dont stress too much about getting everything perfect. my daughter's counselor said they can always make corrections after submitting if you discover something was wrong!

One last document tip: if your family has had a significant financial change since 2023 (job loss, major medical expenses, etc.), gather documentation of that as well. While you'll still report 2023 information on the FAFSA, you can submit an appeal for professional judgment to the financial aid offices afterward. Also, the new FAFSA has eliminated the sibling discount automatically (multiple children in college at once), so if that applies to your family now or in the future, you'll need to contact each school individually about it. Once you submit, your Student Aid Index (SAI) should be calculated within 3-5 days, though in busy periods it can take longer.

UPDATE: Relieved to share that nothing changed with our aid package! I checked again today and everything is still showing as processed with the same SAI. The financial aid office confirmed they haven't received any updates or verification requests. Thanks everyone for the help and information - this forum saved me a lot of stress and unnecessary phone calls!

Great news! Thanks for updating us. This is exactly why I tell families not to panic about these notices - most of the time they're just routine checks that don't affect anything.

when my husband didnt get the email i just made him sit down with me and we filled out his part while i was logged in. just had him tell me all his info and i entered it. the signature was the only tricky part but we just had him create his fsa id and then he could sign right there

UPDATE: We figured it out! Turns out my husband's FSA ID wasn't fully verified yet. Even though he created the account, he needed to complete the email verification step (which he had missed). Once he did that and logged into studentaid.gov, the invitation was sitting right there in his dashboard, just like someone suggested here. We were able to complete his portion last night and submitted the full application! Thank you all for your help - especially the tip about checking the dashboard instead of just waiting for an email.

Update on my earlier comment - I just remembered my roommate had a similar issue and what worked for her was emailing FSA's escalation team directly. The address is: FSAOperations@ed.gov Include ALL details: - Full name - Date of birth - FSA ID (username only, not password) - Date verification documents were submitted - Pending school deadlines - Summary of all contact attempts Make the subject line clear: "URGENT: Verification Documents Submitted [date] - School Deadline [date]" This often gets faster attention than calling the general line.

my verification took 2 months last year lol but then they gave me like $3000 more after they fixed my SAI so maybe there's hope?? this whole process sucks

PARENT PLUS LOANS ARE A TRAP!!!! Interest rates are over 7.5% and there's a 4.2% origination fee they take right off the top!!!! Try to find LITERALLY ANY OTHER WAY to pay before getting these loans. I'm $96,000 in debt from Parent PLUS and my daughter graduated 3 years ago. I'll be paying until I'm 70 years old.

Update: I finally got through to financial aid after trying that Claimyr service someone recommended here. The good news is I can still apply for the PLUS loan and there's technically no federal deadline. The bad news is our school has an internal processing deadline of 2 weeks before the end of the term for any aid to be applied to the current semester. They're going to put a temporary hold on the late fees while my application processes. Thanks everyone for your help!