UPDATE: We figured it out! It turns out my son had entered my husband's email address incorrectly (switched two letters). Once we fixed that and resent the invitation, my husband got the email within minutes. He's created his FSA ID and is completing his portion now. Thanks everyone for your help! The FAFSA process is definitely not user-friendly this year.

Great to see you got it resolved! This is such a common issue with the new FAFSA system. For anyone else reading this thread who might be dealing with similar problems, I'd also recommend having your student screenshot or write down exactly what they entered for each parent's email address before submitting. That way if there are delays, you can quickly spot any typos without having to dig back through the application. The new contributor system is definitely more complicated than the old FAFSA, but once you get through it the first time, it makes more sense. Hope your son gets his aid package soon!

One last piece of advice - if your enrollment deposit deadline is coming up and this isn't resolved, contact the admissions office (not just financial aid) and explain the situation. Many schools will grant you an extension on the deposit deadline if there's a pending financial aid issue. Make sure to request this in writing as well.

As someone who just went through this exact situation last month, I wanted to share what worked for me. My son's SAI was corrected due to a medical expense adjustment, but his school took almost 2 weeks to update it even after multiple calls. What finally worked was emailing the financial aid office instead of just calling. I sent an email with the subject line "URGENT: Request to Download Corrected ISIR - Enrollment Deadline Approaching" and included: - My son's student ID number - The FAFSA correction confirmation number - Screenshots showing the corrected SAI on studentaid.gov - Our enrollment deposit deadline date I got a response within 4 hours saying they would expedite the ISIR download, and the corrected aid package was available the next day. Sometimes having everything in writing gets faster results than phone calls. Good luck!

UPDATE: We tried the steps that @profile2 suggested! My daughter removed me as a contributor, waited about 20 minutes, then added me again. I got a new email invitation, cleared my browser cache, and THIS TIME IT WORKED! I can now see her application and the parent contribution section to complete. I think the issue was either the system glitch they mentioned or possibly that I was clicking the old link from the first email. Either way, if anyone else has this problem, try having your student remove and re-add you as a contributor! Thank you all for your help!

So glad you got it resolved! This has been such a common issue this FAFSA cycle. For anyone else reading this thread who might run into the same problem, I'd also suggest checking that your student didn't accidentally add you as a "stepparent" or other contributor type instead of "parent" - I've seen that cause similar dashboard issues where nothing shows up. The remove/re-add solution seems to work for most of these invitation glitches though. Good luck with the rest of the process!

So glad you were able to get through and identify the issue! The middle name/first name mix-up is actually pretty common - I see it happen a lot with students who go by their middle names. Just a heads up: once your correction processes and the SSA verification completes, double-check that your SAI calculation updates properly. Sometimes there can be a delay between the verification clearing and the SAI being recalculated. If it doesn't update within a few days of your verification completing, you might need to contact FSA again. Good luck with everything!

I'm dealing with a similar SSA verification delay right now - it's been about 2.5 weeks for me. Reading through all these responses has been really helpful! I had no idea about checking the "Processing Results" section specifically, or that there could be technical glitches that require "kicking" the system with a correction. One thing I wanted to add for anyone else facing this: I called my school's financial aid office early in the process and they told me they keep a list of students with SSA verification delays, so when aid packages are being put together, they know to check back on those applications. Definitely worth letting your school know even if you haven't hit their deadline yet. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - it's reassuring to know this is a common issue and not just me doing something wrong!

As a follow-up to my earlier comment, one other important timing consideration: if you're reducing the unsubsidized loan amount, make sure you do this BEFORE the first disbursement date (usually right before classes start). Some schools have internal deadlines even earlier than this. After disbursement occurs, the process becomes more complicated - you'd need to request a "return of loan funds" which can sometimes affect your daughter's account balance immediately even if you're planning to pay that amount through other means.

Just wanted to add one more thing about the TEACH Grant - make sure your daughter understands that if she ever changes her major away from Special Education, the grant will immediately convert to an unsubsidized loan with interest calculated from the original disbursement date. I've seen this happen to students who switched majors in their junior year and were shocked by the sudden loan conversion. Also, regarding the partial loan acceptance, most schools allow you to reduce loan amounts up until about 2 weeks before the semester starts, but you typically can't increase them later without going through a lengthy appeal process. So if you're on the fence about how much you'll need, it might be safer to accept a bit more initially and then return any unused funds after the semester begins.