this is y the whole system sucks!! why make it so complicated with so many deadlines?? my brother missed deadlines too and ended up having to take a gap year bc he couldnt afford school. the whole financial aid system is designed to trip people up i swear

Update: I wanted to thank everyone for their advice! We submitted the FAFSA today and I've scheduled a call with the financial aid office tomorrow morning. I also found out his school has a special consideration form for late applicants that we're filling out tonight. There's still hope! I'll let you know how it goes after we talk to the school.

Thanks for the update! That gives me some hope. I'll keep checking the dashboard every day.

UPDATE: Success! I used Claimyr this morning and got through to an FSA agent in about 20 minutes. Turns out both applications were held up because they couldn't match one of my W-2s to the IRS data (I had a job change mid-year). The agent manually verified everything and said the SAIs should appear within 3-5 business days. Just wanted to update in case anyone else runs into similar issues. Thanks everyone for your help!

I just went through this exact situation! Here's how I navigated it: 1. The "don't take action" email is automatically generated when your loan is in transition to a new servicer for the Fresh Start program 2. The Fresh Start notice is the one you should follow - it's a legitimate program created specifically to address situations like yours 3. I had a similar balance explosion ($19K to $67K over 6 years of default) 4. After enrolling in Fresh Start, they removed about $15K in collection fees 5. I then applied for an income-driven repayment plan (specifically SAVE) and my payments are now $43/month based on my income 6. My loans will be forgiven after 20-25 years of qualifying payments The key is documenting everything and following up persistently. The system is frustrating but Fresh Start is actually one of the more borrower-friendly programs they've created.

To answer your follow-up question - yes, for the income-driven repayment plan I had to provide my most recent tax return. If your income has changed significantly since then, you can submit pay stubs instead. The SAVE plan is particularly generous for lower incomes. They also didn't count my spouse's income because we file taxes separately.

the new fafsa sucks so bad lol. took me 3 tries just to get logged in right. but ya just have him sign his part and keep trying with urs. or just submit it with only his signature and deal with parent signature later

Quick update based on the conversation: If your name has a hyphen as you mentioned, that could definitely be causing the issue. The current FAFSA system has known problems with special characters in names. To fix this, you have a few options: 1. Try entering your name without the hyphen to see if it processes 2. Contact FSA directly to have them manually verify your information 3. Some users have reported success by using a different browser in incognito/private mode And yes, your son can still sign his portion now - the consensus from most users (including financial aid professionals) is that this is fine and won't affect your ability to complete your section.

my husbands info never got confirmed AT ALL last yr and we had to submit like special documentation thru the school financial aid office. total nightmare!! btw they sent us a paper form to fill out cuz his ssn wasnt matching for some reason. check ur email filters maybe they already sent u something?

One more thing to check - make sure you confirmed your email in the new StudentAid.gov system. I had a similar delay and realized I never clicked the verification link they sent when I created my new FSA ID. Once I did that, my SSA confirmation processed within 48 hours. My husband and daughter had already verified their emails which is why theirs went through first.