submitted FAFSA on the same day (Jan 3) and one had to resign but the other didnt. Makes no sense to me!! The financial aid office at State College told me it depends on what sections of the form had calculation errors. Like if you had certain types of income or family situations those were the ones affected by the system glitch. So maybe your sons form just didnt have any of the specific issues they fixed?
Update: Just got off the phone with the financial aid office at my son's top choice school. They said they're seeing many applications from early January that are proceeding normally without corrections! The advisor suggested we just keep monitoring the portal and emails, but that there's no need to worry if we haven't received correction notices. She also mentioned that even with the delays, they expect to have all financial aid packages ready by early April, which is plenty of time before the May 1 decision deadline. Feeling much better now!
That's excellent news! Thanks for sharing the update. It's helpful for others to know that some early applications are indeed processing normally.
Dallas Villalobos
this is y i HATE the new fafsa!!!! took me 6 tries to get it to accept my tax info and now its sending wierd emails?? what was wrong with the old system???
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Melina Haruko
•The old system wasn't perfect either. Remember when we had to use the Data Retrieval Tool and it would randomly reject your tax info? At least with the new system the SAI is supposed to be more transparent...when it works correctly 😑
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Pedro Sawyer
UPDATE: Finally got through to FSA this morning! Turns out there was a mismatch between the income I reported and what they pulled from my tax return, but for some reason it wasn't triggering the correction page on the website. The agent was able to fix it while I was on the phone. For anyone else dealing with this: definitely call and specifically ask about "hidden validation flags" like someone suggested above. Also, the Claimyr service actually worked great - I got connected to an agent in about 20 minutes instead of waiting on hold for hours.
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Mae Bennett
•thx for the update! gonna try calling tomorrow with your tips!!
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Beatrice Marshall
•Glad you got it resolved! This is definitely a systems issue they need to fix ASAP. For the 2025-2026 FAFSA cycle, they promised a "simpler process" but in some ways they've just created new complications.
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