I'm so relieved to see this thread! My daughter and I have been dealing with the exact same situation for weeks now. My partner is undocumented and we kept hitting walls with the FAFSA system. Reading through everyone's experiences here has given me hope that we can actually get through this process. I'm going to try the zeros approach for the SSN field tomorrow and gather all the tax documents with his ITIN. It's honestly been so stressful wondering if my daughter would be able to get financial aid because of our family situation. Thank you all for sharing your stories and advice - it means more than you know to families like ours who are just trying to help our kids get an education.

I'm a new college student going through this exact situation right now! My mom is a citizen but my dad is undocumented, and we just went through the whole FAFSA process last month. What really helped us was calling the school's financial aid office and specifically asking to speak with someone who handles "special circumstances" cases - that's the key phrase that gets you to someone who actually knows how to deal with mixed-status families. They walked us through everything step by step and even helped us submit some of the verification documents directly through their system. Also, don't be discouraged if the first person you talk to doesn't know what to do - we had to ask to speak to a supervisor twice before getting to someone with the right expertise. The whole thing took about 3 weeks from start to finish, but we got our aid package approved! Your daughter will get through this too.

That's great news that you found the Contributors tab! Just wanted to add a few more tips since you're just getting started with this process: 1. Make sure you have your FSA ID ready before your daughter sends the contributor invitation - it'll speed things up 2. The parent section asks for similar info to previous years (income, assets, taxes) but the interface looks different 3. If you run into any technical glitches, try using a different browser - Chrome seems to work best in my experience 4. Save your progress frequently! The system can be finicky Good luck with your daughter's application - sounds like you're back on track to meet that deadline! The actual parent section isn't too bad once you get access to it.

I'm so glad you found the Contributors tab! I went through this exact same panic with my son's FAFSA earlier this year. One thing I'd add to the great advice already given - when you create your FSA ID, use an email address that you check regularly because the system will send you reminders and updates there. Also, if your daughter's school uses their own financial aid portal, make sure to check that too once the FAFSA processes completely. Some schools require additional verification documents even after the federal application is done. You're doing great getting this sorted out - the new system is definitely not intuitive but once you know the steps it works fine. Best of luck with her dream school!

As a financial aid officer at a state university, I can add some institutional perspective to this great discussion! The strategy of using $4,000 from regular savings to maximize the American Opportunity Tax Credit is absolutely sound advice. However, I'd also recommend reaching out to your daughter's specific financial aid office because schools can have very different policies for how they treat various funding sources in their institutional aid calculations. For example, some private schools using CSS Profile might still consider grandparent 529 distributions differently than the new FAFSA rules suggest. Also, if your daughter might be eligible for work-study or other campus-based aid programs, the timing and source of your payments could potentially affect those opportunities. One practical tip: many schools offer monthly payment plans that can help you spread costs throughout the semester rather than paying large lump sums - this might give you more flexibility in timing your withdrawals from different accounts strategically.

As someone just getting started with college financial planning (my daughter is only a sophomore in high school), this entire thread has been absolutely invaluable! I had no idea there were so many strategic considerations beyond just "save money in a 529." The interaction between 529 withdrawals and the American Opportunity Tax Credit is something I definitely need to research more for our own planning timeline. @Jacob Lee - it sounds like you're getting some fantastic advice here from people who really know their stuff. One thing I'm curious about for those of us still in the early planning stages: should we be intentionally splitting our college savings between 529s and regular accounts from the start to give ourselves this kind of flexibility later? Or is it generally better to maximize the 529 tax advantages now and deal with these strategic withdrawal decisions when college time actually arrives?

I'm going through something similar right now! I submitted my FAFSA last week and then realized I forgot to include some of my mom's 1099 income. Reading through all these responses is so reassuring - I had no idea you could make corrections instead of starting over. Going to log in and fix mine today. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences, it really helps to know we're not alone in making these mistakes!

Just wanted to add that I went through this exact same situation two years ago! Made corrections to my FAFSA after realizing I reported my work-study earnings incorrectly, and it actually ended up INCREASING my aid eligibility. The schools I applied to were totally understanding when I called to let them know about the correction - most of them said it happens all the time. One financial aid counselor even told me that catching and correcting errors early shows you're being responsible about the process. Don't beat yourself up about it - you caught the mistake and you're fixing it, which is exactly what you should do!

This thread is exactly what I needed to find! My son is dealing with the same birthdate error issue right now - he entered 2005 instead of 2004 on his FAFSA and we've been stuck in that horrible loop between the school and FSA for almost two weeks. I've called the regular FAFSA number four times and each agent just keeps telling me the school has to fix it, but the school keeps saying it's a federal system issue they can't touch. Reading through everyone's experiences here, I had absolutely no idea there was an Identity Resolution Group or that you had to specifically ask for them by name! It's infuriating that regular support agents don't mention this specialized department exists. I'm calling tomorrow morning armed with all this knowledge from you all. Thank you so much Kristin for sharing your step-by-step resolution and to everyone else who provided the insider tips about documenting with the school and keeping call logs. This community support is literally saving families from these bureaucratic nightmares that the official system should be handling properly in the first place!

This entire thread should be pinned at the top of this community! As a newcomer to the FAFSA process, I'm absolutely floored by how many families are dealing with these data correction issues and how poorly the official support system handles them. The fact that there's a specialized Identity Resolution Group that regular FSA agents apparently don't even know about (or don't mention) is mind-blowing. I'm taking screenshots of all these step-by-step solutions and department names because it's clear that navigating FAFSA successfully requires insider knowledge that isn't available anywhere in the official documentation. Thank you to everyone who shared their experiences - especially Kristin for the detailed updates showing the actual resolution process, and to the financial aid professionals who provided the behind-the-scenes explanations. This is the kind of real-world guidance that every FAFSA family needs but can't get from the official channels. I'm bookmarking this thread as essential reading for anyone starting this process!