hey did u ever get this worked out? im having the same issue now with my stepson's application and getting super frustrated!!!

I just went through this exact same situation with my daughter's FAFSA last week! The disappearing spouse contributor had me panicking that I'd somehow broken the application. It's definitely confusing because the initial setup makes it seem like both parents need separate contributor sections, but then the spouse just vanishes. The streamlined process for joint filers actually makes sense once you understand it, but they really need to update the instructions to be clearer about this. One tip - make sure you have your wife's FSA ID handy when you start the tax section because you'll need it for the IRS Data Retrieval Tool verification. Good luck with the rest of the application!

Final update: Success! After a LOT of emails and phone calls, all 5 schools have granted us extensions until May 15th. One even said they can give us until June 1st if our FAFSA is still processing by mid-May. I'm still furious that we had to fight so hard for this when the problem isn't our fault, but at least we have some breathing room now. Thanks everyone for your advice!

So glad to see this worked out for you! This thread has been incredibly helpful - I'm bookmarking it because I suspect we're going to see this same scenario play out again next year if the Department of Education doesn't get their act together. The fact that families had to fight tooth and nail for extensions when the delays were completely outside their control is just unacceptable. Your persistence really paid off though, and hopefully other parents in similar situations can use your strategies. Best of luck to your daughter with her final decision!

Since your question is about the upcoming 2025-2026 school year, I want to clarify: The FAFSA now uses the concept of "contributors" rather than "custodial/non-custodial" terminology. For divorced parents, generally the parent who provided more financial support and with whom the student lived more during the preceding 12 months will be the contributor who completes the FAFSA. Based on your 90% custody situation, that's clearly you. Make sure to use your 2023 tax information when completing the 2025-2026 FAFSA, and report any child support received during that tax year. Then, as others have mentioned, contact each school's financial aid office to explain that the child support has ended, which constitutes a significant change in circumstances that may qualify for a professional judgment review.

I'm going through something similar right now! My ex makes way more than me but I have primary custody. What really helped me was keeping detailed records of everything - custody schedules, who pays for what expenses, etc. Also, don't forget that even though child support is ending for your oldest, if you're still receiving it for your other three kids, that will still count as income on the FAFSA. But the good news is that as the custodial parent with 90% custody, you're definitely the one who should fill it out, and your son should qualify for aid based on your income level. The system actually works in your favor in this case, unlike some of the horror stories here about remarriage situations!

After you get this resolved, make sure your son updates his FAFSA if there are any other scholarships or outside funding he receives. My daughter got a $3,500 merit scholarship after we submitted her FAFSA, and we had to update the form or it would have reduced her need-based aid. These forms are so sensitive to every detail!

I'm so sorry you're dealing with this situation - it must be incredibly frustrating to have your ex file without your knowledge! As someone who's been through the FAFSA process, I can tell you that you absolutely need to act quickly. The fact that you have primary custody AND provide 80% of your son's support means you should definitely be the one filing the FAFSA, not your ex. Here's what I'd recommend doing immediately: 1. Have your son check if he has an FSA ID account (your ex would have needed to create one for him) 2. Start gathering all your financial documents and proof that you provide the majority of support 3. Call the Federal Student Aid helpline as soon as possible (though be prepared for long wait times) 4. Contact each college your son applied to and let them know about the situation Don't let this delay your son's college plans - schools deal with these correction situations more often than you might think. The key is being proactive and having documentation ready. Your son's financial aid eligibility could be significantly better with your lower income, so this correction is definitely worth pursuing!

This thread is incredibly helpful! I'm a college financial aid counselor and I've been forwarding this discussion to families dealing with the exact same contributor signature loop issue. The combination of address updates + waiting for system sync + getting FSA agent help seems to be the most reliable solution path we've seen. For anyone still struggling with this: I want to emphasize that missing priority deadlines due to these technical failures will NOT hurt your aid eligibility. We're working directly with FSA to document these cases, and most schools are being very understanding about delays caused by the contributor signature bug. Don't panic if you miss a deadline - just make sure to communicate with your school's financial aid office about the technical issues you're experiencing. The fact that FSA agents are seeing "dozens" of these cases daily really validates what we're seeing on the ground. This isn't isolated user error - it's a systematic problem with how the new FAFSA handles multi-contributor households.

As a parent who went through a similar contributor signature nightmare last year, I want to add one more potential solution that worked for us when everything else failed. After trying all the standard fixes (different browsers, clearing cache, updating addresses, etc.), we discovered the issue was that my ex-husband's FSA ID was created with his middle initial, but when I added him as a contributor on the FAFSA, I entered his full middle name. The system couldn't match "John M. Smith" with "John Michael Smith" even though it's obviously the same person. Once we figured this out and I updated the contributor information to match his FSA ID exactly (including the period after the middle initial), everything worked immediately. It might seem like a tiny detail, but the new FAFSA system is apparently very picky about exact name matches. Before calling FSA or using paid services, it might be worth double-checking that every single character in the contributor's name matches their FSA ID registration exactly - including spaces, periods, and whether they used nicknames vs. full names. This could save other families hours of frustration!