Good luck!!! The paperwork is a nightmare but WORTH IT

I'm new here but going through something similar! My family had an unusual income spike in 2022 due to a business sale, and our SAI came back way higher than expected. Reading through all these responses has been incredibly helpful - I had no idea about Professional Judgment requests! A few questions for those who've been through this process: 1. Do all schools have the same deadlines for PJ requests, or does it vary by institution? 2. If multiple schools adjust your SAI differently, can you use that information when appealing to other schools? 3. Should we also be looking into state grant programs that might have different income thresholds? Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - this community is a lifesaver for navigating this confusing process!

Just remmber that different schools have different policies on apeals. My son applied to 6 schools and each one had completely different requirements for the special circumstances appeal. One wanted a massive pile of documentation, another just needed a simple form and proof of income change. Call each school financial aid office directly to ask about their specific "professional judgment" process.

One thing that really helped us was documenting the "necessary" nature of your emergency savings. Since you mentioned your house is over 110 years old and you're dealing with high property taxes, make sure to get estimates for any major repairs that might be needed (roof, plumbing, electrical, etc.) and include those in your appeal. We had to do this when my mom's income dropped after she became disabled - we showed that our savings weren't just sitting there, but were earmarked for specific necessary expenses. The financial aid office was much more understanding when they could see we had $15k set aside for a new roof that was already leaking, rather than just "emergency savings." Also, definitely emphasize that your dad's early retirement wasn't voluntary - corporate downsizing is a legitimate hardship that most schools will take into consideration.

I'm dealing with this exact same issue right now! Been stuck on the spouse DOB page for hours. One thing I noticed is that when I tried using Safari instead of Chrome, I got a slightly different error behavior - it actually showed me a brief validation message before looping back. The message mentioned something about "records verification" which makes me think it's definitely a backend issue with matching Social Security data like others have mentioned. I'm going to try the suggestions about the middle initial and name formatting. Really hoping the Department of Education fixes these technical problems soon because this is incredibly stressful when you're trying to meet deadlines!

I'm going through the exact same nightmare right now! I've been battling this spouse DOB loop for three days straight and I'm losing my mind. What's really frustrating is that the system worked fine for all my other information, but just completely breaks down on this one field. I've tried literally everything - different browsers, clearing cache, different devices, using dashes vs slashes for the date format, and nothing works. The most maddening part is that there's no actual error message, it just silently loops you back like nothing happened. I'm definitely going to try the suggestions about the middle initial and name formatting without hyphens. Has anyone had success getting through to FSA recently? I've been trying to call for days but keep getting disconnected due to high call volume. This whole redesigned FAFSA system feels like a complete disaster - how are students supposed to meet deadlines when the basic functionality doesn't even work?

UPDATE: I finally got my SAI calculation yesterday! It took exactly 33 days after the "Processed" status appeared. I immediately contacted my school's financial aid office and they confirmed they received my information. They also told me they've extended their priority deadline by 3 weeks because of all the FAFSA delays, so I'm still good! Thanks everyone for your advice and support through this stressful waiting period.

Congratulations Miguel! It's so relieving to hear success stories like yours. I'm actually in a similar situation - submitted my FAFSA on March 15th and still waiting for my SAI calculation. This thread has been incredibly helpful in understanding that the delays are widespread and not just affecting me. I'm definitely going to follow the advice about taking screenshots and contacting my school's financial aid office proactively. It's frustrating that the new system is causing so much stress during an already stressful time, but knowing that schools are being understanding and extending deadlines gives me hope. Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences and advice!

So glad to hear it worked out! This is such a common issue this year - the new FAFSA system seems to have a lot of technical glitches that trap applications after processing. For anyone else reading this thread with similar problems, it sounds like contacting FSA directly (whether through their regular line or services like Claimyr) is really the only way to get these technical issues resolved on the backend. Don't waste time trying to troubleshoot it yourself if the basic steps like clearing cache don't work - there are actual system bugs that only they can fix.

As a newcomer here, I just want to say how helpful this thread has been! I'm actually dealing with a similar situation right now with my daughter's FAFSA - it's been showing "Processed" for over a week but we can't add her remaining schools. Reading through everyone's experiences here has been really reassuring that we're not alone in this. I'm going to try the Make FAFSA Corrections section that Max mentioned first, and if that doesn't work, I'll look into using Claimyr like Adrian suggested. It's so frustrating that these technical issues are so common with the new system, but at least there seem to be solutions! Thanks to everyone who shared their experiences - it really helps to know what actually works when you're panicking about deadlines.