Can't figure out how to complete the parent section after my daughter sent me a FAFSA invitation

I just went through this with my son! The process is actually simpler than it seems. After your daughter sends the invitation, you should receive an email with a link. When you click that link, it should take you directly to the studentaid.gov website where you'll need to either sign in with your existing FSA ID or create a new one if you don't have one yet. Once you're logged in with YOUR FSA ID (not your daughter's), you should see a notification or task that says something like "Complete FAFSA as a contributor." When you click on that, it will take you to your portion of the application that needs to be completed. And yes, it's VERY important that your name, birthdate, and SSN match EXACTLY what's on your Social Security card - including capitalization. The system will check this against Social Security Administration records.

the whole parent section is confusing af. i had to help my mom do it twice bc the system logged her out the first time & we lost everything 🙄 make sure u save constantly while ur filling it out

There are essentially three accounts involved in the process: 1. Your daughter's FSA ID account - which she used to start her FAFSA 2. Your FSA ID account - which you'll use to contribute your information 3. The actual FAFSA application itself - which links both accounts When your daughter sent the invitation, she essentially gave permission for your FSA ID to contribute to her application. You need to log in with YOUR FSA ID (not create a new FAFSA application). On your dashboard after logging in, there should be a notification about pending contributions or something similar. And yes, the capitalization and exact matching of personal information is critical - the system cross-references with Social Security Administration data, so even a small mismatch can cause problems.

I had the exact same issue last month! The FAFSA website is honestly terrible with explaining this process. When your daughter sent you the invitation, you should have received an email with a link. That link is supposed to take you directly to the parent contribution section after you log in with your FSA ID. If you don't see that email, have your daughter log into her FAFSA account and resend the invitation. Make sure she uses your EXACT email address that's associated with your FSA ID. If you're still having trouble after trying that, you might want to try using Claimyr to reach a FAFSA agent directly (https://claimyr.com). I used their service after being stuck on hold forever, and they got me connected to an agent who walked me through the whole process. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ

One thing nobody mentioned - don't use the browser's back button when filling out the parent section! It can mess everything up. Always use the navigation buttons within the FAFSA form itself.

The FAFSA system is SO FRUSTRATING!!!! I had to try FOUR TIMES to fill out the parent section because it kept saying my information didn't match my daughter's even though we were both looking at her social security card together!!! The system is completely broken and they expect us parents to figure it out with zero support. Eventually we figured out that the problem was her middle name - she had put her full middle name on her part but her SS card only has her middle initial. Once we fixed that it finally worked. Check EVERY SINGLE CHARACTER including spaces!

Do you speak Spanish? If yes, you can call the Spanish helpline at 1-800-433-3243 and press 2 for Spanish. I found they were actually more helpful and had shorter wait times than the English line when I was helping my aunt with her FAFSA contribution last month.

Just following up - were you able to figure it out? If not, here's what I recommend: 1. Log in to studentaid.gov with YOUR FSA ID 2. Look at the dashboard for a notification about contributing to a FAFSA 3. If you don't see that, go to the "My FAFSA" section and look for any pending tasks 4. If you still don't see anything, ask your daughter to log into her account and check the status of your invitation Sometimes the invitation expires after a certain period, and she may need to resend it.

That's awesome that you got it working! The tax section can definitely be tricky - I remember being confused about which year's tax return to use too. Glad you pushed through it! For anyone else reading this thread who might be in the same situation, Anastasia's experience shows that persistence pays off. The key really is logging in with your own FSA ID and looking for that dashboard notification about contributing to a FAFSA. Thanks for updating us on your success!