oh also i forgot to say make sure ur using ur adjusted gross income (AGI) not just total income. we made that mistake at first and had to fix it. the AGI is after all the business deductions so its usually way lower than total income for small business owners!

After you update your FAFSA with your actual tax information, I would recommend following up with the financial aid office with an email confirming you've made the update. Include your daughter's student ID number and the date you made the correction. This creates a paper trail and can help prevent delays if there are any issues with the electronic updates. Also, if your income for 2022 ends up being significantly different than 2021 (either higher or lower), be prepared to explain this to the financial aid office. Large changes can sometimes trigger additional verification steps.

WHY is nobody talking about how COMPLETELY BROKEN the new FAFSA system is?!? This is my third kid going to college and I've NEVER had these problems before. The Department of Education should be ashamed of themselves for rolling out this disaster and then just leaving families to suffer. They've had MONTHS to fix these problems and nothing has improved. Now thousands of students across the country are at risk of not being able to attend school because some government bureaucrats couldn't build a functioning website. Absolutely infuriating.

Quick update on what finally worked for me: After getting through to FSA (using that Claimyr service I mentioned), I discovered our FAFSA was stuck because of an error with the parent contribution section. Even though we filled everything out correctly, their system had some glitch with how our W-2 info transferred. The agent manually overrode something in their system, and our SAI showed up in the school's system literally THE NEXT DAY. Federal loans were processed within a week after that. If you can just get someone on the phone who knows what they're doing, they can often fix these issues immediately. Hang in there - I know how stressful this is!

Thanks everyone for the advice! I talked to Ford's HR department and confirmed it IS a qualified pension plan that needs to be reported. I also logged into studentaid.gov and found the "Add a Student" option right on the dashboard after logging in with my parent FSA ID. Good news - my son doesn't qualify as independent (he's 22 and has been living at home while working part-time). I'm going to add him today and estimate the yearly pension amount based on the monthly payments we've received so far. Hopefully this won't delay either of my kids' financial aid offers!

make sure u save the confirmation #s when u submit!! my brothers fafsa "disappeared" from the system and they said we never submitted it but we had the confirmation # to prove it

Is anyone else FURIOUS that they completely revamped the FAFSA system this year and it's been nothing but problems?? My niece has been waiting since JANUARY and still doesn't have her SAI. Meanwhile my student loan payments are due AND I'm trying to figure out how to pay for her freshman year. The Department of Education should be ashamed of this disaster.

Update on processing times: I just attended a financial aid conference last week where FSA officials shared that they've added additional staff to process both online and paper submissions. They're now projecting 2-3 weeks for parent verification and about the same for mailed forms that are properly completed. The most common reason for delays is missing information or mismatched data (like a name spelled differently on tax forms vs. the FAFSA). Double-check that all your information exactly matches across all documents.

One more important thing to note: There are strict deadlines for FAFSA completion that vary by state and institution. Make sure your daughter completes her portion well before any priority deadlines for the schools she's applying to. Some schools award aid on a first-come, first-served basis, so you don't want to delay completion.

UPDATE: My daughter logged in and completed her portion last night! The status now shows fully completed and we got a confirmation email with our SAI calculation. Thank you everyone for your help and for calming me down! The FAFSA really needs to make their process and wording clearer.