Just a heads up - the "something within a week" is often their request for income verification. About 30% of FAFSA applications get selected for verification, where you need to provide additional documentation to confirm the income information on your FAFSA. If that happens, you'll need to submit documents like tax returns, W-2 forms, and possibly a verification worksheet. Don't worry if this happens - it doesn't mean you did anything wrong. Just respond promptly with the requested documents to avoid delays in her final aid package.

One important thing to understand about this year's FAFSA process: colleges are receiving FAFSA data in batches from the Department of Education, but the final SAI calculations are still being worked out. What most colleges are doing now is: 1. Confirming receipt of FAFSA data 2. Identifying any missing information 3. Selecting applicants for verification if needed 4. Preparing preliminary aid packages based on estimated SAI The "something" coming within a week is almost certainly step 1 or 2. Actual aid packages won't be finalized until all four steps are complete, which for most schools means March-April for regular decision applicants.

I'm a bit confused about the numbers here. Are you saying you had $35,000 in unpaid interest that got capitalized? That seems extremely high unless your loan balance is well into six figures. Most IDR plans actually cover part of the interest to prevent excessive negative amortization. Could there be other issues with your account beyond just the missed renewal?

After reading all these comments, I'm getting flashbacks to my own nightmare with Navient when they transferred my loans to Aidvantage. The thing nobody mentioned yet is that the Department of Education actually released specific guidance about interest capitalization during servicer transfers in 2022. If your transfer happened after July 2022, they were NOT supposed to capitalize interest just because of the transfer itself. Pull up the FSA announcement from July 2022 about the new capitalization policies and specifically cite that in your complaints. The servicers hate when you know the actual policy documents!

my daughters school made her redo the fafsa twice and i never got any emails about it either time lol

It's also worth noting that for the 2025-2026 FAFSA, FSA has made some changes to their communication system. They now send more updates to the student's portal inbox rather than email. Have your daughter check her studentaid.gov message center regularly, as important notices might be there rather than in email. The system has been a bit inconsistent this year with the rollout of the new FAFSA.

my cousin waited 2 days after processed and my other friend waited like 3 weeks so who knows lol. the whole things broken this year

UPDATE: I finally got through to someone at FSA! Turns out there was a verification flag on my application that wasn't showing up anywhere on the portal. I had to submit my parents' 2023 tax transcript and W-2s. The agent said once those are reviewed, my SAI should be generated within 3-5 business days. Just wanted to update in case anyone else is having similar issues. Always call and check if you're not seeing your SAI within a week of the "processed" status!

I just went thru this exact thing!!! My situation was reverse tho - I moved back TO my kid's college state and took over FAFSA from my ex who moved away. The residency stuff worked out fine but we had a NIGHTMARE with the contributor switch because my ex had linked his bank accounts to the old FAFSA and somehow we couldn't unlink them without him being present which was impossible since he moved to Alaska! We had to do a whole appeal process and my daughter almost lost her second semester aid bcause of the delays!!! Start this process EARLY!!!!!

One final note - your son should also check with his specific college's financial aid office about their process for documenting the change in which parent is providing support. Some schools require additional documentation to maintain in-state tuition when a parent moves out of state, while others will just need confirmation that the in-state parent is now the primary contributor on the FAFSA. It's best to get this clarified directly with the school to prevent any surprises with his tuition status.