Update: I created my FSA ID last night and got verified this morning! Much faster than I expected. I was able to access the contributor section through the link in my email. The IRS Data Retrieval Tool worked perfectly and pulled all my tax info automatically. The whole process took about 30 minutes, mostly because I double-checked everything. My part is now complete and my son got a notification that my section is done. Thanks everyone for all your help and advice! This was way easier than I feared once I understood the process.

Congratulations on getting through it successfully! Your experience is really encouraging for other parents who are still navigating this process. It's reassuring to hear that once you understand the steps, it's actually pretty manageable. The separate FSA ID requirement definitely threw a lot of us off initially, but the security benefits make sense once you're through it. Thanks for coming back to share your positive outcome - it helps reduce the anxiety for parents still working on their part!

After helping dozens of students with this exact issue, my advice is to have everything ready before starting: 1. Parent's ITIN number 2. Parent's income documentation (even if they filed with ITIN) 3. Address history for past 2 years 4. Any state ID numbers the parent might have The system works now, but it's particular about the order of operations. Have the parent physically present when completing their section, use a reliable internet connection, and complete it all in one session. For your community center, I'd suggest creating a checklist document of required materials tailored to no-SSN situations to give students before their appointment. It makes the process much smoother.

Thank you all for sharing your experiences! This is incredibly helpful. I'm planning to schedule dedicated sessions next week for the three students I mentioned. Based on what everyone has shared, I'll make sure to have them bring their parents, use Firefox or Edge browsers, complete everything in one session, and have all the documentation ready beforehand. It's reassuring to hear that while the system isn't perfect, it's significantly better than last year's disaster. I'll also reach out to our local college financial aid offices to let them know these students might need estimated packages while verification processes. Really appreciate this community - you've saved me and these students a lot of headaches!

UPDATE: I was able to speak with someone at FSA this morning! They confirmed this is a known issue and were really helpful. They're going to deactivate the old FSA ID and ensure the new one is properly linked to both students' applications. They said this shouldn't cause any delays as long as we caught it before the applications went into processing. Such a relief! Thanks everyone for your advice.

That's fantastic that you got it resolved so quickly! This is such valuable information for other counselors and families who might run into the same issue. It's reassuring to know that FSA has processes in place to handle these situations efficiently when caught early. Thanks for sharing the update - it gives me confidence that if I encounter something similar with my students, there's a clear path to resolution. The key takeaway seems to be acting fast and contacting FSA directly rather than trying to work around the problem.

Update: We followed the advice here and had my daughter sign and submit first, then I logged in afterward and completed my submission. Everything went through perfectly and we got the confirmation email showing both signatures were recorded! The estimated SAI showed up immediately too. Thanks everyone for the help!

This is such helpful information! As a newcomer to the FAFSA process, I had no idea there was a specific order for submissions. My son and I are working on his 2025-2026 FAFSA right now and I was planning to submit my parent portion first since I finished earlier. Thank you everyone for clarifying that the student needs to sign and submit first - this could have saved us from a major headache! The FSA website really should make this more obvious in their instructions.

Just to add a bit more information about the timeline - the Department of Education announced some delays this year with processing, so don't panic if your SAI takes a bit longer than expected. Also, once schools receive your FAFSA information, they might request additional verification documents before finalizing your aid package. This is routine for many applicants and doesn't mean you did anything wrong on your FAFSA.

Hi Leslie! I'm a newcomer here but wanted to share that I just went through the exact same panic last month. My FAFSA summary also had blank sections for family size and assets, and I was convinced I had somehow broken the application. After reading through all these helpful responses, I feel so much better knowing this is normal with the new simplified form. The key thing that helped me was realizing that the summary isn't meant to show everything - it's just highlighting certain elements while the system uses your tax data behind the scenes. I got my SAI calculation about 10 days after submission and everything worked out fine. Hang in there - sounds like you did everything correctly!