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One thing I noticed from your original post - you mentioned that the FAFSA is showing as 'incomplete'. Where exactly are you seeing this status? If it's on your daughter's account, that's actually helpful because it confirms the system knows a parent signature is missing. On your daughter's end, there should be a section that specifically says something like "Parent Signature Required" or "Action Required: Parent Signature". When she clicks that, she should have the option to send you an email invitation to sign. Check all email addresses associated with your FSA ID for this invitation. Alternatively, try this specific path when logged in with your parent FSA ID: 1. Go to studentaid.gov and log in with YOUR FSA ID 2. Select "Apply for Aid" from the top menu 3. Select "Complete the FAFSA Form" 4. Look for "Sign a FAFSA Form" 5. Enter your daughter's information If none of this works, it might be a technical glitch that needs to be resolved by calling Federal Student Aid directly.
The "incomplete" status is showing on her account when she logs in. We'll try your steps tonight when she gets home from work. I really appreciate everyone's help with this!
update please! did u get it fixed? my brother is about to start his fafsa and i want to know what to tell him to avoid this problem
Good news! We figured it out last night. The issue was that my daughter needed to specifically click on "Parent Information" in her FAFSA review section, which then gave her the option to send me an email invitation to sign. The email went to my spam folder initially, but once I found it, I was able to click the link and sign with my FSA ID. The whole application is now showing as submitted! Tell your brother to make sure he completes that specific step to invite the parent to sign.
Thank you everyone for the helpful advice! I just checked and my state's priority deadline is March 1, 2025, and my top choice school has a February 15 priority deadline for financial aid! I'm definitely not waiting - going to get started on this with my parents this weekend. Really appreciate all the help!
Great plan! Remember to create your FSA ID first if you haven't already - both you and one parent need one, and it can take 1-3 days to be fully verified. Good luck!
can someone explain what SAI is? my cousin said something about SAI replacing EFC but idk what either of those are lol
SAI (Student Aid Index) replaced the old EFC (Expected Family Contribution) when FAFSA was overhauled. It's a number calculated from your FAFSA information that schools use to determine how much financial aid you're eligible for. Lower SAI = more need-based aid eligibility. It works similarly to the old EFC but with some calculation changes that generally benefit lower and middle-income students.
Update: I tried the Claimyr service that someone suggested, and I FINALLY got through to a real person at FSA! The agent confirmed there was a mismatch between my SSN in their system and what the Social Security Administration had on file (even though I was entering it correctly). They did the "verification override" mentioned above and manually updated my account. My signature went through this morning and our FAFSA is now complete! Thank you all for the help - I would have never figured this out from the automated emails they kept sending.
omg thats awesome! im gonna try that today. so glad u got it fixed before ur deadline!!
Great to hear! For anyone else with this issue, remember to check your SAI calculation after this type of override. Sometimes these manual fixes can trigger a separate verification flag, so be sure to log back in after 3-5 business days to confirm everything processed correctly.
my brothers having the same issue but with his own ssn not matching. he tried making a new fsa id and that didnt work either. this whole simplified fafsa is a joke its way more complicated than before
For students (not parents) with SSN mismatches, there's actually a different process. He should contact his school's financial aid office and ask about a "Special Circumstances FAFSA Review" - this is different from the parent signature override. The school can initiate this process and it usually resolves within 10 business days.
Just wanted to add - while you're waiting for verification, make sure your son has gathered all the other information he'll need for the application. For the 2025-2026 FAFSA, you'll need 2023 tax information (which is different from previous years where you used prior-prior year tax info). Also make sure you have records of any untaxed income and current asset information (bank accounts, investments, etc.) ready to go. The new FAFSA pulls some tax info directly from the IRS, but you'll still need to answer questions about assets manually.
Thank you! We've got the 2023 tax returns ready. Do we need to report his small checking account (~$900) or is there some minimum threshold? And what about his 529 plan that his grandparents set up?
Yes, you should report his checking account as a student asset. There's no minimum threshold, though student assets are assessed at a higher rate than parent assets when calculating the Student Aid Index (SAI). For the 529 plan, if it's owned by the grandparents, it's no longer reported on FAFSA (this changed with the new simplified FAFSA). If you or your husband are listed as the account owner, then you'd report it as a parent asset. Parent-owned 529 plans have much less impact on aid eligibility than student-owned assets.
UPDATE: Our verification just went through! It took exactly 3 days. Now we're able to complete the parent contribution section without any issues. Thanks everyone for your help and reassurance!
Great news! Glad to hear it worked out without any additional steps needed. Good luck with the rest of the application!
Thanks for updating us!! Ours is still pending but hopefully tomorrow 🤞
Misterclamation Skyblue
Not sure if this helps but my son's college financial aid office told us that some email servers are blocking the FAFSA emails because they think they're phishing attempts. They suggested we add studentaid.gov and noreply.fafsa.gov to our email's safe sender list BEFORE resending the invitations. Worked for us after that!
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Ev Luca
•That's really helpful - I just added both to my safe sender list. His father is doing the same. We'll try the resend after that. Thanks!
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Avery Davis
Any update? Did you get the invitation emails yet?
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Ev Luca
•SUCCESS!!! We did get the invitations finally. What worked was a combination of things: my son removed us completely, we both added studentaid.gov to our safe sender lists, and then he re-added us with slightly different capitalization in our email addresses. Not sure which of those things fixed it, but we got the emails within minutes after that. Now working on completing our sections. Thanks everyone for the help!
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