FAFSA account confusion - daughter's account exists but FSA says it doesn't?

This actually happens more often than you'd think with the 2025-2026 FAFSA. There's a difference between having an account on studentaid.gov and having a completed FAFSA application. Your daughter probably created her FSA ID and started the process, but the application might not have been fully submitted. When the agent says she doesn't have an account, they might mean there's no completed FAFSA on file. Ask your daughter to log in with her own FSA ID and check the dashboard - it should show if there's a completed application or one in progress.

same thing happend to me last month!! the FSA people told me my son didnt have an account but he DEFINITELY did because i could see it linked to mine. turns out he didnt actually hit the final submit button just saved his work. maybe check that??

I work in a college financial aid office, and I can tell you exactly what's happening here. There are THREE different things that people confuse: 1. Having an FSA ID (just the login credentials) 2. Starting a FAFSA (saved but not submitted) 3. Submitting a completed FAFSA (with confirmation number) Most likely, your daughter created her FSA ID and started the application, which is why you can see her account linked to yours. But if she didn't complete all sections and hit the final submission button, it won't show as a submitted FAFSA in the system. Have her log in and look for any orange "incomplete" indicators on her dashboard. She'll need to finish those sections and formally submit. She won't lose any data she's already entered as long as she saved her progress.

I had this EXACT problem and wasted SO MUCH TIME trying to figure it out!!! The new FAFSA system is TERRIBLE! When I finally got someone on the phone who actually knew what they were talking about, they explained that my son's application was stuck in some weird limbo state. He had to log in, cancel the in-progress application, and start over completely. It was a NIGHTMARE and cost us weeks of time. The most frustrating part was getting different answers from every person we talked to at FSA.

Sounds like she might have created her FSA ID but didn't actually finish submitting the FAFSA itself. My daughter did the same thing - she thought creating the account was the same as submitting the application lol. Check if theres a confirmation number anywhere when she logs in. If not, she probably needs to finish submitting it.

I went through something similar with my son's application. Spent over 4 hours on hold with Federal Student Aid trying to figure out what was going on. If you're still having trouble getting through to someone who can actually help, I'd recommend trying Claimyr (claimyr.com). They have a service that gets you through to a real FAFSA agent without the wait. I was skeptical but it actually worked - they connected me to an agent in about 10 minutes instead of hours. There's a video demo at https://youtu.be/TbC8dZQWYNQ that shows how it works. The person I spoke with was able to see exactly what was wrong with my son's account and walked us through fixing it.

One more thing to check - with the new FAFSA system, make sure both you and your daughter have completed all the contributor sections. Even if she filled out her part completely, your parental contribution section might be incomplete. The system doesn't always make it clear when this happens. Log in with your parent FSA ID and check for any incomplete sections or tasks.

UPDATE: Mystery solved! My daughter just got home and logged in. Turns out she DID create her FSA ID and start the application, but she never actually submitted it. There was no confirmation number and several sections were still showing as incomplete. She thought saving her progress was the same as submitting! Now we're working through the remaining sections together. Thank you all so much for your help - this would have been so much more frustrating without your guidance!

So glad you got this figured out! This exact same thing happened to my nephew last year - he spent hours filling out forms but never hit that final submit button. The new FAFSA system really doesn't make it clear enough what "saving progress" vs "submitting" means. For anyone else reading this thread dealing with similar issues, definitely look for that confirmation number - it's the only way to know for sure your application actually went through. The system should really have better messaging about this!