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this happened to my sister too and she said her college finaid office helped her fix it without waiting for the web site to work. might be worth asking?
UPDATE: We're finally fixed! I used the Claimyr service to get through to FSA without the endless hold times, and they were able to manually override the errors. The agent said they're seeing this issue constantly with the new system. For anyone else dealing with this - don't waste your time with the website if you've already tried multiple times. Just call FSA directly (use Claimyr to avoid the wait) and they can usually fix it within minutes once you get an agent. Our school's financial aid office also submitted a secondary correction request on our behalf. THANK YOU everyone for your help!
Great to hear you got it resolved! For anyone else facing similar issues, I recommend documenting everything - screenshots of errors, dates/times of attempts, and any confirmation numbers you receive. This documentation can be crucial if you need to request deadline extensions from your schools due to FAFSA system errors.
my son got his award letters about 3-4 weeks after the SAI came out. each school is different tho. state schools were faster than private ones in our experience
Thanks everyone for the helpful responses! I'm going to check each school's applicant portal first, then call the financial aid offices to confirm they received everything. Better safe than sorry, especially with those May 1st deposit deadlines approaching. I appreciate all the advice - this process is so confusing for first-timers!
Based on everything shared, here's what I recommend: 1. DON'T start over - multiple applications will likely cause verification flags 2. Try the technical support email specifically for signature issues: FAFSA.TechSupport@ed.gov 3. If you need more immediate help, consider using the call service someone mentioned or try calling during off-hours (early morning or late night) 4. Document everything - take screenshots of error messages and note dates/times of your attempts 5. If all else fails, contact your daughter's college financial aid office - even at small schools, they often have direct contacts at FSA they can reach The parent signature issue is a known glitch in the system this year. Starting over won't fix it since it's likely tied to your FSA ID in their database.
Quick update for anyone following this thread - the signature issues are being addressed in the next system update according to the FSA Twitter account. They posted yesterday that they're doing maintenance this weekend specifically to fix parent signature problems. Might be worth waiting until Monday to try again if other methods don't work.
Update on my situation: I finally got through the college selection page by adding schools one by one with a 2-minute wait between each selection. Painfully slow but it worked. The SAI calculation is working now too. Hope this helps!
UPDATE: We finally got through the college selection page! Combination of using the mobile app AND doing it at 6am this morning. Now we're on to the parent contribution section. Thanks everyone for your help and commiseration. For anyone else stuck on this - try early morning hours and the mobile app!
Excellent! Glad you found a solution. Just be prepared for possible slowdowns in the parent contribution section as well - that's another area where many users have reported issues. Best of luck with the rest of your application!
StarSailor
have u tried a different time of day? sounds weird but sometimes the website is just overloaded when everybodys on it. i did mine at like 6am and had zero issues lol
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Zainab Ibrahim
Update on this issue: The Department of Education just released a statement acknowledging the birthday field bug affecting some users. They recommend trying these steps: 1. Clear your browser cache completely (not just cookies) 2. Use the FAFSA mobile app instead of the website 3. If using the website, try Microsoft Edge browser specifically 4. Ensure your FSA ID was created more than 3 days ago (there's a verification period) They're working on a fix that should be deployed within the next week. If you need this resolved immediately for financial aid deadlines, calling is unfortunately your best option.
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Ava Thompson
•Thank you for this update! I just downloaded the mobile app and I'm going to try that. My FSA ID is several months old, so that shouldn't be the issue. Fingers crossed this works!
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