am i the only 1 who thinks its RIDICULOUS they made this new system and its been nothing but problems?? like they had YEARS to plan this rollout and its still a mess. my brothers fafsa from last year took like 3 days to process and mine is going on week 5 with these same weird emails

UPDATE: For anyone following this thread - after about 3 weeks, the emails finally stopped for us. Our SAI showed up in the system after about 25 days (much longer than previous years). But everything processed correctly even with those annoying emails. So if you're experiencing this, just hang tight!

I had almost the exact same issue but with my mom's new husband's income (my stepdad who doesn't support me financially at all). My SAI came back at $28,000 which was INSANE considering I'm basically independent. What worked for me was: 1. I couldn't get through on the phone either 2. I submitted a correction online 3. I went IN PERSON to my top choice school's financial aid office 4. They helped me file a special circumstances form 5. I had to provide my mom's tax returns, the marriage certificate showing when my stepdad entered the picture, and a statement explaining my financial independence It took about 3 weeks but they adjusted my aid package to reflect my actual situation. Don't give up!!

It also might be worth checking if you entered something incorrectly on the FAFSA. With the new FAFSA Simplification Act changes, sometimes people get confused about which parent should be listed. Did you specifically indicate that your parents are divorced? There's a specific question about that, and if you missed it, the system might be assuming a two-parent household.

Quick tip that might help others: For anyone dealing with these delays and needing to make college financial decisions, contact your school's financial aid office directly. Many colleges have implemented provisional aid award processes specifically to deal with the FAFSA processing backlog this year. They can often use estimated SAI calculations based on tax return copies you provide directly to them while waiting for official FAFSA processing. This won't help with the tax refund delay, but it can at least keep your college financial planning on track.

My friend works at the IRS (not supposed to tell me this stuff but whatever) and she says they're prioritizing processing people who OWE money first, then doing refunds after. So if you're getting a refund, you're automatically at the back of the line. Has nothing to do with FAFSA - just how they maximize revenue collection.

The SAI recalculation typically happens within 3-5 days after the corrections are processed. So realistically, you're looking at about 1-2 weeks total from submission of corrections to getting your new SAI. One more tip: after your corrections are processed, download and save a PDF copy of your corrected FAFSA for your records. This has saved me multiple times when there were questions about what information I submitted.

Glad you're feeling better about this! One final suggestion - after making your corrections, consider using the Federal Student Aid Estimator tool on studentaid.gov to get a rough idea of what your new SAI might be. It won't be exact, but it can help you prepare for what to expect and give you some peace of mind in the meantime.

@OP - did the browser switch fix the issue for you? Just checking back to see if you got it resolved since the deadline is so close.

Glad you got it working! Remember for everyone else - next year start the process AT LEAST a month before the deadline. Every year I see the same panic posts the week before deadlines. The FAFSA system is just not reliable enough for last-minute submissions.