Do parents NEED to submit FAFSA separately after student completes the form?

YES parents absolutely need to complete their portion! Your brother definitely missed something. There should've been a screen where he had to add at least one contributor (your mom) with her email. The system sends her a separate invitation to create her own FSA ID and submit her part. Without that, his application is incomplete and won't be processed.

The new FAFSA process REQUIRES contributor information for dependent students. If your brother didn't add a contributor, it could mean either: 1) He accidentally indicated he's an independent student (which has strict criteria like being 24+, married, military, etc.), 2) He missed the contributor section entirely, or 3) There's a system glitch. He should log back in to studentaid.gov and check his dependency status first. If he's properly listed as dependent, he needs to contact Federal Student Aid to fix this.

this happened to my daughter too!!! the system is so glitchy this year. she had to start all over because we couldn't add me as contributor after she submitted. such a waste of time. check his SAI calculation - if it shows up that means somehow it processed without parent info which is wrong.

Actually, there's a possibility your brother correctly completed the FAFSA. Under the new FAFSA Simplification Act, if your brother is over 24, married, has dependents of his own, is a veteran, emancipated minor, or meets other independent student criteria, he wouldn't need to add contributors. The system is designed to only request contributor information when it's legally required based on his answers to the dependency questions. That might explain why he didn't see the contributor screen.

If your brother answered the dependency questions incorrectly, that's why he wasn't prompted to add contributors. He needs to call Federal Student Aid ASAP to correct this before his application gets processed with incorrect information. Trust me, fixing it later is a NIGHTMARE - my son had to go through verification because of a similar mistake.

I had the same issue trying to reach FSA about a contributor problem. After getting disconnected three times, I used Claimyr (claimyr.com) to hold my place in line. They called me when an agent was ready - saved me hours of waiting. They have a video showing how it works: https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ. Made fixing my daughter's contributor issue way less stressful.

Here's what your brother should do: 1. Log back into studentaid.gov and check his FAFSA status 2. If it shows "Processing" but no parent info, he should call FSA at 1-800-433-3243 3. Tell them he incorrectly completed the dependency questions and needs to add a parent contributor 4. They can either reset certain portions or advise him to submit a correction after it processes If he can't correct it, he may need to start a new FAFSA, but try fixing this one first. The FSA representatives can see exactly what happened in his application.

make sure ur brother has his fsa id AND the save key he created during the application when he calls!!!!! they wont help without both. learned that the hard way lol

FOR THE RECORD: Yes, parents MUST complete their portion of the FAFSA for dependent students under the new system. Each contributor (parent) creates their own FSA ID and submits their section separately. The student portion alone is NOT a complete application for dependent students. This is a major change from previous years and causes a lot of confusion.

UPDATE: My brother finally got through to FSA! They confirmed he answered a dependency question wrong (he clicked yes on the "Are you a veteran?" question by mistake 🤦‍♂️). They're having him wait until the application fully processes (1-3 days) and then submit a correction to fix his dependency status. After that, our mom will get an email invitation to complete her portion. Thanks everyone for the help!